The thousands of Navajo Nation residents who rely on the Internet to work, study and communicate across their 27,000-square-mile reservation will be out of luck Monday, if their service provider shuts access as planned...
A tribal audit last year revealed that Utah-based provider OnSat Network Communications Inc. may have double-billed the tribe, and it raised questions about how the tribe requested bids for the Internet contract...
Through the Washington, D.C.-based USAC, the FCC reimburses 85 percent to 90 percent of the costs for Internet service to 70 of the tribe's 110 chapter houses, which operate like city governments. The Navajo Nation covers the other 10 percent to 15 percent of the cost and offers service inside the chapter house and nearby through Wi-Fi...
The USAC told Navajo President Joe Shirley Jr. in a March 28 letter that it is withholding money for OnSat for 2006-07 because of the possible overbilling and because the tribe didn't comply with federal rules that require it to select the most cost-effective service or equipment through a fair, open and competitive bidding process...
The Navajo Nation has until May to respond to USAC's letter, and the USAC can release full or partial funding or continue to withhold funding, said spokeswoman Laura Betancourt...
OnSat will continue to provide Internet services for the tribe's Division of Public Safety and the Office of the President and Vice President, offices whose satellite service isn't dependent on FCC funding, Fitting said...
Navajo President Shirley said reservation residents have come to rely on Internet access to improve their professional and educational lives.
"It would be a very sad day for the children and people of the Navajo Nation if the dark clouds descend, the lights go out, and access is denied to the chapter houses on the reservation, in large part, because USAC has failed to timely fund our application," Shirley said in a December letter to Mel Blackwell, vice president of USAC's Schools and Libraries Division.
