Wireless Networks to Native Reservations

akb writes: "Interesting article entitled Native Networking Trends: Wireless Broadband Networks describing a project which provided three Indian reservations near San Diego with wireless broadband connectivity. The collaboration between UC San Diego and the Southern California Tribal Chairman Association has attracted additional funding from HP's Digital Village Program doubling the original NSF allocation, which will allow the network to expand to connect 18 reservations to the Internet and educational facilities. The network sports a 45mbps wireless backbone with 802.11b uplinks." The HPWREN pages have a lot of interesting information, including specifications for their 45 megabit solar-powered relays.

Comments

I work for a company that does this...

[Anonymous Coward]

We have been planning this for a while and recently rolled it out this year. We have 3 towers for a mid-size city (Springfield Missouri, USA). You can use it anywhere in the city - even in your car. There is a small antenna that hooks up to a special network card.

Our transmission rates are way above T1 and because there is no cost of leasing lines or anything we can provide it cheap (comparatively).

We also put up 1 tower in a nearby town. This one tower covers the whole town. We got funding from the county because the county court system sits in that town and needed to be on broadband but couldn't get to it in the traditional ways.

We just rent space from radio stations on their towers - so the setup is minimal. It really is a great system

Fried

Re:Security?

[dhogaza]

Well ... there's already a large number of microwave links, beacons, and other expensive electronic gear scattered around the Mojave, Sonoran and Great Basins deserts, guarded by nothing more than a chain link
fence with razor wire on the top.

I suppose this stuff gets vandalized from time-to-time. A few rounds from a 30-'06 are more likely than theft, though - check out the road signs
next time you visit us out in the InterMountain West.

My point's simple, though - this stuff's no more likely to be ripped off or vandalized than the expensive equipment that already decorates some of
our mountaintops, and you deal with it the same way. Insure and replace as necessary.

Lightning's probably a bigger risk, anyway. Mountains out here get slammed consistently (I assume they're locating the relays on mountains).

Wampum?

[pschmied]

From one journalist to another, this is probably not a good term to use the way you did.

I'm not wanting to be a PC thug, but here's the entry in the AP Style Book:

Indians American Indian is the preferred term for those in the United States. Where possible, be precise and use the name of the tribe: He is a Navajo commissioner. Native American is acceptable in quotations and names of organizations.

In news stories about American Indians, such words as wampum, warpath, powwow, tepee, brave, squaw, etc., can be disparaging and offensive. Be careful and certain of their usage.

-Peter