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Native American Wireless ISP Launched
babynerd writes "On Tuesday June 1st the Coeur dAlene tribe unveiled the Turbocharged Broadband Geek Project. The scheme, organized by project head Valerie Fast Horse and funded by a $2.8 million dollar grant from the USDA Rural Utilities Service and a 15% in kind match from the tribe itself, will help build a community technology center (CTC) with 40 computers, and a wireless broadband ISP that will provide high-speed wireless access to anyone living on and near the reservation at a price comparable to that of any other DSL or Cable Internet providers - there's currently no broadband Internet access of any kind available."
My biggest complaint about this is that the non-natives are funding this venture through the USDA Rural Utilities Service... Why doesn't their own tribe fund this effort? I have a feeling that they making more than enough money there to foot the $2.8 million bill themselves. Isn't that what those things are on reservations for? To build better Native American communities?
...very slow bandwidth . . . .
If there's ever a sequel to Smoke Signals:
Seriously - great movie, set on the Coeur d'Alene reservation in present day (well, present day six years ago). You'll laugh, you'll cry, it'll become a part of you.
Cool funny t-shirts for geeks, gamers and everyone else
That seems like enough for a *heck* of a buildout and, what? 10 years of expenses? How can I get a piece? :)
Linux IT Consulting and Domino Development in Michigan
Valerie Slow Horse prefers a floppy disk for data transfer...
I live in Spokane, 15 minute drive from CdA, and hopefully this project, if it succeeds, will bring more wireless into the area.
Right now the greater Spokane area is pretty much monopolized by Qwest's DSL (available some places) and Comcast's cable (available pretty much anywhere else). For a city with 300K plus total population it's a shame.
Too bad they ain't running Apache... maybe they've had bad experiences in the past?
Want to see what you can get from donations and volunteer efforts?
http://www.personaltelco.net
2.8 million would be nice to have, do not get me wrong. Given what we are doing for what we have it would mean a heck of a lot of coverage.
Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap! Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap! Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap!
I'm starting to think my history teacher is psychic. Today, we watched Smoke Signals in class and now there is this in the news. Last week, we finished talking about Ronald Reagan, now he died. A while back, we talked about Elia Kazan in the 50's, within a week, he died. Wierd...
I should get him to talk about Bill Gates...
When SSNeP was introduced the overall performance reached full potential.
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
Intresting the history behind this organization... It started as one of the "alphabet soup" programs under Roosevelt during the Great Depression to help provide both employment and electrify the Nation's rural farms. The program was very successful, and established rural "electric cooperatives" that allowed a number of individuals to form their own electric substation at a fraction of the price of the major electric companies. It recieved a lot of flak along with other New Deal projects because it evoked a socialist-like image, and the "red scare" was part of the period. Later, the Rural Electrification project got squished together into the a small piece of the USDA. I wonder if this is the future of the project - if so, it will play a major part at bringing the nation cheap broadband access.
Maybe the idea here is that by giving them a handout with potentially limitless educational value, we increase the odds that at least a few more of them will be motivated and have the resources to get out there and make it on their own.
I suppose you think fertilizer encourages laziness in plants...
They can enter into the on-line gambling business ! And look at the advantages: It will not go off shore to Singapore !
Wow, I didn't realize that we had posters that were around in the 1800's. They should really be ashamed of themselves.
The natives got screwed royally. No one denies that. This does not mean that white people are evil for the rest of time. Funny how people decry racism until it fits their needs...
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
actually several of us were born here.
"the best safety of the frontier...will be secured by total annihilation of the few remaining indians" L Frank Baum 1890
The parent probably is flamebait, but funny none the less. Given the lack of humor show here in the modding, I should probably keep my mouth shut about the possibility of out-sourcing call centers to them (ducks...)
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
The apostrophe isn't a mistake: it's "Coeur d'Alene" (it's French).
I live there, and it's really annoying when web forms try to "correct" it:
Coeur Dalene
Coeur dAlene
No.
Coeur d'Alene (I really meant it).
For the same damn reason we use tax dollors to let every Tom, Dick and Harry surf porn and do email from almost every public library in the U.S.. Fedral grants are handed out $millions at a time to put desktops in public schools or fund a new program at univeristies. Why does a tech grant to a tribe raise your ire any more than them?
Furthermore, how much do you know about tribes' "per-capita" payments, or scholorship programs? They're not simply tax money diverted from your pocket to their account. Many are the result of interest from trust-fund-like accounts, large lawsuit settlements against the gov't and income from tribe run organizations. And before anyone complains about a tribe's right to have those types of funds, realize that they are from treaties that the government signed, or lawsuits where the U.S. justice system found the government in fault.
Anonymous coward, indeed.
A previous attempt by a different group of native Americans failed to crystallize into an actual broadband offering. That group's spokesman, Eddie Slow Turtle, had no explanation.
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
Idaho...where men are men and the women, well they kind of look like men too.
You had me at "dicks fuck assholes".
So what are the rules for indian reservations and tribes according to the FCC? Does the FCC have jurisdiction over such areas?
Since your actually funded and can, therefore, do better than fabricated pringle-can antenna's and 802.11, I recommend this. Grown-up wireless that works very well. 802.11 is an adaptation of Ethernet to microwave that does not scale. Canopy was created to do what you want to do.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
There is a systems integration and networking company here in the American West. I won't name their name, since the I'm going to say some pretty strong things...
The guy who owns gets a deep discount from distrubution partners because his is a "native-american" owned business. The company wraps themselves in the iconography and their logo is an animal synonymous with the American Indian.
This guy is ONE-EIGHTH American Indian. I won't even name the tribe. Doesn't matter. This guy is fat, pale white and bald and looks about as American Indian as Tony Soprano. perfect guy to compare him to, as well. Actually, I think Tony is less corrupt.
Nevertheless, he has a huge advantage over his competition. His discount is about 3 to 4 POINTS below a company without that status. Bidding an integration and database project that includes a $100,000 worth of Sun equipment? Going against these guys? Snap $4k off the top, just throw that money away or you WILL be underbid. Looking for an education contract? Good luck.
Want to know what else you are up against? the Tax benefits to a large corporation when they give business to a "Small Business Administration-certified 8(a)" firm. Want to double up the tax breaks? Do it in a HUBzone - Historically Underutilized Business Zone. Does your company need to be in the HUBZone to qualify for the tax break? Not necessarily. Quite a few legal entanglements there, depends what state your corporation is incorporated in.
Isn't about time we closed bullshit loopholes like these? I'm a Democrat and believe that certain inequalities exist and that in certain instances, Affirmative Action and tax incentives for areas make for good business and re-level a playing field that DOES have systematic racism in it. But laws regarding Indians are just being abused. Badly. I have a friend who is actually HALF Sioux. He moved away, but I wanted to start a business with him as an equal partner. 4 points on Cisco, Sun, and a myriad of other gear is big margin in the VAR world.
Turbo Pascal, product by Borland.
The word "Turbo" has become part of the lexicon for describing anything fast. I don't think anyone really understands that the product is not using it's own exhaust gases to boost internal horsepower. Imagine if Slashdot did that, it would FLY. God knows there is so much exhaust gas around here.
Native Americans have had wireless communication for centuries. Smoke signals, anyone? No offense to my red brothers, we smokem peace pipe.
worst sig ever. . .
I am shocked to read the number of angry responses to this story. I always thought that technology was neutral in the racial game, and was quite surprised at the number of angry, racial geeks out there. I guess I should be glad that your remarks are based on ignorance rather than truth or honesty. The good news: you angry guys are not the majority.
What about north? Coeur d'Alene and Hayden (where I live) are both north of the lake.
As another poster already mentioned, the service is available to non tribe member residents on the res.
If they haven't already put an access point on your side of the lake, how broad is the lake? If only a few miles, you should be able to hit the access point with a directional antenna.
24 db dishes can be had online for less than a hundred bux, and two of 'em face-to-face can easily go more than ten miles, while one of 'em pointing at an ordinary accesspoint can make several miles. Similarly, a short yagi (or a "pringles can" antenna) can get you considerable distance.
So even if they don't have an AP on your side of the lake, you may be able to connect.
And IF you can connect, you can stick a second card in your box, enable routing, and become a local access point for the others who can't hit directly. (Two such volunteers can provide a solid feed without leaving the rest of your community in the lurch when you're rebooting.)
And I think some cheap routers can also be configured for this - just replace one of the rubber duckies with a directional antenna - or plug two of 'em - one with a directional antenna, one with duckies or roof-mounted omnis - into your ethernet hub or back-to-back with a crossover ethernet cable.
But since the intent WAS to feed the whole community don't be surprised if such relay access points are already part of the plan. (Or, since they're so cheap to add, if they get added once they're suggested.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I am system administrator, as well as project manager for (Glenwood Telephone Company - the smallest independant telco in Georgia - www.gtconline.com) in Glenwood, Georgia (population ~~800 - average home income $16,000 a year) was awarded the Community-Oriented Connectivity Broadband Grant program by the United States Department of Agriculture / Rural Utilities Service as well. We have already successfully deployed this project to our area. The main portion of the grant funds that we were awarded 277,819 was used for the community center (www.thenetcenter.net)(10 computers [8 alienware area 51 systems and 2 Macintosh G5's, planning to add some linux pc's soon], however the remaining portion of this grant was used to deploy DSL within the city limits of Glenwood. While I can say that this helped our little company by aiding us in our broadband deployment there have been alot of other winners. The biggest winners in this so far have been the kids that now have somewhere to hang out, play games and use computers that they cannot afford to have, as well as have access to high tech equipment that the rural schools choose not to afford for them (only have 6 old computers per classroom). I must add however, another huge winner in this program was the critical care facilities (hospital, fire, police, city hall, schools within Glenwood) who get free broadband access for the first two years. Already our community center (thenetcenter.net) has a steady group of gamers coming in and they are helping us keep this project ongoing. Grants like this do indeed help out the smaller communities, and provide something other than just a local gas station to hang out in. As system administrator for Glenwood Telephone Company I can tell you that this was an excellent way to provide high speed Internet in our area. DS1's cost anywhere between $1300 a month to ~$4000 a month in our service area. What rural america can really use help in is getting backbone services cheaper to our area. Our telephone company's outside plant is among the best, if not the best in georgia (over 99% of our plant is underground and we deploy fiber constantly when doing new plant additions). Problem with deploying DSL in our area is that not many can afford it. This gets me into another problem I have that is really at the crux of the whole issue... the welfare society in america. People do not seem to realize that ISP's generally are a marginal profit business and I can guarantee you that our bandwith costs eat us alive. If we could have cheaper backbones to rural georgia we could definately see the "Rural Divide" narrow significantly. On another note even with the "subsidies" that our telco recieves with the Universal Service charge our customers would rather pay for cable TV anyday than to have a telephone or computer with internet access in their home (rural welfare society at its finest... another topic altogether). We are the atypical ISP. Many of our customers are the new computer users, average age 40+ who want to learn about computers and how they can make their lives more enjoyable. The beauty of rural america is its simplicity and access in rural america can make life simply more enjoyable. I sincerely hope that access can provide rural america the american dreams that many of them so desire. [steps off his soapbox]