Nov 16, 2008 - 04:05:22 CST
FORT YATES - Past the long stretches of fields, beyond the bright lights of the casino and into Fort Yates, perched on the edge of a wide stretch of the Missouri, is wireless blackness, a virtual dead zone that's crippling the community.Geraldine Agard, who lives in the community, has heard stories about people dying from exposure because they couldn't make phone calls from the side of the road. And she has a son and two grandsons who can't call their parents if they're in trouble, lost or simply need a ride. Emergency 911 calls get rerouted or don't work, and calls to nearby towns or other areas within the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe result in long distance charges on land lines.
"Our people were having a lot of issues,"said Avis Little Eagle, tribal council vice chairwoman for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. "We don't have those things that a lot of people take for granted."
Telephone service penetration for Standing Rock Sioux Tribe was less than 50 percent, according to a feasibility study completed a couple of years ago, said Dwight Schmitt, president of a new wireless company, Standing Rock Telecom.
The community has had enough.
They are among the first tribal entities to embark on the process of fully owning and building a wireless network from the ground up, to span over state lines and several communities, to serve at least 16,000 customers and offer consistent service. It's not an effort to simply improve service, but to create it.
"It's a very ambitious project,"said Schmitt. "Ifeel it was a logical step for the tribal council to take."
The multimillion-dollar venture is entirely privately funded, as they were ineligible for rural service subsidies because there's already a wireline utility serving the area, Schmitt said.
Little Eagle said the community desperately needs wireless service. The dead zone extends along the highways, with small pockets that are hard to find. And the landline carrier, which offers high-speed Internet and wireline telephone service, often does not serve homes far outside of high-density areas or can only do so by charging to put extra lines in to the home. That bill could get into thousands of dollars.
"We're just trying to make life easier for our people out here,"Little Eagle said.
With 17 new towers or antennas in place by spring 2009, customers can subscribe to the service and place wireless modems in their homes to receive the Internet. Cell phone signals will be able to bounce off the towers and bring the dead zone back to life.
The idea of doing something with telecommunications was born in 2001, said Schmitt. Being in such a rural area, the telephone service, wireline or cellular, can be poor quality. They initially considered putting in landlines, as other tribes have owned or created landline companies, but the cost and logistics of landlines far exceeds the cost of a wireless network.
They began working with the Federal Communications Commission in the early 2000s and eventually purchased a wireless spectrum from a subsidiary of Sprint. The next step was the multimillion-dollar process of constructing the towers and buildings for the network. Some are free-standing towers, a couple are on top of high-standing structures such as water towers.
The wireless service will provide Internet and cell phone service at a cost comparable to the current wireline provider, West River Communications,Schmitt said.
And West River welcomes the competition.
Mick Grosz, general manager of West River, is prepared to lose some customers, but said the company won't abandon the area.
"We've been there for 50 years, and we plan to be there for the next 50 years,"he said.
West River serves about 15,000 customers and moved into the Fort Yates and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe area in 1955.
The idea of a tribally-owned wireless company is not a new one, but the building of a new network from the ground up may be. Oki Communications in Montana, 51 percent of which is owned by the Blackfeet tribe, was launched in November 2006. The intent was to improve the service in a low-coverage area.
"If it gets more coverage out in areas that don't have it, I say more power to them,"said Tony Clark with the Public Service Commission. "Some of the tribal areas of the state , because they tend to be more sparsely populated, have had some of the greatest challenges in the state, so I think this could be a positive thing."
The network should launch in spring 2009, Schmitt said.
"We're doing this for the future,"said Agard, in the tribal council office. "That way, our kids have something to look forward to. At least we can set the ground work for them."
(Reach reporter Crystal R. Reid at 250-8261 or at crystal.reid@bismarcktribune.com.)
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