The relentless banging noise of a Step by Step switch in a small, rural central office pounds away in my head some 13 years later. The irony that I was in this central office to terminate an advanced state-of-the-art, video fiber network was not lost on me. This central office was a reflection of the overall project that saw us bringing fiber to the large curb for video services, while an existing wireless BETRs system barely served as the voice transport.

Fast-forward to the present day and the Navajo Nation still faces challenges in both communications as well as other utilities. According to Navajo Tribal Utility Authority web site, some 18,000 families are without electricity. With an area larger than 10 of the 50 states of America, the Navajo Nation still presents unique challenges to providing communications services.

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority recently won a $32.1 million grant from the NTIA as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This is being matched with a $11.3M from NTUA and $2.2M from Commnet Wireless. This will provide broadband access to 15,120 square miles of the Navajo Nation’s 27,000 square miles. The wireless service will cover 30,000 households and mid-mile backbone to another 49 communities. 

Monroe Keedo, Divisional Manager for IT for the NTUA, explains how some of the grant money will be used for notebooks with wireless capability to allow students to extend their learning while on the school bus; bus rides that can sometimes take a couple of hours. He also explains that, by extending the reach of health-care professionals, the telecommunications network they are building will improve health care across the Navajo Nation. 

Jerky video is the bane of television on mobile devices. Craig Lee of Ortiva Wireless talks about their technology and how it optimizes the transmission of video between wireless base stations and mobile handsets. More than just improving the quality of the video, Lee says that their product also allows carriers to increase the effective increase their coverage area. This technology has been deployed by Vodafone and is being deployed by an unnamed carrier in North America. The extremely intriguing thing is how the information Ortiva Wireless gathers could be used for optimizing content or advertisements for the individual viewer.  Watch this video shot at Parks Associates’ Connections Conference to learn more.

In this interview shot at MTA’s Convention, Brian Potter of Gardonville Telephone cooperative discusses their rollout of WiMax services in rural Minnesota and their use of both 700 MHz and 3.7 GHz to provide fixed wireless Internet.

Day one at the WSTA 2009 PR/Marketing Seminar. Highlights include… Bill Albertson, Badger Communications who reviews the history of VoIP, the competitive threat – or not – what to do with it, and a had a good suggestion;  Marty Snustead, Midwest Video Solutions, on the Future of IPTV and highlighted ideas for new opportunites; Warren Vande Standt, Vantage Point Solutions talks about wireless in the home, the progression of Femto Cells, and wireless as a new dimension; Nic Beining touches on social networking and getting closer to content with emerging wireless technologies; Lori Vergin, CHR Solutions, prepared her audience with an exercise to realize how eveyone impacts sales, and offered a good "life experience" message.  Mike Meinele, Solarus, gets Interesting comments from a Youth Panel on dial phones… and text messages… to multi-purpose cell phones… and how some use Facebook; Don Stephan, of TDS-powered Wisconsin Sports Network, had a great example of local content, and extremely successful at that, with local sports; and Hillary Cherry wrapped up the day with a message on good web design, social networks, and getting the most out of both. More…

Watch the above video in High Definition.

Brief overview of day two, the marketing roundtable, with Dave Gee – Sales Sherpas.

In this video interview filmed at OPASTCO’s 2008 Summer Convention, Pat Riordan, President and CEO of Nsight, discusses the implementation of an off-the-grid cell phone tower by its wireless subsidiary, Cellcom. Prior to Cellcom’s construction of this unique repeater site, cell service was not available in this rather remote area of the Eagle River of Northern Wisconsin.

Bringing power in via the electrical grid was too expensive to be practical. The Cellcom engineers devised a combination of solar power, wind power and a back-up generator to provide power to this unique cell tower. Besides being an environmentally-friendly way to extend communications to a previously un-served area, this solution looks like it will prove out from a business standpoint.

Nokia Siemens Networks shows an array of 4G products ready to go home and mobile for voice, video, and data.

Rob Riordan Executive Vice President of Nsight Telservices talks about the recent 700 MHz auction and some of the implications.  Nsight Telservices was a license winner.  For more information on the auction and the conundrum the FCC faces with the two big auction winners, please this article by Alan J. Weissberger.

http://viodi.com/2008/04/11/fcc-700-mhz-auction/

 IP Possibilities 2008 is brought to you by Entone.

Brought to you by HEM Productions

Dave McClure of the U.S. Internet Industry Association tells an intriguing story on the patent history of spread spectrum wireless, and the link to Hedy Lamarr an actress, inventor, and amazing person. This is footage from Dave speaking at the WSTA Fall Conference in 2006.

New Local Content Workshops Are Forming

Jim Wiesenberg of Space Date Corportation provides an "uplifting" take on how independent telcos might be able to quickly build-out their rural networks and serve their customers using a sort of floating tower.

RICA/RTG Fall Forum Coverage Brought to you by RICA.

Brought to you by Innovative Systems

Check out this exclusive video interview with FCC Commissioner McDowell that was follow-up to his presentation at the NTCA 2007 Annual Meeting. In this interview, he addresses questions on wireless, Broadband CALEA and Set-Top security mandates.