Senators Urge FCC Not to Shut Down Vital Satellite Communications for Navajo

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. today expressed gratitude to US Senators Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico for their strong support for maintaining vital satellite communication services for the Navajo people, currently threatened with a July 22 shutdown unless the federal government steps in.

“This shut off will affect the entire Nation including seven public safety agencies that field emergency calls and cover a 27,000 square mile territory in New Mexico, Utah and Arizona,” the senators wrote in a joint appeal to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin, urging him to intervene.

The satellite provider—SES AMERICOM—said it plans to shut down all service for the Navajo’s public safety network by noon on Tuesday unless it is paid before then. The satellite network links 111 libraries and 127 public safety access points for police, medical and other emergency services across the Nation.

“The situation has become critical and threatens the safety and security of the Nation and its residents,” the senators said in their letter. “We are deeply disturbed by this imminent loss of communications service to vital public agencies. Satellite service is the primary means of communication among the Nation’s police, fire and emergency medical responders.”

They asked the FCC to take immediate action to prevent the shutdown. They also called for an explanation for why approved E-rate federal funding for Internet access service is being withheld by Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) and what steps need to be taken for release of the funds. USAC is the administrator of the E-rate funding and is overseen by the FCC.

“We are all grateful to the senators for their action and hope that others will also take the opportunity to impress on the FCC the urgency and seriousness of the situation,” Shirley said. “It is totally unfair to the Navajo people to have these vital communications services withdrawn because of some differences of opinion in Washington over issues that they have not yet even specified.

“We have been working to identify and resolve these issues with the FCC and its contractor for the past 14 months. There is absolutely no reason to cause undue hardship by terminating these services over bureaucratic issues.”

Navajo Nation
Deswood Tome
202-607-5507 (cell)
or
John Adams
Michelle Kincaid
202-737-8400
301-792-3505 (cell)