OnSat: Department of Public Service
service was sabotaged

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — OnSat claims satellite service to some Navajo chapters was interrupted Monday for nonpayment to SES Americom by the feds, and OnSat is not happy about it.

CEO David Stephens of OnSat Native American Services Inc., sent an e-mail Thursday to Department of Public Safety Executive Director Samson Cowboy, Division of Community Development Director Arbin Mitchell, Chief of Staff Patrick Sandoval and others, stating that DCD’s “Norbert Nez and his team” are disconnecting the OnSat equipment at the chapters.

“This means that DCD is disconnecting the DPS connections and making it impossible for OnSat to provide service at any chapter location to the Police and Emergency Management,” Stephens said.

“Please request DCD to leave all OnSat equipment in place so that we can continue to provide service to DPS and Emergency Management. I would hate for someone to become in(j)ured or die because DPS was not able to communicate because DCD has disconnected the OnSat equipment.”

Stephens claims that Nez and others from the Division of Community Development are “out cutting wires and unplugging the OnSat equipment because he thinks he can do it to sabotage the network.”

Stephens said Friday, “'Sabotage’ of the Navajo people by Norbert Nez and his team is the term that comes to mind. This has been going on a long time.” He made reference to a July 2007 e-mail from an OnSat technician which said that Ganado, Mexican Springs and Greasewood Springs had switched over to DSL.

The technician claimed Nez was going around to the chapters, telling them “OnSat isn’t going to be around much longer,” then telling them to switch to DSL

Stephens said Nez was the leader of the Division of Community Development bid group that made the decision to leave OnSat and go to Hughes for the chapter service starting July 2008 “even though OnSat has a contract that goes through 2010.”

The master agreement between the Navajo Nation and OnSat has been modified a number of times since it was executed in 2001. As of January 2006 when the last modification was approved, the contract amount stood at about $32 million.

Nez could not be reached for comment Friday.

Harold Skow, director of Navajo Department of Information Technology said, however, “I think what Dave Stephens is saying is a bunch of BS, and the citizens of the Navajo Nation have a right to be informed of the different options they have from the telecommunications company within the Navajo Nation.

“His services have been with us for several years and have been pretty crappy. The people know it. We have our own vendors that we work with in the Navajo Nation. Norbert Nez does work with carriers within the Navajo Nation and they are reliable companies.”

Skow said the equipment does not belong to OnSat; it belongs to the chapters of the Navajo Nation.

“As the Navajo Nation we want to control our own destiny.

We don't want to be tied down to one vendor who has outrageous prices and provides poor quality Internet services.

“Public Safety is in no jeopardy. Norbert Nez is a very intelligent person who makes wise decisions and he should not be undermined by OnSat. He is a man of value and an asset to the community and the Navajo Nation. That Dave Stephens thinks he is disconnecting and cutting wires is totally ridiculous,” Skow said.

When Navajo Nation Police officers respond to an emergency, they take their vehicles out into remote locations, he said. “Out in the wilderness, down the canyon, on the other side of the monuments, down the valleys and in the desert. There is no connectivity from OnSat there, so there is no jeopardy on what Public Safety is doing.

“The only time they come to the chapter, if they do, is to enter their records into the network. That can easily be done with the new configuration that Frontier, Sacred Wind or the Navajo Nation is offering. We don't need OnSat to do that.

He said most checks are done through Public Safety dispatchers. The officers have connectivity to the National Crime Information Center. “They can easily come to the Navajo Nation network, which is a Navajo government-owned network – we already pay for it – and they can utilize that. There is absolutely no need for them to go to OnSat.

“OnSat is not a Navajo Nation entity. It's just like any other vendor that comes onto the Navajo Nation. It is an outsider.”