[RTC List] Broadband and Telecomm in Willow Creek

[Tina Nerat]

Tsunami Wireless is just starting up in Willow Creek. Check them out at
www.tsunami-wireless.com. Tina

-----Original Message-----
From: list-bounces at redwoodtech.org [mailto:list-bounces at redwoodtech.org] On
Behalf Of Dwight Winegar
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2011 2:29 PM
To: list at redwoodtech.org
Subject: [RTC List] Broadband and Telecomm in Willow Creek


I decided to take this to the list to see if anyone here has any more
information than I've been able to obtain.  However, in working on starting
up a new Western Trinity Valley Grange chapter in the Willow Creek area,
spending a couple days a week out there, and California State Grange
Broadband Committee chair I've been incensed about some of the things I've
been witnessing first hand; - enough so I'm prepared to take "action."   

It's more than just having "high speed internet" - the issues go far beyond
that out there.  For example there was a local cable company that came in
out there a year or two ago, went bankrupt or could not do fulfillment and
left people just hanging high-and-dry.  Verizon which is still the landline
service (and there are still many people out that way; not just in Trinity
County) has DSL capability at their CO that are lucky if they even have a
landline but has never bothered to hook up any nodes more than about a a
block away - so that homes or businesses say 3 blocks away have no timeline
if EVER they will extend the service just that small distance!   The
satellite carriers, that are high priced, have yet to keep the promise of
adding any local stations. 

Finally I got a call over the weekend that was verified by an engineer from
one of our stations that while they HAD analog translators serving the area
out there (which under the Federal guidelines for Digital Conversion did NOT
have to go digital) have either been damaged and will not be fixed, or just
be removed.  Can you say "bad to worse; we had some local communications and
now it is gone?"    Finally, it is said that a new Wireless provider will be
providing new Internet service in the next month, but we are also finding
that due to line-of-sight, there may be more limitations to that than what
people had been hoping for.  Meanwhile many of these people are LOW INCOME
out there and could not afford the costs of living in Arcata or Eureka - one
of the reasons the HTA shuttle is so popular.  Hoopa appears to be getting
some major improvements soon, largely due to the Tribe, but this is specific
to the Hoopa Valley and not up in Willow Creek, and of course, I won't even
mention Trinity County - except that Trinity is at least part of OUR
[coastal] Broadband Consortium, rather than the NE or Upstate Broadband
Consortiums.     

Should we just say "too bad"?   No, I find that other than West Virginia,
MOST rural areas of the country take much of our broadband and telecomm
solutions for granted (already) at this point.  This was evident when
speaking with fellow Grangers at a National Grange sponsored event this
weekend in Oregon.   

BTW - I also recently heard that when many low income Willow Creek
residents, including those living in rentals applied for PG&E energy
partners to come out and make their accommodations more energy efficient and
insulated for the Winter, they have been put off twice being told "we don't
want our crews to risk black-ice conditions on SR 299."    

- Dwight
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