Possible shutdown of Navajo Internet pushed back

The Navajo Nation has temporarily averted having its Internet services shut down, a tribal official said. SES Americom, which provides bandwidth for the services, had threatened to halt service by noon Tuesday if the company was not paid for services rendered. However, the company informed Navajo officials Monday night that it had decided not to shut down services until August 1. "It is good news," said Deswood Tome, a spokesman for the Navajo Nation's Washington office. "It gives us some more room to work with USAC (the Universal Service Administration Company) to get their ruling on this and to get some time so that public safety services aren't shut down." An Internet shutdown would affect the tribe's public safety network, which police and other emergency responders must be able to access from remote places across the reservation. The problem is that Utah-based OnSat Network Communications, which buys the bandwidth from SES, has been unable to pay SES because the federal government has been withholding about $2.1 million in reimbursement funds. A majority of the tribe's 110 chapter houses lost Internet service in April after the decision by the USAC to withhold the funds over concerns about a tribal audit of OnSat.