The Albuquerque Tribune

The Albuquerque Tribune

Monday, October 9, 2000

Questa schools fulfill quest for Internet

By Sue Vorenberg

The public school system in tiny Questa has beaten the odds and US West by getting Internet services.

Phone companies often don’t have the infrastructure or economic incentives to bring services to mountain towns like Questa in northern New Mexico. But with the help of some local companies and the community, it's now connected through a wireless, high-speed Internet system that will help its children compete in the 21^st century.

"This is a classic example of leapfrog technologies," said Lou Uttaro, president and founder of Cibola Internet Services in Grants. "Why are we going to wait for the phone company to do nothing while we continue to graduate a number of classes that have never had access to the Internet? We don’t have to."

The Questa School District now has Internet access in every classroom and computer lab, Questa School Superintendent Nelson Lopez said.

"We have Internet in all our libraries. We'll be able to review data from every school site from our main hub, the high school. We have a full system with voice and data capabilities that’s integrated through the whole district. We have the capability for any type of research out students wan to do- we even have distance learning capabilities."

The system allows schools in the Questa system to keep in contact through a telephone intercom system. It also lets teachers and principals remotely monitor attendance, lesson plans and grades. And students have access to the Internet.

Questa has been trying to get Internet services installed throughout its sprawling school district for more than two years. The district includes Alta Vista, Red River and Costilla elementary schools, Questa High School and the Questa School Administration Building. Only the high school was connected previously.

The Questa school system received a federal e-rate grant of $998,000 in 1998 to connect the schools but soon discovered funding was the least of its problems.

The school system hired InterTel, a telecommunications company, in January 1999 to wire the school district with T1 connections spread out from a central hub at the high school.

The company set up equipment and contracted with US West to set up circuits to connect its equipment in March 1999. Then the delays started.

First US West told InterTel it’s needed more time to get circuits installed. That summer, US West told InterTel it couldn’t provide them at all.

"So now InterTel has all its own equipment up there, but that they can’t complete the job and get paid," Uttaro said.

Uttaro about four years ago had a similar problem getting Internet services to his city. He came up with a creative wireless satellite solution that allowed him to go around the telecommunications companies and bring services to Grants residents on his own.

"InterTel was aware I had put in that satellite system, and they came to me and asked me if I could help them find a wireless system to put all these schools together,” Uttaro said. “I realized we’d need a tremendous cooperative effort from a lot of different parties."

Uttaro contacted Kit Carson Electric Co-op, which serves the Taos area, and asked for help setting up wireless radio Internet connections in Questa. Kit Carson was already the Internet provider for the high school.

" the kind of community impact that Kit Carson is trying make in rural communities," said Chuck Bloomquist, the co-op’s telecommunications manager. " We decided we’d make our best stab at it."

Uttaro and Kit Carson took over the project an looked at a number of systems. They finally decided on a radio system developed by Breezecom. But to install the system, Uttaro and Kit Carson had to find places-and right of way-to put radio towers so that signals could be transmitted between the schools.

Kit Carson was able to install most of the system in its right of way, but some of the equipment had to be placed on private land. Local companies Molycorp Inc., Dharma Properties and TCI all donated the use of some of their land.

"The major goal is, we're talking about kids who are landlocked," Bloomquist said. "They don't get to go out and see things that maybe those in more metropolitan areas do. This system levels the playing field significantly on the educational front. That was what was foremost in everybody’s minds. It's another stab at the digital divide."

The group then had to scramble up mountainsides, brave lighting storms and remove downed trees to get the system installed because the radio towers needed to be placed high enough for the signals to be transmitted. Even then, such a system had never been installed in a rural area like Questa, and they weren’t sure it would work properly.

"The biggest challenge was we took this technology that we knew on paper was going to work, but we didn’t know if it would work in reality," Uttaro said. "Configuring the radios to work together was extremely difficult. There are a lot of other radio frequencies up there that you have to work around."

The complete system was installed from June 18 to Sept. 11, when it first went live. Last-minute configurations are still being made, but so far it seems to be working fine.

"We're not the leading edge; we're not the bleeding edge; we're the sweating edge," Uttaro said. “It’s a sweating edge technology. You have to sweat it out and see if it’s going to work."

The schools also saved money over what they would have paid to US West. The school system is paying $270,000 for the installation and service over a five-year period, which averages to about $4,500 a month for five T1 lines. Similar services from US West, which has since merged with Qwest, cost about $1,116 a month for a single T1 line.

Kit Carson is eventually planning to install more advanced Internet services in the area, which could give the schools even faster connections. When it does, it can use its radio equipment to wire a new rural school district or town.

"We've already paid out more than we'll get back," Bloomquist said. Once the word gets out there about this, through, and once we stabilize the process in Questa, I think this will be a valuable project that other areas can learn from. And we can reuse the system to help other communities when we get more advanced services there in the future."