Earlier this month, Tribal Ready — a Native-owned company that helps deploy broadband networks — announced their partnership with Aqualinq to bring fiber broadband to Native communities.
Telecompetitor spoke about the partnership with Tribal Ready President and CEO Joe Valandra and Aqualinq Business Development and Communications Business Line Lead Ian Deacon. The partnership was a product of Tribal Ready’s desire to make the funding from the federal Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) “go as far as possible,” Valandra said, and Aqualinq’s persistence in making their case.
Broadband Via Water: The Aqualinq System
Aqualinq’s model is unique, but Tribal Ready realized that Aqualinq — which has years of experience dealing with questions about water quality — had ample documentation to answer every question they had.
“We were pretty tough on [Aqualinq],” Valandra said. “We didn’t really understand the principle right away… We saw a project that’s been in the ground, so to speak, in Kentucky. And the main critic from our team came back totally sold.”
How does Aqualinq work? Deacon described the process: Workers drill into the ground to reach a water pipe, and a hole is made in the pipe. Using the same types of materials and equipment water companies use, Aqualinq inserts a fiber line with a parachute on the end of it — which can float up to three quarters of a mile before the parachute is caught by another team — a new line is attached via conduit, and the process continues.
Aqualinq deals with both middle-mile and last-mile projects. Last-mile projects are handled slightly differently, with a sponge at the front end of the line being inserted in what is usually a smaller water pipe leading to a home or business. At that final location, a device is installed that lets the water pipe go on its way while the fiber line emerges from the top of the device, ready for connectivity.
“You’re not ripping up people’s lawns,” Deacon said. “You’re not ripping up their nice gardens, you’re not ripping up driveways, and you’re not putting unsightly fibers in the air. And the cost savings are absolute: there’s no trenching digging. It’s using existing infrastructure.”
Deacon said Aqualinq’s system often saves time on environmental approvals and regulatory reviews. “And I think an important thing to emphasize,” said Valandra quickly, “is that this doesn’t affect water quality at all.”
Aqualinq tests the water before and after inserting the fiber lines. “In the 10+ years we’ve been doing this, we’ve never contaminated the water,” Deacon said.
Aqualinq works mostly internationally but sees the United States as a growth area. They work with municipalities, broadband service providers, and, of course, Tribal organizations.
The Importance of Broadband for Tribal Lands
“The distances are generally very large in Indian country,” Valandra said, referring both to the challenge of getting broadband to Native communities and the ways that broadband brings certain services closer by providing online options.
“Telehealth is more economical and gets people treated quicker, especially for a cough or a cold or those kinds of things,” Valandra said. “You don’t have to travel all the way to the IHS [Indian Health Service] facility.”
Valandra named healthcare, education, and economic opportunities as some of the most important ways broadband positively impacts Native communities. “The economic development [of having broadband] will be spectacular,” he said. “Broadband brings the world to your door. Literally, you can build a business from your desk, from your living room couch, and if you have the right idea, you can sell it to the world.”
Double-Duty Utilities
While broadband is not traditionally considered a utility, there is something in the partnership between Tribal Ready and Aqualinq that suggests the power of two services — broadband and water — working together.
It’s not just the fiber line that benefits from this system: telemetry is used to send signals from the fiber line about the health of the water pipe 24/7/365. Deacon says these sensors can pinpoint a problem in the pipes (like leaks) much more precisely than the sensing equipment usually installed with water lines. Notification of a problem in the line is instantaneous using mobile apps.
Putting fiber lines in water pipes also helps water utility companies map their network correctly. “Any contractor that’s putting fiber in the ground, they’re hitting pipes on a daily basis,” Deacon said. “Because they’re being told [the water pipe is] on this side of the road, but it’s actually on the other side of the road.”
“We call it poly-utility,” Valandra said. “Multiple utilities. And we’re trying to help Tribes see the overall vision for that.”
While funding is currently available for broadband projects through the TBCP and other sources, projects like the Tribal Ready/Aqualinq partnership allow Tribes to leverage broadband dollars in service of other utilities, too.
For more information about Tribal broadband, investigate Telecompetitor’s coverage.
