A consortium of companies is coming together to try to provide broadband coverage to the Navajo Nation using blimps.
Swiss internet technologies company Sceye announced Friday it was working with a handful of other organizations to provide total coverage for the reservation, which has scant internet connectivity among its citizens. As part of the project, Sceye will launch one of its high-altitude platform stations over an area of about 6,000 square miles to demonstrate that its blimp-like technology can provide quick download speeds to homes, schools and other facilities.
The airborne internet technology may reduce the need for the construction of hundreds of cell towers. Several other companies are participating in the initiative, including Albuquerque-based rural telecom company Sacred Wind Communications, CellularOne, PVT Networks and Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, according to Sceye. The initiative, if successful, may be impactful for the citizens of the Navajo Nation, many of whom do not have a fixed internet connection.
The pilot project will also receive financial support from the state of New Mexico, according to a release from Sceye. In a statement, Economic Development Cabinet Secretary Alicia J. Keyes said she was "excited to support this innovative effort by Sceye and its partners to bring more affordable broadband and telecommunications to tribal and rural communities throughout the state." As of April, the state was putting the finishing touches on a $3.2 million contract with Sceye to study the feasibility of delivering high-speed internet from above ground, the Associated Press reported.
The announcement came soon after the successful launch of one of Sceye's "stratospheric platforms" at an altitude of 64,600 feet. The unmanned object took flight on Wednesday from Roswell at about 11 a.m. Mountain Time and landed about two hours later. The company says its technologies can cover areas as large as 27,000 square miles with high-speed broadband. A representative for the company was unable to be reached for comment by press time.
Sceye was founded in 2014 and is aiming to provide equitable internet connectivity, as well as improved climate change monitoring. It is led by founder and CEO Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, who formerly led the firms LifeStraw and Vestergaard, which developed bed nets that have helped reduce malaria deaths. Over the past few years, Sceye has conducted research in Moriarty and Roswell, according to previous Business First reporting.
Last August, the state revealed that Sceye planned to expand in New Mexico, bringing its next-level broadband capabilities with it. The expansion was to include a manufacturing operation to build airships equipped with the capabilities to deliver broadband, as well as 140 manufacturing and engineering jobs. The company has operations in Moriarty and Lausanne, Switzerland, according to its website. As part of the project, the New Mexico Economic Development Department pledged to invest up to $5 million in Local Economic Development Act incentives.
Sceye previously received a two-year, no-interest loan for $2 million from the state's LEDA fund to help keep its New Mexico workforce and rebuild a damaged hangar in Roswell. At the time, Sceye said it planned expansions in New Mexico following the rebuild of its facilities and continuation of research and development work, Business First reported.
Later on, when its local expansion was announced, Keyes said it had been in the works for more than a year. Sceye's expansion "plays to our strengths with regards to bringing cool, interesting, diverse and disruptive technology companies here in New Mexico," she said.
