Home > Looking for a Billing System > Success > Sacred Wind Communications’ success fulfills a promise
Sacred Wind Communications’ success fulfills a promise
Sacred Wind Communications began business in 2006 with no furniture, six employees, and a promise to a community in need of communication services. Three years later, the New Mexico telecom has fulfilled its promise by offering voice and data services to a population where none were available before and is now a growing telecommunications company.
The company serves the people of the Navajo nation within New Mexico. The Navajo nation comprises the largest Native American tribe in the United States with more than 168,000 residents. The majority of the Navajos live in extremely rural areas in a desert, and in some cases, mountainous environment. Until recently, providing residential voice service to the Navajo nation was almost a technical impossibility.
Despite the environmental and technical challenges of offering reliable communication services to the Navajo, there was a dire need. Cellular service is spotty at best in the Navajo nation. Lives had been lost because people were unable to call for help after accidents or illness had struck. From an economic perspective, the lack of communication options severely hindered the ability of the Navajo to sell the beautiful arts and crafts many of them depend upon for their income.
This need was something that John Badal, Sacred Wind’s CEO, saw firsthand while he was president of Qwest in New Mexico. He was invited to a community meeting at the Nageezi Chapter in the northern part of the state. Chapters in the Navajo nation are much like counties in other parts of the country. Janice Badal, John’s sister and current Executive Director with the company’s non-profit subsidiary Sacred Wind Communications Community Connect, Inc., said the meeting left a lasting impression on her brother.
“It was an important event for the community to hear what he had to say,” Janice said. “They brought out children to perform a song as a way to bless the endeavor of bringing telephone service to the chapter and the rest of the Navajo nation.”
After learning more about the need for communication services and seeing how important it was to the residents of the chapter, John promised the community that he would somehow make reliable telephone service available to the area.
John later retired from Qwest, but he didn’t forget about his promise to the Nageezi Chapter and the rest of the Navajo nation. To fulfill the promise, he brought together a team of experienced telecom veterans that included Gil Arviso, John Landstrom, Vera Landstrom, and Ben Romero. They then put together a plan to start a telephone company to serve the needs of the Navajo and prosper despite the challenges it would face.
The plan began with the goal to offer basic telephone service. By December of 2006, the company’s founders had arranged financing and gained regulatory approval to purchase a small section of copper plant in the Navajo nation from Qwest. With this small beginning, Sacred Wind Communications opened for business to great interest from the community.
Badal said, “When we opened for business, we had six employees, no furniture, and hundreds of people calling us to request phone service.”
While the copper plant they had purchased from Qwest was underdeveloped and very limited in the number of people it could serve, the founders of Sacred Wind had plans to greatly expand the company’s coverage. They developed a plan to use a combination of the original copper plant in conjunction with fiber optic and wireless technology to bring residential phone service to homes that had never had it before. Though the company had the needed technology, financing, and community support, rapidly expanding Sacred Wind’s footprint was still difficult.
“Right-of-way is the greatest challenge we face,” Badal said. “All Navajo land is sovereign so we can’t install poles or any equipment without many upfront approvals. For us to install plant requires environmental, archaeological, and fish and wildlife surveys, plus approval from many different tribal and government agencies.”
The environment of Sacred Wind’s territory also plays a significant role in how fast it can increase its footprint. There are great distances involved to connect the Navajo communities and chapters. Badal said they even discovered small communities as they went about the process of installing new equipment. The desert and mountains add challenges and even the dirt roads that connect Navajo communities can be problematic as they turn to mud when it snows or rains.
Though their work has been difficult, they have made significant progress. They now have about 2,700 access lines spread throughout their territory. They also have 40 employees, including many Navajo. Besides providing communications service to the tribe, an important goal for the company is to hire as many members of the tribe as possible.
Badal said the company also is in the early stages of offering Internet service. The company began its venture into data services by acquiring a $436,451 grant to open a high-speed Internet lab at the Huerfano Chapter. The lab, which is located in the eastern sector of the Navajo nation, is the only one available in New Mexico on Navajo lands. Badal said the company received a second grant to open an eCommerce center to help local residents expand their market for the arts and crafts they create. Sacred Wind is now beginning to offer high-speed Internet access to its residential customers to go along with their phone service.
“People are thrilled to have the opportunity to have phone service and now their kids have the opportunity to research homework assignments,” Badal said. “The opportunities we’re creating give us a real passion for the work we all do.”
MACC is proud to have played a role in helping Sacred Wind on its mission to provide much needed telecommunication services to the Navajo people. Jan Evans, the company’s Director of Business Office and Technical Support Staff, said MACC’s support and customer service have been a tremendous benefit to the company. MACC helped Sacred Wind implement automatic switch provisioning that Evans said will save the company a valuable amount of work on the part of her employees. Once the system was in place, MACC representatives helped Sacred Wind transfer existing customer information into the new switch, which saved the company thousands of dollars in conversion expenses. We look forward to helping Sacred Wind Communications address any other challenges that they meet in the course of their important work.
MACC Client Experiences
Excellent results with MACC
We’ve had excellent results with MACC’s customer service. Their three levels of customer support have really been a benefit to us. When you call MACC, they do a great job of getting you to the right person to answer your question.
Jill Madsen, Office Manager
Marne Elk Horn Telephone Company
Elk Horn, Iowa
Comments from a new MACC client
Thanks so much for all of your help and support this past week. I’m so impressed by the staff at MACC. You all are great!
Adam Haas, General Manager
Warm Springs Telecom
Warm Springs, Oregon
MACC is always ready to listen to the suggestions we have.
Melanie Kalar
Columbus Telephone Company
Columbus, Kansas
MACC offers an integrated solution
Our decision to choose MACC was based on our company’s growing demands on our billing system. We needed an integrated solution that included customer billing, an inventory system, point-of-sale, and accounting package in one platform. With MACC, these needs have been met, and their solution will serve our company for many years to come.
Susan Hamilton, Vice President
GTI/Grafton Telephone Company
Grafton, Illinois
I appreciate MACC and that you listen to your customers.
Roxanne White
Evertek
Everly, Iowa
Customer Master (MACC’s BSS/OSS) is always being updated and improved to make it better. As our requirements change, MACC continues to meet them.
Melanie Bloom
Wahkiakum West
Rosburg, Washington
MACC made the NLAD transition a painless process
The Customer Master upgrade with the NLAD module couldn’t have come at a better time. I used it to submit my NLAD file for scrubbing and it came back error free. The people at MACC did a great job to get the upgrade implemented. I have been dreading the task of preparing for the NLAD for months, but MACC made the process painless.
Suzanne Reed, Billing Supervisor
UniTel, Inc.
Unity, Maine
Their system is Windows based, it’s easy to use, and they have great customer service.
Carolyn Haga
Consolidated Communications
MACC programs work well for our needs! We have phone, internet, cable tv, satellite internet, and special circuits. We’re able to have good information and notes on all accounts. It’s also exceptional we can access equipment and addresses in a search. We are very happy that our techs have so much information right on the service order.
Judy Copp
Hawkeye Telephone Company
Hawkeye, Iowa
Why we chose MACC
We’ve been using MACC’s Customer Master for three years. After reviewing software from other companies, we chose Customer Master, because of the program’s ease of use, the overall fit to our company, and our previous experience with MACC’s great customer service.
Linda Peterson, Chief Financial Officer
Emily Cooperative Telephone Company
Emily, Minnesota
Everyone at MACC has been committed to help in every way.
Janet McFarland
CentraCom
Fairview, Utah
MACC has an overall awesome performance! Customer Master is very easy to maneuver and it has more than one way to get into something.
Shelly Wydock
Ironton Telephone
Coplay, Pennsylvania
On gaining a better understanding of Customer Master
Since the training, our staff has eliminated unnecessary steps and employees now have a better understanding of the big picture of Customer Master.
April Simmons, Office Manager
Wiggins Telephone Association
Wiggins, Colorado
It’s like you’re their only customer when you call
It’s like you’re their only customer that day when you call to ask a question. Seldom do we even need to receive a call back from MACC as they resolve issues so quickly. MACC offers support for everything we need.
Cheryl Castile, Office Manager
Panora Telco
Panora, Iowa
I never say it enough, but your company is so great to work with. I don’t know what I would do without everyone’s knowledge and kindness. I appreciate all of you more than you know.
Cheryl Noble
Superior Telephone
Superior, Iowa
MACC · 1-800-622-2502 · P.O. BOX 700, 111 ADMIRAL DRIVE, BLAIR, NE 68008
MACC · 1-800-622-2502
P.O. BOX 700 111 ADMIRAL DRIVE
BLAIR, NE 68008