StarNetWX debuted its national fixed wireless access plan in the Windy City and Russ Intravartolo is betting that the service will evolve the same way dialup did in the mid-90s. Chicago today—access for the masses coming soon to a city near you.

by Jim Wagner ISP-Lists Managing Editor [June 15, 2001]

Dialup POP provider StarNet, after an unsuccessful stint with digital subscriber line (DSL) reselling services last year, has re-entered the world of wholesale broadband Internet access—only this time, there are no telco strings attached.

StarNetWX, the company's fledgling broadband solution, has been under close wraps the past several months, even though the high-speed offering took two years to develop and implement.

Rivals in this relatively wide-open market space, like Sprint, have had quality-of-service issues dampen its reception in select markets and forced the formidable firm to decelerate deployment plans. But StarNetWX officials think the time is right for a national fixed wireless access provider—especially in light of today's high-speed service gap.

Apparent good timing
Russ Intravartolo, StarNet chief executive officer, said its entry into the fixed wireless broadband arena allows the Chicago-based company a certain advantage over competitors, right now.

"When a commodity company like StarNet introduces a new technology, it moves from the commodity to demand market, and they earn their position on the beginning of the slope, or the first in a new market window," Intravartolo explained.

"When the new technology becomes a commodity, whereby capacity outpaces demand, the first market mover enjoys a leadership role and majority position,” Intravartolo added. “We are beginning this process with StarNetWX, while we remain a successful player in the commodity market of dialup access with our MegaPOP service."

Business-class services start at just under $100 a month, CPE and install costs vary with the setup required to secure their fixed wireless broadband access.

Intravartolo, a former Motorola executive, said StarNetWX will use a similar wholesale model to the one that made its MegaPOP dialup counterpart such a success. But this time around, fixed wireless antennas and dishes will transport the bits and bytes that makeup the Internet—rather than point-of-presence servers in a collocation facility.

Antecedent to a phenomenon
More than six years ago Intravartolo, with no venture capital and a negligible line of credit, took his ISP from being a local player to a nationwide POP aggregator competing with the likes of AT&T and UUNET. MegaPOP currently provides ISPs in the U.S. and Canada with more than 1,200 points of access to the Internet.

Unlike its dialup model, ISPs who sign up with StarNetWX will get a commission for every customer they bring to the fold, but not outright ownership over the client. Local ISPs that sign-up for StarNetWX service will still provide first level support and value-added services, but StarNetWX has control over billing and technical support for the user.

Intravartolo said the fixed wireless wholesale program was flexed due to its a painful lesson learned from jumping on the DSL bandwagon. StarNet used a similar wholesale dialup business model to sell its high-speed Internet access using the telco-based technology. But as many ISP resellers discovered the hard way—StarNet included—the DSL provisioning process is riddled with technical and back-office support issues stemming from the convoluted ownership of the copper line at the local loop. ISPs, despite owning the customer, had little to no control over the DSL line used.

DSL quickly became a losing proposition for everyone connected to the local telephone company. In July last year, StarNet notified clients that it would scrap its high-speed DSL offering by the end of the year. But StarNetWX was not ready to fill the broadband service gap, so Intravartolo and company decided to wait for its fixed wireless solution to mature, rather than conscript it into service before it was ready to roll.

Now, just shy of six months later, StarNetWX is ready to roll. Although several ISPs have already sign-up for its fixed wireless broadband offering, StarNet officials anticipate that even more ISPs will join the fold in the coming weeks.

Go to page 2: Fixed Wireless Access For The People—continued