Fixed Wireless Business

Growing Beyond Its WISP Grass Roots

Uncontested in local markets, MapleNet may have started as a small, homegrown wireless Internet service provider, but its ventures take MapleNet far beyond its grass roots origins.

by Gerry Blackwell [July 23, 2002]

One of the interesting things about MapleNet Inc., a successful WISP and broadband fixed wireless integrator with a rapidly rising profile, is where it's headquartered—in Goshen, Indiana.

Now, Goshen may sound like the back of beyond, and in some ways it is. It's a city of about 30,000, 28 miles east of South Bend, Indiana, home to the Univeristy of Notre Dame.

The point is, Goshen is exactly the kind of place where we should expect broadband fixed wireless companies to flourish—because it's where, at least theoretically, nobody else is doing broadband and where small wireless companies like MapleNet can gain a toehold virtually uncontested.

Then, if they're lucky and good, they can move on to bigger things—which is exactly what MapleNet has done and is doing.

Today, it has a WISP operation that takes in a significant chunk of the state—the company has 29 wireless POPs altogether—plus a busy fixed wireless network integration business that is gearing up to become a national player. The two sides contribute about equally to revenues.

Wireless profit plan
The WISP business was launched in 1999, making MapleNet something of a pioneer. The company has about 200 subscribers today—all businesses—spread over 25 towns, cities, and rural districts in Indiana. According to senior engineer and director of operations Gene Crusie, it's far more than a shoestring grassroots concern.

"The wireless ISP business is actually very profitable," Crusie says. "In the slower months for the integration business, it easily carries the company."

MapleNet offers services at 56 Kbps ($100 per month), 128 Kbps ($190), 256 Kbps ($300), 512 Kbps ($400) and 1.5 Mbps ($600). It can also provide much higher bandwidth to larger users on request.

The WISP network, a patchwork, makes use of virtually all license-exempt technologies. Backbone links between towers mainly use 5.8 GHz radios from Proxim Corp., formerly Western Multiplex.

Last-mile links to customers use either Proxim 5.8 GHz gear, for high capacity customers, 5.8 GHz equipment from Wi-LAN Inc., or 2.4 GHz gear from ORiNOCO (Agere Systems) or Avaya Inc.

The company is now also a dealer for the 900 MHz product lines from WaveRider Communications Inc. and is currently testing that equipment.

MapleNet developed its own 5.8 GHz customer premises equipment using software from KarlNet Inc. It's now also a KarlNet distributor and preferred partner. KarlNet developed the software used in ORiNOCO and other fixed wireless systems.

The KarlNet software, among other things, allows MapleNet to precisely control throughput to subscribers. The company guarantees customers no worse than half the bandwidth they subscribe to, but the data rate capping means that, unlike in some networks, users never get more than the subscribed rate.

Wireless expansion
MapleNet is not looking at expanding the scope of the WISP business at this point, Crusie says. As it is, the furthest subscribers are an hour and a half away by car from Goshen. However, the company is upgrading the network—trading out 10 Mbps backbone links for links of 45 Mbps at 5.8 GHz, for example. And it certainly hopes to grow the subscriber base.

MapleNet's main focus for growth at the moment is the fixed wireless integration operation. "We're very committed to growing the national side of the business," Crusie says.

One important step was hiring a national sales manager, Steve Carender, two months ago. Based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Carender is responsible for broadening the company's market to take in the whole country.

At this point MapleNet sees no need to open branch offices in other parts of the country. Being in Goshen (and Fort Wayne) is not incompatible with having a national footprint, Crusie insists. The cities are about two hours or less from Chicago, he points out, where MapleNetters can catch low-cost flights to anywhere in the country.

Crusie started the integration business in the early 1990s as Goshen Technical Services. His background is in electrical engineering and amateur radio—he's been a ham radio operator since he was twelve-years-old. MapleNet was formed in a 1999 merger with another local company that operated a computer store and was about to launch the WISP business.

The company's longevity in the fixed wireless integration business is one of the secrets of its success, says Crusie.

"There aren't many other [fixed wireless] companies in the country that have been around as long as we have," he notes. "We're also one of the few networking companies that started doing wireless at or about the same time we learned networking."

The company started by doing point-to-point links for local companies, a business it still pursues. Its stock-in-trade today, though, is designing, building and maintaining access networks for ISPs and others.

It has worked with more than 25 ISPs around the country. Most were existing dial-up service providers that wanted to add broadband fixed wireless service. A few were start-ups.

MapleNet also does private wireless access networks for hospitals, schools and municipalities. It recently built a network linking municipal buildings and facilities in nearby Elkhart, for example. It's about to begin work on a network that will serve the school system in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean—the network will link 47 sites on three islands.

The access networks it builds for ISPs and others are virtually a mirror image of its own WISP network—typically 5.8 GHz backbone links with 5.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz last-mile links. It is also beginning to work with wireless technology that operates in the 23 GHz licensed band for point-to-point and backbone shots.

Wireless by design
MapleNet recently launched two wireless-POP-in-a-box products, designed to give ISPs everything they need to get started on their own. The low-end offering, priced at $5,000, is a single base station starter kit that includes antenna, cables, and everything else needed to establish a one-sector site, plus customer premise equipment (CPE) for five clients.

A higher-end solution, at about $9,000, includes a three-sector base station (plus antennas, cables, etc.) that can serve up to 192 subscribers.

Most clients, though, want MapleNet to design and implement their networks, and many even have it handle maintenance and support as well. It doesn't cost that much. A two-man MapleNet installation crew costs $1,000 a day plus travel expenses. One crew recently built a four-tower network from scratch in four days—and that included a day of client training.

Understanding what it takes to make a WISP successful—which MapleNet clearly knows at first hand—is one of the company's strengths, Crusie says.

"We have a proven track record of making wireless ISPs profitable. There are a lot of WISPs out there that are not making money and a lot going out of business. We provide our customers with proven tips and tricks for success—like going after high-quality commercial business rather than low-end residential, for example."

The company also has a reputation for building solid reliable networks. "The fact that we maintain a wireless network with 29 towers with up-time similar to some telcos definitely sets us apart from the do-it-yourselfers," Crusie points out.

MapleNet is unlikely to take the nation by storm. It's not the kind of venture-capital-fuelled company that will make a big putsch. But we're guessing—just guessing, mind you—that MapleNet will be around for the long haul. You'll likely hear more about them soon.

—End