New Paradigm for Internet Service

Private citizens in Utah banded together to create a new concept in Internet access: a private network serving the local community. The idea has grown enough to burst its boundaries.

by Christopher M. Knight [November 29, 1999]

Many Internet users are frustrated because of limited bandwidth available for home use. Not only is there is little choice, in many locations, high-bandwidth last-mile solutions are simply not available. Residents in a subdivision of Springville, Utah decided to do something about this.

On November 26, 1997 at 5:00 AM, eight men, braving dogs, irritated neighbors, cold weather, and a brief altercation with local police, strung 8,000 feet of cable around their neighborhood, connecting their computers together. After several months of tinkering and testing, the 'backfence' LAN was running smoothly. Word spread about how fast the Internet access was, and eventually the entire neighborhood was connected, forming the world's first Neighborhood Area Network™ and a full time business that became AirSwitch Corp.

AirSwitch functions as an ISP in its prototype community of Springville, but that's not really what it had in mind, according to executive vice president, Rondo Fehlberg. "We do not intend to be an ISP, but rather we install very high speed Internet, using a combination of fiber, coax, and Cat5 cabling with proprietary switching technology," Fehlberg said. (AirSwitch has patents pending on eight of its proprietary technologies.) "We go in and install an entire community, which then becomes a very large local area network, intended to be open to multiple ISPs."

LAN speeds for the NAN
AirSwitch claims speeds 500 times faster than typical dialup service. In fact, its speeds are Ethernet speeds—10 or 100 Mbps, depending on the neighborhood. What is really shocking is that they price their base product at $19.95 per month.

AirSwitch does not use telephone or cable television lines. Rather it uses copper coaxial cable and Category 5 wiring connected to the backbone of a fiber network, because it's both more durable and more affordable. The company's fiber backbone has a capacity as high as 16,000 Mbps.

As the name suggests, AirSwitch offers wireless Internet access as a supplement to its basic service. The Lucent Technologies wireless Ethernet cards in its employees' laptops can deliver a solid 10 Mbps stream. Initial plans by the company were to use wireless point-to-point connections but plans changed to utilize a fiber backbone for scalability, affordability, and reliability reasons relating to lightning strikes and other environmental issues. In many cases, wireless technology serves as a backup to fiber in addition to providing user mobility.

Of the proprietary technologies that AirSwitch deems most patent-worthy are its packet prioritization sequences. A completely flat network with no prioritization tends to be inefficient because it allows all users to see the traffic and poorly designed networks to bottleneck and slow down needlessly. On the other hand, an over-designed network can slow down needlessly due to constant use and routing processes.

Not-so-humble beginnings
Keith Anderson laid the foundations for the company by building networks for several hundred clients, including several Fortune 500 corporations. This wealth of installation expertise allowed him to create the fundamental technology behind AirSwitch—even if its original purpose was to link himself to his friends so they could play games and experiment with technology.

Currently, AirSwitch has about 1,000 users surfing at 10 Mbps, and with a setup fee around is $49.95 and construction costs well under $200 per house passed, it's very attractive for most active Internet users—business and residential alike. The company has currently targeted communities with populations of 20,000 to 50,000, but eventually their goal is to serve any community, regardless of size.

AirSwitch has several high-profile investors, including Neil Kadisha, one of the founders of Qualcomm. Mr. Kadisha believes strongly in the AirSwitch concept, and is providing guidance and funding to develop the Utah prototype.

Competitors, opportunities
A lot of money is currently being thrown at high-bandwidth last-mile solutions, such as DSL and cable modems. While these technologies compete with the proprietary Neighborhood Area Network concept, AirSwitch believes that the additional marketing of formidible competitors such as Excite@Home will actually help NANs by creating additional demand for higher bandwidth from consumers and businesses.

AirSwitch loves the concept of creating an open network for ISPs. In fact, its network is designed to enhance the ISPs who choose to provide service through them. For example, it will be offering users of its network the ability to download tens of thousands of movies. AirSwitch is also working to provide a business opportunity for anyone who has rich media needs or security systems that wants interaction with homes, businesses, and municipalities. Finally, in the future AirSwitch intends to offer telephony services that will be able to take advantage of the bandwidth of the AirSwitch network.

To Your ISP Success!

Christopher ("Sparky") Knight
Founder & Managing Editor of the ISP-Lists Discussion Community

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