How to Start a Wireless ISP
Part 1: Determining Your ISPs Destiny

Tired of the telecom waiting game to deploy high-speed Internet access in your area? Take charge of your ISP operation again. Go ahead and grab the brass ring—as long as it's built around fixed wireless services.

by Marlon K. Schafer
Owner of Odessa Office Equipment, KMS Wireless Sales Engineer
[December 1, 2000]

I remember the allure of the Internet business when I was first dragged into the fold in 1996. Chances are, you've been the local computer guru or neighborhood Internet expert in a small town , just like me.

People here in Odessa, Washington wanted local Internet access, but no providers would set up business in a market this small. That's where I came in, and I'd like to share my story with you as an example of how you too could build a thriving Internet business in a one-horse town.

Learning curve
At the time, 56k modems were just being released and people were looking for something better than 33.6k access. Looking ahead to the near future—knowing full well that the demand for faster access speeds would increase, I asked the local telephone company about digital subscriber line services to Odessa.

Perhaps you were once told the same thing by your local Telco. The sales representative said that the company had absolutely no plans to offer DSL in the area—never, not ever. Then, he added that if I was so interested in DSL services for the area, "why don't you do it yourself?"

Breaking through
So I did. After all, necessity truly is the mother of invention. From the Telco taunt I developed my Homebrew DSL solution. But delivering the service over unconditioned copper lines was not going to give customers what they wanted most—fast, reliable service.

A friend told me I should check out a wireless solution, but I said, "been there, done that." I had thoroughly investigated high-speed wireless solutions a few months earlier and discovered it was simply too expensive. But my buddy said "go look again, things have changed a bit lately." Boy, was he right on the money! I discovered that I could build a wireless system capable of serving T1-like speeds and offer the service to subscribers for about the same price as setting up a v.90 solution. Customer premise equipment had also dropped substantially to cost less than $400 per subscriber.

Hunting and gathering
Naturally, I started researching wireless equipment again and scouring the Net for ideas. I found a wealth of information on the ISP-Wireless discussion list, so I poured through the archives and read everything I could find about deploying a fixed wireless system.

I spent time at vendor websites reviewing my options—BreezeCOM, YDI, Teletronics, and WPCS. I spoke with Mathew at YDI, David Wilson at BreezeCOM, Rick at WPCS, Jason at Midcoast, among others. I talked to anyone and everyone I could find about setting up fixed wireless services—picking up minute details about wire-free Internet access every step of the way.

Speaking in tongues
One of the first hurdles that I tripped over was the language barrier. It was an entirely new alphabet devoid of familiar ISP jargon. If I was going to successfully launch a wireless Internet service in Odessa, I needed to understand what AP, SU, WB, -D, Ad-Hoc, Db, and 802.11 meant.

For translation services, I turned to Green Bay Online. Resident wireless expert and owner David C. Troup has put together an incredible wealth of information. Don't let the formulas intimidate your, there's an easy to follow calculations page has simple diagrams detailing what I would need to accomplish in building a wireless Internet service.

Having worn out a couple of keyboards during the research stage of my wireless project, the next task I needed to complete was my business plan. I'll walk your through a few questions you'll need to answer before you start buying equipment next week in How to Start a Wireless ISP-Part Two: A tale of Two Spread Spectrum.

—End

     

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