WISP Profile: PNC

This small WISP in rural California has survived and is thriving by offering new services and by not cutting costs on hardware (Demarc) and software (CommuniGate and others).

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [November 10, 2008]

I reach Ofer Tenenbaum, owner and manager of Napa Valley, Calif-based WISP PNC.net, in the very early morning, California time. He's been up all night dealing with power outages caused by storms, but he's still managed to set aside some time to talk about his path to success.

"I needed internet and it was $25,000 for a T-1. I talked to my neighbors and got about 30 interested in it. Then we went to two T-1s, then six, then eight."

When PNC needed large capacity, it moved the servers into a town with access to a national fiber optic line.

"It started out as a pet project and every time it crossed a threshold, we became more engaged," says Tenenbaum. "We weren't making money at 30 customers. At 100, it became interesting. At 300, we had to hire people. We're approaching 500 customers and still growing, adding about 20, on average, per month."

Growth comes from word of mouth. "We don't market our service."

The equipment
Tenenbaum's equipment maker, Demarc Technology Group, put us in touch with him. Tenenbaum says he's gone through four generations of the equipment. "Demarc matured over time just like we matured."

Demarc equipment on a tower

Tenenbaum says he particularly likes the Demarc radios that come with a Wi-Fi Plus antenna. The boxes come with sectorized antennas.

It's non-standard equipment, but, says Tenenbaum, "it just works."

As you'll see later on in this article, Tenenbaum believes in paying for equipment that will reduce his workload, and the Demarc radios appear to do that for him.

PNC is in a rural area, and although 2.4 GHz spectrum is getting crowded in many parts of the United States, it's still useful where Tenenbaum is.

Nevertheless, he's looking at and other options such as 900 MHz and 3.6 GHz but has not yet deployed anything other than 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz.

PNC's biggest customers are local wineries—and the local Jelly Belly factory.

Equipment
PNC uses CommuniGate Pro, which is not nearly the cheapest e-mail software option for a local ISP. "I've been using it since 1996," says Tenenbaum. "The cost is $3,000 per year in renewal fees. If I was running Sendmail and Postfix, I would need another person just to manage my mail servers, so $3,000 is relatively cheap."

Tenenbaum also pays for network monitoring software. He uses InterMapper from Dartware. "Download it onto a Mac server, double click, and it's working, just like CommuniGate," he says.

Tenenbaum says he uses WebHelpDesk because it gives him the ability to manage trouble tickets with his cell phone.

PNC is doing VoIP with CommuniGate. The company is selling Nokia e71 cell phones and offering sophisticated but simple services, such as a built in SIP phone. PNC loads an e-mail client called Profimail onto these cell phones.

The point of paying for all of this is to be able to raise ARPU. "If you want to charge your customer $90 per month," Tenenbaum says, "you can give them bandwidth, but you also need to offer services."

Plans for the future
Although Demarc will be at ISPCON, you won't get to meet Tenenbaum. With less than ten employees, Tenenbaum's still part of the install team.

In addition, his company approached the local county government and is obtaining permits for its antennas and base stations.

At this point, the power company drops by and Tenenbaum's dogs Chloe and Azit start barking.

Tenenbaum recovers and says that planning for the future means treating your customers well even when there's no competition. "We treat our customers like there's DSL, cable, and other companies here because someday there will be. 3G and WiMAX are coming. As a result, we have not lost a single customer since we started."

It's worth paying a premium for equipment. In an e-mail after the interview, Tenenbaum writes:

I have to add that in my humble opinion, had I not chosen Demarc early on, I may have not been where we are now. It was pure luck because I didn't do enough research and just picked them after I saw their name on a couple of forums.

A good balance of very reasonable price, solid features and rock solid performance is part of what got us to nearly cross the 500 customers. In the risk of tipping of the competitors, I'd say the RWA-5K-Quad- WP13 model is a killer package.

Just like our choice of CommuniGate, WebHelpDesk, Nokia, or Intermapper, choosing Demarc allowed us to focus on building the business not troubleshooting it.

—End