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The story of Medicine Bow is just one of many that have been told or are still being written across the United States and around the world. In rural America, unserved urban areas and places ravaged by natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, WISPs are delivering on the promise of broadband to everyone and doing it without the benefit of government support, dedicated spectrum or a favorable regulatory environment.
We were finally ready to start putting customers on the new segments of the network and we were able to overcome all of the hurdles that were placed in front of us. Over a period of two weeks, we deployed 100 miles of wireless backbone, six backhaul radios and three access points.
Looking at a wide area outdoor broadband network from high overhead on Google Earth, it is a series of dots on a map with lines connecting the dots. The dots are the access points and backhaul towers, and the lines are the microwave links between the locations.
This was a common story, played out all over the country as the independent ISPs began selling out, consolidating or going out of business.
Armed with low cost, unlicensed equipment and an entrepreneurial spirit, WISPs have been able to take the “guerilla” approach to building out broadband networks.
Fixed wireless technology is inexpensive, flexible and has decent capacity. Why isn’t it more popular for broadband in rural areas?
Since 2003, CenturyTel received an estimated $700,000 in USF support for the town of Medicine Bow, but made no significant upgrades to the local infrastructure and did not install broadband. According to the 2008 Wyoming PUC hearing, even the landline service got worse.
the pricing structure for this kind of connectivity is so unrealistic that it essentially prohibits any kind of economically self-sufficient project from being considered.
Now that the first round of the Broadband Stimulus program is underway, it is looking a lot like other government programs. Too much paperwork, heavy burdens for auditing, lots of restrictions on what can be done with the money, big fees for consultants and a long time before many of the projects will start to [...]
My experience with the Broadband Stimulus programs leads me to believe that it is a good idea that has been twisted around and is in the process of being gamed by many of the applicants. I am a provider in a very rural area and have been able to deliver at least 1meg broadband across [...]