Over the years not much has stayed the same. Rural communities have come and gone. Bell-bottoms were in and disco lights out. This has been true in the world of technology also. What once began as a 62-line phone company has now grown into a full communications platform.
In 1905, Lone Tree Rural Telephone Company was established in Everly by a group of local farmers. They needed a means of communication without physical travel. As this telephone product became more popular a 62-line switchboard was put into the local drug store and the company was renamed United Farmers Telephone Company. The local farmers at the time were the ones who owned and maintained the lines.
In May of 1961, the Board approved the purchase of new dialing equipment to replace the Magento Switchboards, which eliminated the need for the dialing operators. UFTC saw a growing need for additional services and created Evertek, Inc., a subsidiary of United Farmers Telephone.
Evertek purchased the Everly Cable TV system in January of 1987 from Everly Communications. Two years later, Evertek launched Wireless Cable TV utilizing a licensed frequency auctioned off by the FCC. This made it possible to rebroadcast Cable TV via a wireless signal to the rural communities. With a growing demand for service, Evertek expanded their reach by building separate wireless systems into Spirit Lake, Rutland, St. Joe, Archer, and Somers.
With technology booming, Evertek began offering a dial up Internet service to their local exchange in 1993. Seeing the possibilities of what the Internet could offer, Evertek started researching ways in order to offer faster speeds to their customers. In 1999, Evertek launched a high speed cable modem service to the town of Everly and dial up was a way of the past. Shortly there after, Evertek launched a wireless Internet connection via the licensed frequency it maintains. This provided a means to the rural customers who had no way of being able to receive Internet access previously. In November of 2001, Evertek went a step further by offering the first Non-Line of Sight Internet service to the residents of Pocahontas, Iowa. This service won Evertek the Wemmie Award, or Wireless Emmie. This Non Line of Site Internet would be installed in 15 communities over the next 5 years.
With a well-defined business plan, Evertek began to acquire Cable TV Franchises in 2002. With the addition of Albert City, Moville, Kingsley and Quimby, Evertek had secured a good foot print in all of NW Iowa. During the same time frame, Evertek launched a Digital Cable TV service in Everly and Kingsley. This was to fit the growing need for customers that wanted more options and a better viewing experience. Today, Evertek offers Cable TV service to 10 towns and utilizes 2 tower sites to broadcast Cable TV to rural areas.
United Farmers Telephone celebrated their 100 Year Anniversary April 9, 2005. Today, Evertek and United Farmers Telephone, offer a wide range of services to communities throughout North West Iowa and parts of Nebraska and South Dakota.
Evertek Delivers New Digital Television Service March 1 st, 2006
For Immediate Release
Evertek is offering a new digital television service through technology supplied by Motorola Broadband Communications Sector and AT&T’s Headend In The Sky (HITS®) to the town of Kingsley , Iowa . A cable system “headend” is the central receiving and transmitting facility of the cable system. AT&T’s Headend in the Sky (HITS), founded in 1994, delivers digital cable television programming signals to cable operators around the United States , serving more than 1600 headends representing 144 cable multi-system operators. HITS transmits more than 140 different digital channels. Now AT&T and Motorola have teamed up to bring HITS Quick Take (the name of the technology platform) allowing smaller cable systems to offer expanded digital services and enhanced TV operating features using a new, cost efficient headend component. Unlike digital High Definition TV, this digital technology allows a cable system operator to better utilize existing bandwidth through digital video compression to transmit more channels of programming over the system.
“We have a relatively small cable system”, said Mrs. Roxanne White, of Evertek. “We have been looking for a realistic way to offer our subscribers a significantly expanded channel lineup – to more effectively compete with the heavily promoted DBS services. Now we have it”, commented White.
“Cable operators with small systems have been looking for an economical way to add new and attractive services like premium multiplexes and digital music”, said Paul Bambei, Vice President of Operations, HITS.
“Motorola and HITS have made it extremely easy for many of our system operators to start offering expanded digital programming options”, said Mr. Chris Dodd. “With the popular HITS digital programming service and Motorola’s DSR 470 receiver, we can combine the local benefits of cable and the enhanced programming of digital satellite into one very compelling service offering. Subscribers can receive all of their programming from one supplier”, added Dodd.
The HITS digital signals are delivered to cable customers' homes combined with the current analog services supplied by the local cable operator through the cable plant. The DSR 470, manufactured by Motorola integrates the digital and analog signals. An easy, on-screen menu system seamlessly lists programming for both analog and digital services. Advanced parental controls allow blocking of unwanted programs by rating, entire channels, or program content. The “Browsing” feature allows viewers to see what’s on other channels while viewing a single channel.
In addition to the customer receiver equipment, Motorola provides the activation services for the new digital service through its San Diego Operations Center. Evertek installs and maintains the equipment as part of the service.
For more information contact Evertek at 800-242-0154
Survey Estimates Service Providers With the Most Wireless Subscribers
By Timothy Sanders
Gathering data on fixed wireless service providers is like fishing for minnows with volleyball net. Documented sources aren’t adequate to the task, and that includes published statistics from the Federal Communications Commission.
This survey of the top U.S. broadband wireless service providers (see Table) was composed the old-fashioned way, through phone calls to the service providers themselves.
While this article ranks service providers by the number of wireless subscribers they have, clearly other measures could have been used. Note that the number of wireless subscribers is a different measure than the total users served.
The list was devised to create a snapshot of the industry. It doesn’t imply a competitive ranking, since most of these operators compete with their local incumbents rather than each other.
It’s hoped that such a list may paint a clearer picture of the status of broadband wireless service providers in U.S. markets.
A Disparate Lot The broadband wireless service providers queried for this survey were a disparate lot, including municipal plays, electric utility companies, telcos and private companies.
Sprint and Clearwire may have the largest number of subscribers, and sources agreed with the estimates given in the Table. However, I was unable to confirm subscriber counts with these companies (see sidebar, “Methodology”).
The survey focused on companies offering service using broadband fixed wireless technology. Some firms, including Ricochet, Clearwire, Evertek and Rioplex, offer mobile capability. If the technology had fixed wireless applications and was not clearly cellular, the operator was included in the survey.
I excluded companies whose customers did not receive direct last-mile wireless service, such as multiple dwelling unit and multiple tenant unit subscribers. Wireless cable TV subscribers were not included in customer counts.
Most of the firms listed in this survey are privately held and funded by angel investors. Results also showed a heavier representation of fixed wireless service providers in the western part of the United States.
A Question of Numbers Anecdotal reports of a company’s wireless subscriber numbers, as reported by regionally adjacent companies, did not always jibe with the verbal confirmations that service providers gave. Several things could account for this. The industry appears to be growing briskly, so companies may have grown faster than their peers estimated (many admitted they weren’t sure). One person related that he was deliberately understating his company’s subscriber count.
I could not reach everybody and so reported anecdotal estimates in those cases. Some firms were unable to confirm subscriber counts and asked specifically to use my estimates. Others confirmed ranges only.
One provider with more than 1,000 subscribers is currently in bankruptcy protection, although hoping to emerge from it soon. I left that company in the list because its customer count is, by all reports, still growing.
Defining Success I used subscriber count as a simple ranking mechanism. However, a company’s financial success can be based on lower subscriber numbers but higher ARPU (average revenue per unit).
No better example of this can be found than with the last company on the list, Trillion Partners, the sister company of Trillion Digital Communications. Trillion Partners follows an educational, medical and governmental customer model. Its 400 active accounts generate sales of around $4 million — considerably more than some firms with much higher subscriber counts.
In a similar vein, Lubbock, Texas-based Blue Moon Solutions has 686 connections. Three of those connections involve University mesh systems, where billing is based on the number of users. If the additional 7,000 users represented by those connections were considered, Blue Moon would have nearly 8,000 subscribers.
Business Models
There appear to be the two main camps in broadband wireless. One is a mostly retail customer play. The second is geared around premium high ARPU services. Some firms include additional services (not just broadband wireless subscriber revenues) in their ARPU figures.
Firms that are listed with high subscriber counts mostly serve consumer users. This segment needs to be very efficient with their business processes and must expand operations to serve a mass market. Such retail plays often generate other revenue streams besides broadband wireless, such as telco services, dialup access, DSL, cable TV, fiber connections or electric service. Rural companies typically operate in the retail-oriented consumer market and lack the high ARPU generated from business customers that sustain other firms.
High-ARPU firms usually are pure-play broadband wireless firms. However, CommSpeed, which uses broadband wireless technology to serve rural subscribers, is one exception. CommSpeed’s ARPU of $42 is noticeably higher than the $29.95 charged by competitors offering DSL service.
Prairie INet, which serves rural markets with an ARPU of $71, represents a hybrid case. Its consumer-to-business ratio of subscribers is 75/25, with about half of its revenue coming from business customers.
The premium ARPU camp is led by several firms. TowerStream is widely recognized as an industry leader. Its 1,000 subscribers puts it near the bottom of this list, but it might be listed differently based on revenue. TowerStream does not disclose its ARPU but its business base is the enterprise market and major universities, providing wireless T-3 and OC-3 replacement services.
Other firms that take the high ARPU route are Trillion Digital Communications, NextWeb, airBand, TransAria, Stonebridge, SpeedNet and U.S. Wireless Online.
Some firms on the list (such as Prairie INet) are profitable, but others are not. But that may not be the end of the matter. One view among service providers is that you cannot achieve high growth without carrying a burn rate.
Talk to Us Likely several deserving companies missed the list because I could not find them. Ultimately, this list should generate more questions than answers.
I hope that companies, especially any inadvertently skipped, will contact me with corrections and additional information.
The industry needs dialogue regarding its size, potential and strategies. Such knowledge perhaps will lead to greater investment and growth.
About the Author: Tim Sanders is founder of TheFinalMile, Inc., a fixed wireless consulting group. His experience came from running a multistate wireless ISP. He can be reached at tim@thefinalmile.net or 828-253-0702.
Taking a Byte out of Crime — the Wireless Broadband Way
Public Safety Officials Are Adopting Mobile Fixed Wireless Solutions, Especially as Legacy Radios Fade From the Scene
By Daniel Sweeney
Police and wireless go way back. Police radios of one sort or another have existed since the 1920s in the United States. Two-way units became standard equipment in metropolitan police cars in the 1940s.
Traditionally, police have used half-duplex, push-to-talk land mobile radios similar to those employed by private service fleets. There’s no security or privacy, nor the ability to transmit anything other than voice. In short, police radios were about as sophisticated as billy clubs.
Today, with the specter of terrorism and the demands of Homeland Security hanging over even the smallest department, the inadequacy of the legacy public safety networks can scarcely be denied. Police chiefs are clamoring for converged wireless networks and equipment manufacturers and WISPs (wireless Internet service providers) are scrambling to oblige them.
Need for Speed
Traditional providers of public safety networks, as well as newcomers to the market, have been working to deliver high-speed gear.
“Data has been around for quite awhile now in law enforcement networks, and we’ve supported it for years,” mused Greg Henderson, principal technologist at M/A-COM. “But today there is a strong demand for higher data speeds, higher than traditional police bands can support. There’s also a demand for video feeds in the cars. Anyone who is not attempting to meet those demands is not going to be competitive in this market.”
M/A-COM, the number two vendor of public safety radios in the United States, is striving to satisfy such needs with fairly nontraditional solutions. Those solutions include 802.11 extensions to land mobile radio and equipment designed for the new broadband public safety networks utilizing recently authorized 4.9 GHz spectrum. However, both M/A-COM and its arch rival Motorola, the other major public safety radio provider, are finding themselves challenged by companies with no prior involvement in the public safety market. The new competition includes companies such as Tropos Networks, PacketHop, Belair Networks, Strix Systems, Alvarion, and NextNet Wireless.
Market Characteristics With so many police departments and other public agencies to support, wireless equipment vendors sense a real opportunity.
“Everybody says they’re concerned about securing the realm,” noted Jeff Madsen, a spokesman for Motorola, “but it’s mostly about money. We sell more public safety radios than anyone, almost six billion dollars worth, and the total revenue may be a couple of billion more. That’s a big market, and more and more of it is migrating to broadband. All of these wireless companies active in civilian markets see big opportunities there.”
It’s big and a lot more, according to Shirley Eis, formerly president of Software Corporation of America, a public safety applications developer.
“A lot of people don’t know it, but public safety constitutes the biggest vertical in wireless data,” Eis said. “Wireless equipment manufacturers who perceive this see tremendous opportunities there. And the fact that they’ve failed to grow the civilian wireless data markets the way they wanted to only intensifies their focus on public safety — primarily police. And I’ll tell you, police in general are not technophobes. It’s not that hard to get a department to try something new. What’s hard is making money in that market. You see, the purchasing cycles are long, and the departments expect to keep equipment for many years. You’re not gonna sell a lot of upgrades. I’ve seen a lot of companies come and go in the wireless public safety business. It’s not the cornucopia some people think.”
Patrick Leary, VP of marketing at Alvarion, concurs in part, but insists that public safety is a market with great potential.
“It’s true that police departments are in the habit of replacing equipment slowly, and, considering how slowly the technology changed in the past, that made sense,” Leary said. “But the advantages of going with broadband today are compelling. A broadband connection in every squad car can increase the efficiency of the force tremendously and can keep that car on the street an extra two or three hours a day because reports no longer have to be hand delivered. And that’s apart from the additional tools the broadband network provides to the cop on the street.”
There’s much agreement among those in the wireless public safety communications market. However, the actual wireless technologies offered by vendors are remarkably divergent.
From CDPD to Broadband Police typically have utilized narrowband trunked radios where channels designations are essentially virtual. Channel numbers can be assigned to different frequencies by the network administrator to alleviate congestion. For decades, these systems were strictly analog. During the 1990s, most of the larger departments switched to digital radios to utilize spectrum more efficiently.
With digitization came the possibility of wireless data applications. However, due to limited capacity and narrow channel allocations, most police departments seeking data capability have opted for the old CDPD, which provided best-case download speeds of 14 kbps. How much longer that antiquated system will support police data applications is open to question.
“CDPD is rapidly ceasing to be an option today because the cellular carriers are shutting down those networks,” said Brad Day, marketing communications manager at Tropos Networks. “A number of the departments are now utilizing the 40 kilobits per second capability of the Motorola Datatek police radios, but that’s still less than dialup. You can’t do video, you can’t check fingerprints and you can’t easily send identification photos or crime scene images — it’s just not fast enough.”
Equipment vendors take different approaches on the solution. Tropos and others, including PacketHop and Strix, advocate the use of unlicensed spectrum allocated for 802.11 wireless LAN activity. Others, such as NextNet, Alvarion and Flarion, favor the 802.16 standard for metro broadband wireless. Motorola, which recently acquired MeshNetworks, espouses proprietary solutions. Some cellular carriers have urged police departments to use third-generation cellular data networks to carry their data traffic. Finally, a number of major point-to-point microwave manufacturers, among them Harris Corp., Alcatel and Siemens, have set their sights on the public safety market, mostly in providing backhaul.
Several smaller specialized companies are also active in public safety, including Broadcast Microwave Services, Microwave Radio Communications, Global Microwave Systems, NSI-N Systems, Pacific Microwave Research and Trango Broadband Microwave. Smaller players are more likely to focus on single links for remote video surveillance rather than complete backhaul networks.
The Mesh Approach Some equipment manufacturers offer a mesh approach, including Tropos, Strix, PacketHop, Belair, Nortel and Motorola. These vendors have been particularly assiduous in courting public safety customers. Still, diversity rather than uniformity has been more characteristic of their product offerings. PacketHop and Motorola are pushing a radical network architecture called an ad hoc mesh, with almost no precedent in public networks. [Editor’s note: Motorola makes products that support both infrastructure and ad hoc mesh networks simultaneously.] Tropos, Strix, Belair and Nortel favor the infrastructure mesh, a type of configuration that has seen some deployment in the metro area already.
Ad hoc meshes, also known as “battlefield meshes,” are self-configuring peer-to-peer wireless networks literally thrown together on the spot. The concept was embraced by the U.S. military more than a decade ago, providing data connectivity to troops patrolling in remote areas. MeshNetworks, acquired by Motorola late last year, was active in supplying the military with networks of this sort, but MeshNetworks had difficulty identifying civilian markets.
PacketHop has developed an entirely software-based solution for the public safety realm.
“It’s about ubiquity, about establishing pervasive coverage at the scene of an incident,” said David Thompson, VP of marketing at PacketHop. “Our solution is a layer three and above software download on top of mass-market 802.11 equipment. We’ve found that in police radio networks, most of the communication takes place between and among officers at the scene. So why load down the rest of the network with bandwidth-intensive data such as video feeds?”
Thompson’s arguments appear persuasive, but the company has no announced customers, only alpha trials. Nor has Motorola announced customers for its ad hoc mesh. And rivals touting different technologies are quick to marshal counter arguments.
“Frankly, I think ad hoc meshes are a terrible idea as a total communications solution,” said Alvarion’s Patrick Leary. “For a crime scene, tactical unit an ad hoc mesh is useful, but for a data network serving an entire city, the concept is flawed. The problem is that meshes of any sort don’t lend themselves to incremental approaches. They have to be almost completely built out in order to be useful.”
Perhaps so, but Tropos has been enjoying notable success and winning many accolades with its own approach to the infrastructure mesh. It’s an architecture where mesh connections are confined to the backhaul, and last-mile or last-yard access takes place over the familiar hub and spoke connections. One satisfied user is Leonard Scott, business unit manager, municipal information systems, for the city of Corpus Christi, Texas.
“The system has more than met our expectations, and it has sufficient capacity to where we can run all city traffic over it and not just public safety communications,” Scott said. “Plus we can offer free hotspot services to our residents. The system is fast, secure and relatively inexpensive compared to other approaches.”
The cost argument to which Scott alludes has to do with the elimination of wired backhaul to the central station, an economy made possible by the fact that the nodes of the mesh essentially backhaul themselves.
Infrastructure mesh is but one approach for leveraging wireless technology to minimize backhaul expenses. The other is the more traditional point-to-point microwave link.
“The more established microwave backhaul methods simply offer more bandwidth and more reliability,” said Jay Nichols of Harris. “Depending on spectrum allocations, our systems will support up to 180 megabits per second.”
Wireless MAN Approach Advocates for 802.16-based “pre-WiMAX” systems have been securing some wins as well. Flarion has a system up and running in Washington, D.C. while NextNet has recently installed a network in South Sioux City, Iowa.
Charles Riggle, VP of business development at NextNet, outlined the case for WiMAX in public safety.
“Unlike Wi-Fi, WiMAX has built-in strong security and quality-of-service provisions and can be deployed over licensed spectrum, which we think is a necessity for public safety networks,” he said. “It also supports full mobility.”
NextNet has pursued its one public safety deployment through a local WISP, Evertek, an independent telco operating over BRS and EBS (formerly known as MDS and ITFS) licensed spectrum in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Evertek uses the same network for provisioning private individuals as for serving the needs of the police.
“I think it proves that service providers can extend into government markets without compromising the core business of residential and business subscribers,” said Roxanne White, executive VP and general manager at Evertek. “It’s just a matter of good network management and intelligent provisioning. The South Sioux City experiment has been so successful that we’re working with a couple of other departments in our territory now.”
Beyond Architecture Many are skeptical that systems developed primarily to serve the public are well suited to the needs of government agencies.
“Police departments want licensed spectrum,” said Jeff Madsen of Motorola.
“Police want to control their own networks,” added Leary of Alvarion.
“Public safety organizations are interested in interoperability with related agencies,” offered Greg Henderson of M/A-COM.
Police want broadband speeds, but obtaining those speeds over licensed spectrum, whether government controlled or managed by WISPs, hasn’t been easy.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has provided a solution of sorts — new spectrum extending from 4940 MHz to 4990 MHz (4.9 GHz) that is unlicensed but is only available to public safety agencies. Various agencies would still have to contend for bandwidth among themselves, but at least they wouldn’t face interference from countless civilian radios.
Thus far, only Motorola and Terabeam Wireless are offering 4.9 GHz radios. Whether other manufacturers will quickly follow in the 4.9 GHz space remains to be seen.
“We think it’s a good idea, but for 4.9 radios to take off, they have to be based on 5 GHz WiMAX or Wi-Fi radios,” said Day of Tropos Networks. “In other words, you have to be able to downband existing products to control prices. With the emission masks required by the FCC, that’s not possible.”
Leary sees other limitations in the new band as well.
“You end up with about double the infrastructure requirement you would have for 2.4 gigahertz, 2.5 gigahertz, or 900 megahertz,” he said. “Cost is a major issue with most departments. I think the FCC should have sought frequencies lower down.”
Toward the Future High-speed data offers improved scheduling and dispatch, precise vehicle location, expedited transaction handling and documentation, and fast access to massive databases by operatives in the field. To date, however, one of the most pressing requirements of officers in the field, namely fingerprint identification in near real time over wireless networks, has yet to be met. This particular desideratum crops up again and again in the comments of both police and the radio manufacturers that serve them. Equipment providers are responding with ever higher throughputs to support this application.
Yet another imperative on the part of public safety is improving radio interoperability, especially during emergency situations. Voice over IP is the current solution for allowing different digital radios to interoperate, but in the future, frequency-agile radios will probably provide a more comprehensive solution. Currently, the Telephone Industries Association has a working group striving to create a standard.
If present trends continue, public safety will continue to borrow heavily from network technology initially developed for the private sector. And should that be the case, both wireless manufacturers and wireless operators should find plenty of opportunities within the public safety realm.
About the Author: Dan Sweeney is an accomplished technology writer and a contributor to BWB. Dan has been covering wireless data since 1990. He can be reached at 818.954.0480 or dswee34359@aol.com.
