Broadband comes to the corn belt
By Ron Recinto
Red Herring
May 18, 2001
In the small rural town of Keokuk, Iowa, farmers are starting to discover what it means to bridge the "last mile" of Internet broadband. It's bringing fast access to weather maps and the ability to closely monitor crop prices. But it's been awhile coming.
That's because high-speed technologies like digital subscriber lines (DSL) and cable modems found in major cities are nowhere to be found in this town of 12,000. Instead, the data is being pushed over a fixed wireless connection using a 140-foot-tall steel tower just on the outskirts of town.
Atop the tower are circular antennas that are the workhorses delivering Internet access to this small town and other rural regions of the U.S., where fixed wireless is taking hold and going head-to-head with DSL and cable.
WILDFIRE GROWTH
The investment research group Frost & Sullivan expects the broadband fixed wireless equipment market to grow at a compounded annual rate of 70 percent over the next four years. And other research firms are also predicting it will be a big source of revenue.
The Strategis Group projects broadband fixed wireless revenues will climb from $11.2 million in 1999 to approximately $3.4 billion in 2003. Much of the growth of fixed wireless in the U.S. can be attributed to communities like Keokuk that need a rural solution for broadband delivery.
But fixed wireless is not without its shortcomings. The solution, which uses radio frequency spectrum to transmit data from central offices to antennas in the home, still has major hurdles to leap over. To get up and running, a fixed wireless company needs the coöperation of local government, favorable topography, and almost unlimited access for antennas and equipment.
FERTILE GROUND
Fixed wireless wasn't the first proposed "last mile" technology for Keokuk. Initially, DSL providers promised high-speed connectivity -- but failed to deliver. And because of its sparse population, cable access providers stayed away from the area. That's when Interlink, the major Internet service provider (ISP) in Keokuk, decided to get involved in the broadband equation.
What Interlink brought to the table was its strong track record making fixed wireless work in several of the other towns and counties it serviced. And a bargain of sorts was crafted between the two parties. In return for high-speed Internet access, the town gave Interlink something it needed -- total access to residents.
A similar success story with fixed wireless is echoed thousands of miles away in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It is here that Sioux Valley Wireless found a community that previously had low data rate dial-up modem access to the Internet. Through a fixed wireless solution, SVW provided high-speed access to the rural area.
OBSTACLE COURSE
One of the big stumbling blocks with fixed wireless is trying to secure placement of antennas. Stephen Webber, president of Interlink, says his company forged a relationship with the town and county agencies that helped it overcome this obstacle, so it could place antennas on the top of water towers and county buildings.
Another potential obstacle is physical: the topography of the land. In the case of Keokuk, the landscape and terrain is flat, so the line of sight needed between antennae is possible, but this is not so in all locations. A metaphorical obstacle is that potential customers get nicked for an installation charge when the technology is first rolled out.
Roland Van der Meer, a general partner at ComVentures, a Palo Alto, California-based venture capital firm that invests exclusively in communication technologies, says fixed wireless is a strong rural play where there are no established cable lines, but the technology must now compete with satellites for the rural last mile. |
