Rural Michigan ISP on third broadband loan

Uses Motorola wireless equipment to fulfill funding conditions

Industry analysis by expert Joanie Wexler, plus links to the day's wireless news headlines

Some rural communities are turning to wireless as a way to procure federal funding for broadband connectivity — a proven sustainable approach that might serve as a model for the latest round of broadband stimulus funds, whose Aug. 14 application deadline is fast approaching.

The small town of Elk River, Idaho, discussed last time, uses a Proxim Wireless network to fill the bill. Meanwhile, Saginaw, Bay, Lapeer and St. Clair counties in the Eastern part of Michigan's lower peninsula are served by a Motorola wireless access and backhaul network run by ISP Air Advantage and built on USDA Rural Utilities Services (RUS) funds.

The backhaul comprises Motorola point-to-point Ethernet bridges; the access network uses Motorola point-to-multipoint devices. The WISP is already on its third loan, serving 4,500 subscribers in an area averaging 48 people per square mile, and its service has provided not just connectivity to residents, but jobs for service technicians in the area, too.

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Some rural communities are turning to wireless as a way to procure federal funding for broadband connectivity — a proven sustainable approach that might serve as a model for the latest round of broadband stimulus funds, whose Aug. 14 application deadline is fast approaching.

The small town of Elk River, Idaho, discussed last time, uses a Proxim Wireless network to fill the bill. Meanwhile, Saginaw, Bay, Lapeer and St. Clair counties in the Eastern part of Michigan's lower peninsula are served by a Motorola wireless access and backhaul network run by ISP Air Advantage and built on USDA Rural Utilities Services (RUS) funds.

The backhaul comprises Motorola point-to-point Ethernet bridges; the access network uses Motorola point-to-multipoint devices. The WISP is already on its third loan, serving 4,500 subscribers in an area averaging 48 people per square mile, and its service has provided not just connectivity to residents, but jobs for service technicians in the area, too.

Early on in the project, in the Michigan town of Unionville, the WISP complied with the condition of its initial grant to create a community center with free Internet access, which doubles as a library. "There are 500 people in the town and 300 people come in to use the [Internet access] each month," says Scott Zimmer, Air Advantage president.

Zimmer, who intends to also apply for RUS BIP stimulus money, notes that the BIP is a combination grant and loan. "The U.S. wants you to demonstrate that you'll be able to pay the loan back. So you have to show that the network you intend to build is sustainable," which involves, among other things, proving the technology infrastructure is viable, he says.

Air Advantage "bit off a small chunk of the elephant" up front with an initial loan of $1.5 million to cover three initial counties.

"Halfway through that deployment, we applied for the next loan" because it took 366 days from the first application until any funds became available and the company had succeeded in doing everything it had promised to do. His approach, then, is to apply for monies in sustainable, achievable amounts and then deliver on the network promises before applying for the next round.

"I'm convinced wireless is a sustainable model in sparsely populated areas, where fiber probably doesn't make a lot of sense," Zimmer says. He also considered WiMAX, but took a tip from another Michigan county that needed about $20 million for mesh WiMAX coverage.

"We could [deliver service] for $2 million. It wasn't going to be a mobile service, but it was service. We knew we couldn't get $20 million and, even if we could, it would be up to customers to pay higher rates to sustain it," which might have been a project-killer.

The other county "still has lots of areas without service," Zimmer notes.

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Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Silicon Valley.