from:"Charles Wu"

If not... then I don't think a WISP (as we probably define it) is ever
really going to be profitable with it. 

Off the top of my head, I know of 5 WISPs that are still deploy pre-WiMAX 
systems in the 2.5 GHz band and are doing quite nicely (and they aren't 
Clearwire / Digital Bridge type businesses where they're losing a ton of money)

The average size of these guys is about 7,000 wireless customers in their 
respective markets

In addition, when you dive into their financials, while their up-front CAPEX is 
significantly higher (due to the overbuild model of most 2.5 GHz systems) -- 
their operational and maintenance costs are significantly lower due to the fact 
that

1. They're not constantly dealing with interference and all the other gotchas 
that occur with Part 15
2. Many of them are able to utilize self-installs due to drastically increased 
power levels

But what about Motorola's new product?  Remember it's a fixed 802.16e, so
you don't get the benefits of mobility, no indoor CPE's are planned as far
as I know, but it is supposed to pay off in NLOS situations (which is
anecdotal until we can get gear on a tower and test).

There's actually 2 variants of this -- a fixed 802.16e that operates in 3.65, 
and their mobile product that operates in 2.5/2.3

-Charles



-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On
Behalf Of Blake Covarrubias
Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2009 11:56 PM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Wimax gear

 I'd say the question boils down to who's going to foot the bill for the
deployment -- you or the government =)


With or without government stimulus I'm curious of the lists' general
consensus on whether or not WiMAX is worthwhile investment in this 'war' of
LTE vs WiMAX. Having Uncle Sam foot the bill on a deployment definitely
lowers / removes the financial barrier, but doesn't really matter if
deploying WiMAX is a foolish endeavor from the get-go due to lack of
customer demand or vendors ceasing development.

I believe WiMAX has an opportunity to be commercially viable at least for a
couple of years, and I don't see any reason to not take advantage of that
fact. But, what do I know.

Consider this a question solely for the sake of debate.

--
Blake Covarrubias




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Re: [WISPA] Wimax gear

I find these comparisons of products like Ubiquiti / Mikrotik vs. Motorola / 
WiMAX products to be somewhat unrealistic -- it seems to me that it's like 
comparing something that's hypothetical and looks good on paper and hoping 
that it will actually work

Here's my question; sure, on paper, the new Ubiquiti WHATEVER will give me a 
Gazillion Mbps with Beamforming and everything for $10 -- but has anyone 
actually made this stuff work and scaled it into a profitable business?

Many of the WISPs that I've talked to who gone down this path have had to 
upgrade / replace / retool their networks due to the fact that these systems 
don't scale

The one WISP that I know using Ubiquiti / Mikrotik with several thousand 
customers is only using them as endpoints on a Bel-Air Network Mesh 
infrastructure that they spent almost $1 million building out

It reminds me of the Asterisk vs. Broadsoft / Metaswitch VoIP debates from a 
couple of years back -- sure, Asterisk was free while a Broadsoft platform 
had an entry cost of $250k, but I know of tons of Broadsoft providers who 
support tens of thousands of customers for hosted PBX, and the only guy I know 
doing it on Asterisk ended up spending over $500k hiring a custom programming 
team in Russia to rebuild the system for him from scratch (he was joking to me 
that in hindsight, it would've been cheaper and a lot easier to just buy a 
Broadsoft)

I would like to be proven wrong here...so shoot =)

-Charles




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Re: [WISPA] Wimax gear

We have successfuly used ubiquiti nano and power stations as injection  
radios for numerous tripod and cisco mesh systems. No problems.  Of  
course I have used canopy for it too- no real difference in the end  
performance.

But there's a huge difference between using a few here and there and relying 
on things as a platform for wide-scale operations

Let's go back to the original thread -- we were talking about how Ubiquiti was 
changing the game with their new $75 AP that does 150 Mb or something (as 
compared to the Alvarion/Motorolas/WiMAX guys of the world who still don't get 
it with their $3/5/10k APs) -- up until now, it's been my experience that this 
is an apples to oranges debate (heck, couldn't I make the same argument that 
belkin or dlink has had a super-N mimo AP for $69 at Best Buy for some time 
now?)

The last guy I know who tried this (actually a WISP with ~5k customers who 
might be reading this thread =) decided to go all-out with Mikrotik -- sure, 
the APs cost $200 or something, but he found that contention limited him to 
20-30 customers / AP, while an slower and 5x more expensive Canopy system 
allowed him to put 100+ customer / AP -- in his case, one of the things that 
factored into the decision was tower rent

Now, this was probably a year ago and things may have changed...

I am not saying that ubiquity / mikrotik aren't good solutions -- we see nice 
applications for such units to fill in gaps or extend the network where 
terrain is challenging and there are pockets of small density (e.g., a 
neighborhood cul-de-sac or something similar with 3 or 4 additional people) -- 
and I'd probably wager that almost every WISP - Canopy/Alvarion/WiMAX/etc has 
deployed a few nanos/locos/etc in such a manner fashion, but that's a far 
different cry than using it as a primary platform of choice for delivering 
service to thousands of subscribers

That being said, if someone has built such a system, please pipe up and share 
your experiences -- I'm always interested in learning how to do things 
better/faster/cheaper...

-Charles

On Dec 30, 2009, at 7:05 PM, Charles Wu c...@cticonnect.com wrote:

 I find these comparisons of products like Ubiquiti / Mikrotik vs.  
 Motorola / WiMAX products to be somewhat unrealistic -- it seems to  
 me that it's like comparing something that's hypothetical and looks  
 good on paper and hoping that it will actually work

 Here's my question; sure, on paper, the new Ubiquiti WHATEVER will  
 give me a Gazillion Mbps with Beamforming and everything for $10 --  
 but has anyone actually made this stuff work and scaled it into a  
 profitable business?

 Many of the WISPs that I've talked to who gone down this path have  
 had to upgrade / replace / retool their networks due to the fact  
 that these systems don't scale

 The one WISP that I know using Ubiquiti / Mikrotik with several  
 thousand customers is only using them as endpoints on a Bel-Air  
 Network Mesh infrastructure that they spent almost $1 million  
 building out

 It reminds me of the Asterisk vs. Broadsoft / Metaswitch VoIP  
 debates from a couple of years back -- sure, Asterisk was free  
 while a Broadsoft platform had an entry cost of $250k, but I know of  
 tons of Broadsoft providers who support tens of thousands of  
 customers for hosted PBX, and the only guy I know doing it on  
 Asterisk ended up spending over $500k hiring a custom programming  
 team in Russia to rebuild the system for him from scratch (he was  
 joking to me that in hindsight, it would've been cheaper and a lot  
 easier to just buy a Broadsoft)

 I would like to be proven wrong here...so shoot =)

 -Charles



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Re: [WISPA] Wimax gear - licensed bands btw

Speaking of which, did anyone notice the results of the latest BRS Auction (#86)

Licenses went for an average of $0.03 / MHz POP

That means if 60 MHz covering 100,000 people (as defined by Census 2000 
numbers) would have gone for $180k -- with the small business 35% credit - that 
means a WISP would've paid $117k for that spectrum

While $117k is nothing to sneeze at, it's just worth noting that getting a 
license is not something unreasonable or unobtainable for the small guy

-Charles






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Re: [WISPA] Wimax gear

2009-12-29 Thread Charles Wu

  LTE has already won and .16e will find only small, limited life and even 
 less
 mass development.

Do you see any point in small BRS/EBS (MMDS/ITFS) license holders deploying 
802.16e in these frequency bands?

Hi Blake,

I'd say the question boils down to who's going to foot the bill for the 
deployment -- you or the government =)

-Charles






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Re: [WISPA] Credit Card Processors

2009-12-14 Thread Charles Wu

Hi Rick,

In the context of being an e-commerce merchant (e.g., someone who sells books, 
toys, things online), everything that you bank and Authorize.Net is telling you 
is true -- what's happening is that you are being lumped into the category of 
card-not-present credit card processing -- which is, not surprisingly, higher 
risk than card-present or swiped credit card processing.

As a result, there's an additional set of rules and regulations (and higher 
pricing) that applies to you

Now, I think everyone here would agree that the business of being a 
WISP/ISP/Telco is fundamentally different than that of an e-commerce shop -- 
specifically, our business is all about recurring revenue

Let's compare

Service Provider that bills 1,000 customers $50 / month vs. E-commerce shop 
that sells 1,000 customers something for $50 / month

Now, if you were to compare risk between the two -- as opposed to 100% 
card-not-present risk held by the E-commerce shop, the way to look at it from 
the service provider is that there's probably only 50 risky transactions 
(e.g., the new adds for the month), and the other 950 transactions were people 
that were billed the previous month (and probably have been customers for quite 
some time already).

Now, for a facilities-based provider (as opposed to a web-hosting or dial-up 
company), the risk is further mitigated by evidence of a truck roll (which, 
if you think about it, makes for basically a card-present transaction)

Taking these factors into account, Visa/Mastercard have created special 
programs for facilities-based providers

For example: Mastercard - 
http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchant/solutions/incentive_program.html

Billing Lost/Stolen/Expired Cards:
Visa: http://www.visadps.com/services/visa_account_updater.html
MasterCard: 
http://www.mastercard.com/us/wce/PDF/Billing%20Updater%20Brochure_10%2006.pdf

What other benefits are available from being in these programs?

1. Specialized telco industry rates for consumer billing (depending on card 
type / mix -- it comes out to generally 10-25% cheaper than e-commerce / 
card-not-present transactions)

2. The ability to legally bill through expired cards for recurring payment 
purposes

3. The ability to update card records to account for lost, stolen, reissued 
and expired cards

The up-front work (business process + software  systems integration) to 
getting qualified and working within these programs is pretty extensive, and 
as a result, the 2,000 or so small-to-medium sized service providers have too 
many other things on their plate to deal with this (trust me, big guys like 
Comcast and Verizon take full advantage of these programs).  What IP Pay has 
done is to invest ~2 years of RD and systems to the tune of ~$750k to build 
out systems so that we can help guys like yourself take advantage of 
preferential treatment normally reserved for the big guys.

-Charles


-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of RickG
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 12:11 AM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Credit Card Processors

Because once expired, Visa or Mastercard no longer must honor it. If a
chargeback happens, they may consider using an expired card as fraudulent
and deny your claim. This is just my more cautious nature coming out here.
Maybe your processor says no big deal. For me, Authorize.net said dont do
it.
-RickG

On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 10:22 PM, Josh Luthman
j...@imaginenetworksllc.comwrote:

 I've seen that before, but that wasn't what I was looking for.

 Either way, a charge back can happen no matter what - why would the
 expiration be relevant?

 Josh Luthman
 Office: 937-552-2340
 Direct: 937-552-2343
 1100 Wayne St
 Suite 1337
 Troy, OH 45373

 The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
 --- Albert Einstein


 On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 10:08 PM, RickG rgunder...@gmail.com wrote:

  My banker buddy said its between you and your credit card processor but
  charging to an expired card could leave you open to a charge back. I
 guess
  the safest thing to do is ask your processor. I did find the attached on
  Visa's website. -RickG
 
  On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:42 PM, Josh Luthman
  j...@imaginenetworksllc.comwrote:
 
   Very confident that IPPay will accept past expiration dates as long
 none
  of
   the other information was changed.  I read something about this
 recently
   but
   I can't seem to locate it.
  
   Josh Luthman
   Office: 937-552-2340
   Direct: 937-552-2343
   1100 Wayne St
   Suite 1337
   Troy, OH 45373
  
   The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
   --- Albert Einstein
  
  
   On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:29 PM, RickG rgunder...@gmail.com wrote:
  
I'm speaking from experience :)
Most credit cards expire in two years. So, you take their expiration
  date
and add two years - wella, it works again!
I dont know about other processors but authorize.net will not

Re: [WISPA] Credit Card Processors

2009-12-14 Thread Charles Wu

I think IP Pay queries the issuer to determine what the proper expiration 
date and updates it.  Maybe I'll get Charles over here to say what his 
service does.  ;-)

We basically have three product features for WISPs/Telcos/CableCos/Service 
Providers that really set us apart from the normal e-commerce processor

IP Pay Account Updater automatically updates card-on-file account changes 
from lost, stolen or reissued cards, to ensure uninterrupted recurring 
payments. 

IP Pay Account Continuator allows for the successful processing of expired 
cards on recurring payment transactions. 

IP Pay Account Economizer uses specialized market interchange categories to 
eliminate the High-Risk Surcharges levied on traditional e-commerce and 
card-not-present transactions. 

Hope this helps

-Charles



--
From: RickG rgunder...@gmail.com
Sent: Monday, December 14, 2009 12:14 AM
To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Credit Card Processors

 But the issue is that they may consider using an expired card as 
 fraudulent.
 Remember, each credit card transaction has a bunch or legal rules and
 regulations that come along with it. You know how it goes, do it right or 
 it
 may bite!

 On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 11:57 PM, Travis Johnson t...@ida.net wrote:

  And when the chargeback comes through, you fax them the copy of your
 internet service contract and their usage summary showing they owed and 
 paid
 for the bill as agreed.

 Travis
 Microserv


 RickG wrote:

 My banker buddy said its between you and your credit card processor but
 charging to an expired card could leave you open to a charge back. I 
 guess
 the safest thing to do is ask your processor. I did find the attached on
 Visa's website. -RickG

 On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:42 PM, Josh 
 Luthmanj...@imaginenetworksllc.com j...@imaginenetworksllc.comwrote:



  Very confident that IPPay will accept past expiration dates as long none 
 of
 the other information was changed.  I read something about this recently
 but
 I can't seem to locate it.

 Josh Luthman
 Office: 937-552-2340
 Direct: 937-552-2343
 1100 Wayne St
 Suite 1337
 Troy, OH 45373

 The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
 --- Albert Einstein


 On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:29 PM, RickG rgunder...@gmail.com 
 rgunder...@gmail.com wrote:



  I'm speaking from experience :)
 Most credit cards expire in two years. So, you take their expiration date
 and add two years - wella, it works again!
 I dont know about other processors but authorize.net will not accept an
 expired date.
 -RickG

 On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 4:13 PM, Josh 
 Luthmanj...@imaginenetworksllc.com j...@imaginenetworksllc.comwrote:



  I don't see how you can guess it.  You can have one card number not
 change but renew it's expiration date.  Also keep in mind you can
 continue charging without updating information for companies just like
 us.

 On 12/13/09, RickG rgunder...@gmail.com rgunder...@gmail.com wrote:


  Quickbooks is great!

 Question though: I was told by my bank not to guess their new


  expiration


  date and that you need to get the it  directly from the customer or


   you


  are


  subject to dispute. True of false?
 -RickG

 On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 11:40 PM, Tom DeReggiwirelessn...@rapiddsl.net 
 wirelessn...@rapiddsl.netwrote:



  IPPay is really cool. Expecially automatic features like figuring


   out


  the


  right CC exp date after it expires. We'd like to use it, if we


   could.


   But we dont use them because you really need a seperate billing


   system


  to


  integrate with them.
 We use Quickbooks for our billing, and from what I understood IPPay


   does


   not
 integrate with Quickbook's billing.

 PS. I know, why are we using Quickbooks for billing still? Resistent


   to


   change when something works, its easy, and no compelling reason to


  change.


  Tom DeReggi
 RapidDSL  Wireless, Inc
 IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband


 - Original Message -
 From: Travis Johnson t...@ida.net t...@ida.net
 To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org wireless@wispa.org
 Sent: Saturday, December 12, 2009 11:16 PM
 Subject: Re: [WISPA] Credit Card Processors




  IPPay. Only saved us $500 per month and we get our money in 1-2


   business


   days (instead of 4-5 with authorize). :) :)

 Travis
 Microserv

 Robert West wrote:


  Looking at credit card processors again.  Been nickled and dimed


to


   death


  with 2 others.  Who are you happy with and do they work 
 withauthorize.net?



 Bob-







 Robert West

 Just Micro Digital Services Inc.

 740-335-7020









 


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[WISPA] BIP/BTOP Update - RUS Field Verifications

2009-12-14 Thread Charles Wu

FWIW - RUS is sending reps in the field to see if areas are truly underserved 
/ unserved

So, if there's a app in your market that you think shouldn't exist -- I'd take 
a second to reach out to your local RUS office

-Charles



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Re: [WISPA] Freeside

2009-11-20 Thread Charles Wu

The Freeside guru that many have turned to is Jeremy Davis (contact info 
below) -- I'd suggest giving him a call

Jeremy Davis
Maximum Technologies, LLC
Office 318.303.4725
www.maximumtech.us
jere...@maximumtech.biz 

-Charles

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of cc...@dot11net.com
Sent: Friday, November 20, 2009 2:04 PM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: [WISPA] Freeside

Can anyone help with an installation of Freeside on CentOS 5? Hit me off
list if you have a minute to answer a couple of questions.

Regards,

Cameron




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[WISPA] Broadband Stimulus Update - NARUC Presentation by Jonathan Adelstein and Larry Strickling

2009-11-19 Thread Charles Wu

NARUC 121st Annual Convention:
11/17/09
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
5th Floor - Ballroom D
National Broadband Stimulus Update
Larry Strickling, Director of NTIA and Jonathan Adelstein, Administrator of the 
USDA Rural Utility Service provide an update on the American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act broadband grant and loan programs.

Moderator: Hon Phil Jones - Commissioner: Washington Utilities and 
Transportation Commission
Panelists:
Hon Larry Strickling - Asst Secreatry for Communications and Info and Director, 
NTIA
Hon Jonathan Adelstein - Administrator, Rural Development Utilities - USDA

Recorded Audio Presentation can be downloaded here: 
http://www.winog.org/index.php?q=bbstimupdate_111709




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[WISPA] Summary - Senate Commerce Committee Oversight Hearing on BIP/BTOP Round 1

2009-10-28 Thread Charles Wu

There was some big news out of today's Senate Commerce Committee oversight 
hearing on the BIP/BTOP programs, which just ended.  Copies of the prepared 
testimony by the RUS, NTIA and OMB witnesses are attached but, as usual, the 
best information came out in the oral testimony.

The big news relates to the schedule for making grants under the first NoFA.  
In his testimony, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling announced that 
application processing is proceeding slower than anticipated.  As a result, he 
announced that the first BTOP applications will not be granted until 
mid-December, and that processing applications under the first NoFA will not be 
completed until February 2010.  RUS Administrator Jonathan Adelstein announced 
that RUS will begin issuing awards as soon as possible but that November 7th 
date will slip and that RUS expects to begin making announcements a month 
after the initially scheduled November 7th date.

During the course of his testimony, Strickling made reference to the upcoming 
Request for Information regarding the second NoFA, but did not give any 
indication as to when it will be released.  Adelstein noted that it would be 
released shortly.

During the questioning, Sen. Rockefeller and others again expressed unhappiness 
with the remote definition adopted by RUS.  Not surprisingly, Adelstein 
committed to completely review the definition when comments are filed in 
response to the FRI., and concedes that there are real problems with the 
current definition.

In response to concerns raised regarding lack of mapping and funding of areas 
that are served by private enterprise, Adelstein mentioned that RUS is focusing 
on funding deployments in unserved areas.

Finally, in response to a Rockefeller question regarding the problems stemming 
from the shotgun marriage of RUS and NTIA, both Administrators identified the 
reluctance of applicants to seek BIP loans (that stretch dollars), when they 
can instead secure BTOP grants.  Strickling made clear that they will look at 
this issue in preparing the second NoFA, but also stated that he was not sure 
they would change the agencies' approaches.  Throughout the hearing, Adelstein 
continued to emphasize the benefits of using loans to leverage the funds 
available.  So, while NTIA is statutorily restricted to 80% grants and no 
loans, RUS may not take advantage of its flexibility to change the 50%/50% 
grant-loan split.

For further details and to download hearing transcripts: 
http://www.winog.org/index.php?q=senatecommitteemeeting102809

Feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions (or if you want to 
get sold on something =)

-Charles


[cid:image001.jpg@01CA576D.3014ED10]http://www.ippay.com/

Charles Wumailto:c...@ippay.com
President
c...@ippay.commailto:c...@ippay.com
cell: 773-870-0962 * office: 847-346-0990 x2500


16W235 83rd Street, Suite A, Burr Ridge, IL 
60527http://www.converge-tech.com/www.ippay.com * tel: 847.346.0990 fax: 
847.346.0991




inline: image001.jpg


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Re: [WISPA] Keyon Communications

2009-10-23 Thread Charles Wu

Are you aware that Keyon is a publically traded company; I would start with 
that data

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=KEYO.OB

-Charles


-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of Mark McElvy
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 9:48 PM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: [WISPA] Keyon Communications

We were solicited for purchase by this company today. Anyone have
anything to share about them?

 

Mark 




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[WISPA] BIP/BTOP Mapping Tool Online

2009-09-26 Thread Charles Wu

Posting to multiple lists -- apologies if anyone gets this twice

At some point last evening, RUS and NTIA released a modified version of the 
BIP/BTOP applicant mapping tool, which now provides public access to applicant 
mapping data.  Right now, nothing has been loaded in terms of public notices or 
on the map, so the 30 day comment period has not yet started. The tool can be 
accessed at http://broadbandsearch.sc.egov.usda.gov/DefaultARRA.aspx.  

-Charles



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Re: [WISPA] Letter from BTOP

BIP applicants don't have to deal with this political dog-and-pony show (er., 
BS =)

-Charles

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of St. Louis Broadband
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 1:42 PM
To: li...@stlbroadband.com; 'WISPA General List'
Subject: [WISPA] Letter from BTOP

Has anyone else received this letter from BTOP?  We received it yesterday.

Dear BTOP applicant:

Thank you for submitting your application for the Broadband Technology
Opportunities Program (BTOP), the $4.7 billion grant program established by
Congress in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery
Act) to expand and enhance broadband capabilities in the United States. The
U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) is working to ensure that funds from the Recovery Act
are made available as quickly, effectively, and fairly as possible.

In the Recovery Act, NTIA was authorized to consult with states,
territories, possessions, and the District of Columbia (states) regarding
the identification of unserved and underserved areas within their borders
and the allocation of grants funds to projects affecting each state.
Accordingly, NTIA is making relevant information about your project
available on its website www.broadbandusa.gov for states and the public to
review: applicant name, contact information, amount requested, and a
description of the application. On September 8, 2009, you also received an
email from NTIA requesting your permission to post your project's Executive
Summary, or a partially redacted version thereof, on www.broadbandusa.gov.
Assuming you have granted the requested permission, this information will
also be made available to states and the public.  If you have not yet
responded to our September 8 email, please do so (to b...@ntia.doc.gov) at
your earliest convenience.

NTIA is affording states the opportunity to comment on BTOP applications
that propose to serve areas within their jurisdiction and to provide an
explanation of why certain applications meet the greatest needs of the
state. Information provided by states will be among the factors considered
by NTIA in making final awards. To protect any confidential information or
trade secrets contained in your application, NTIA is providing states with
only the limited information described above.  Many states may wish to
consider additional information contained in your application before making
recommendations to NTIA and may contact you to request such information.
Because states have been asked to submit any recommendations to NTIA by
October 14, 2009, we recommend you respond as quickly as possible to any
information requests from states to give them sufficient time to consider it
before commenting to NTIA. We also request that you do not send information
to the states unless and until!
  you are asked to do so by a state.

Please note that your application remains under consideration until NTIA has
notified you in writing regarding any changes to your status.  Notifications
will be made on a rolling basis in the coming weeks, and as such you may not
hear from NTIA immediately.  

Thank you again for applying to BTOP. If you have any further questions
regarding the state consultation process, please call (202) 482-2048 or
email us at b...@ntia.doc.gov and we will do our best to assist you as
quickly as possible.

Victoria Proffer
www.StLouisBroadband.com
314-974-5600

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Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

It's worth noting that the rules are a little different for middle mile 
applicants than last mile applicants

e.g., for the middle mile -- one has to pre-set their wholesale bandwidth rates 
and stay in accordance with the NOFA's non-discrimination rules per the 
application

Keep in mind, if someone with a middle mile project gets an application saying 
that they're going to sell bandwidth for $50 / meg in your rural market with a 
zero setup fee -- adhering to that pricing plan / etc becomes a REQUIREMENT of 
their funding agreement -- so, if you go to them and they then quote you $100 / 
meg, they are in violation of their agreement with the government

Keep in mind, when this happens, it now becomes fraud, and that's considered a 
felony (in addition, the government has the right to de-obligate the entire 
grant, and what that means is that they can demand 100% of the money back)

Also, note that in some cases, the government is a little different than your 
average debtor, in some cases (e.g., tax evasion), not paying the government 
can put you in jail

That sad (or maybe not depending on your perspective?) thing is that there are 
a lot of, IMO jokers applying for broadband stimulus funds who move fast and 
loose and think that they can pull a fast one over the government -- add in 
the fact that NTIA/RUS have tens of millions of  budgeted for auditing, I 
would predict that many of them will end up in jail as a result of stimulus

-Charles

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of Chuck Bartosch
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 5:28 PM
To: sarn...@info-ed.com; WISPA General List
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

Though it is a requirement (as Tim set out), the requirement doesn't  
really have a lot of teeth in my view. If a competitor doesn't want  
you on, they can design it so it's hard to get on.

For example, a fiber carrier has to have an attachment point built in  
for you to attach at a given location. If there isn't one nearby, well  
tough.

If there is an attachment point but you can't come to terms, it goes  
to arbitration. However, they aren't obligated to give you wholesale  
access...just attachment, whatever the heck that means. There just  
seems to me to be 100 ways to Sunday for a large carrier to play their  
usual games with this stuff and block the intent.

So basically, based on the wording of the rule, it's hard to see how  
they are going to achieve the intent behind the goal unless the  
provider is willing to and interested in doing so.

Chuck


On Sep 15, 2009, at 10:39 PM, Scottie Arnett wrote:

 Does the process explicitly say that an awarded company has to open  
 their network to competition? Or is this sort of a vague rule?

 Scottie

 -- Original Message --
 From: Chuck Bartosch ch...@clarityconnect.com
 Reply-To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org
 Date:  Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:06:11 -0400

 There is no provision in the rules to protest a plan because you  
 don't
 think it's a good plan.

 In fact, there's an OMB circular (from July I believe) that  
 explicitly
 disallows ANY communication until the evaluation process is over  
 about
 individual applications with the grant reviewers OR the agency over
 anything except for contesting an application due to your coverage
 area. I don't think I kept a copy of that circular, but I'm sure you
 can find it on line.

 The only exception is if they reach out to you-but they are  
 instructed
 to ignore and refuse any other input. They are bound by law on this.

 Just to be clear here, you *could* talk to them in very general terms
 about how the application process worked. But you cannot talk in any
 form about an individual application, yours or anyone else's.

 It might sound like I'm nay-saying here, but I'm just pointing out
 what the law allows you to do-and it doesn't allow the approach  
 you're
 suggesting as I understood the circular.

 Chuck

 On Sep 15, 2009, at 12:28 PM, Tom DeReggi wrote:

 Its also feasible to protest a plan simply because its a poor plan.
 The
 NTIA/RUS needs to approve grants for companies that use tax payer
 money
 optimally wisely and benefit the public, and
 adhere to the NOFA rules.  If you think you can do a better plan,
 but didn;t
 have time to submit it until Round2, why should the ROund1 plan get
 approved
 if its less good?
 And if one doubts the entent of an applicant, we should tell NTIA
 what we
 think. We are not only competing providers, but we are also the
 public that
 has to pay the taxes 5to fund these projects.

 I know in my State, there were numerous good applications that
 targeted
 truely needy areas, and made an effort to avoid other provider
 infrastructure. I plan to support those projects.
 For example only about 20% in my opinion were bad applications that
 would
 directly compete with me and other WISPs in their core

Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

In our case, our competitor applied for a shade under a million bucks to
provide middle mile into the area, as in to bring cheaper broadband to the
masses.  That doesn't sound like it will benefit us, the cheaper broadband
is for their system.  

If it's a middle mile application, they would be in violation of their funding 
contract if they bandwidth wasn't available to you for the same price that 
they're buying it for -- IMO, you would win either way

1. You get access to cheap bandwidth for the same price as them
2. They deny you access, you report them to the government, they get audited, 
shut down, thrown in jail, you have one less competitor, and you get to buy 
their system for pennies on the dollar =)

-Charles


-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On
Behalf Of Chuck Bartosch
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 6:28 PM
To: sarn...@info-ed.com; WISPA General List
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

Though it is a requirement (as Tim set out), the requirement doesn't  
really have a lot of teeth in my view. If a competitor doesn't want  
you on, they can design it so it's hard to get on.

For example, a fiber carrier has to have an attachment point built in  
for you to attach at a given location. If there isn't one nearby, well  
tough.

If there is an attachment point but you can't come to terms, it goes  
to arbitration. However, they aren't obligated to give you wholesale  
access...just attachment, whatever the heck that means. There just  
seems to me to be 100 ways to Sunday for a large carrier to play their  
usual games with this stuff and block the intent.

So basically, based on the wording of the rule, it's hard to see how  
they are going to achieve the intent behind the goal unless the  
provider is willing to and interested in doing so.

Chuck


On Sep 15, 2009, at 10:39 PM, Scottie Arnett wrote:

 Does the process explicitly say that an awarded company has to open  
 their network to competition? Or is this sort of a vague rule?

 Scottie

 -- Original Message --
 From: Chuck Bartosch ch...@clarityconnect.com
 Reply-To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org
 Date:  Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:06:11 -0400

 There is no provision in the rules to protest a plan because you  
 don't
 think it's a good plan.

 In fact, there's an OMB circular (from July I believe) that  
 explicitly
 disallows ANY communication until the evaluation process is over  
 about
 individual applications with the grant reviewers OR the agency over
 anything except for contesting an application due to your coverage
 area. I don't think I kept a copy of that circular, but I'm sure you
 can find it on line.

 The only exception is if they reach out to you-but they are  
 instructed
 to ignore and refuse any other input. They are bound by law on this.

 Just to be clear here, you *could* talk to them in very general terms
 about how the application process worked. But you cannot talk in any
 form about an individual application, yours or anyone else's.

 It might sound like I'm nay-saying here, but I'm just pointing out
 what the law allows you to do-and it doesn't allow the approach  
 you're
 suggesting as I understood the circular.

 Chuck

 On Sep 15, 2009, at 12:28 PM, Tom DeReggi wrote:

 Its also feasible to protest a plan simply because its a poor plan.
 The
 NTIA/RUS needs to approve grants for companies that use tax payer
 money
 optimally wisely and benefit the public, and
 adhere to the NOFA rules.  If you think you can do a better plan,
 but didn;t
 have time to submit it until Round2, why should the ROund1 plan get
 approved
 if its less good?
 And if one doubts the entent of an applicant, we should tell NTIA
 what we
 think. We are not only competing providers, but we are also the
 public that
 has to pay the taxes 5to fund these projects.

 I know in my State, there were numerous good applications that
 targeted
 truely needy areas, and made an effort to avoid other provider
 infrastructure. I plan to support those projects.
 For example only about 20% in my opinion were bad applications that
 would
 directly compete with me and other WISPs in their core markets.  I
 plan to
 protest that 20%.  Anyone that was smart would have avoided pre-
 existing
 providers or called them a head of time to work benefit for them
 into the
 proposal to gain their support.  If they didn't do that, they
 deserve to
 have their applications protested, in my opinion.

 As well, if a grant application covers an area that you entended on
 applying
 for in Round2, I see no problem in telling NTIA/RUS that, and
 advising that
 the Round1 funds are oversubscribed, and Round1 funds should go to
 projects
 without alledged conflict of interests first, and at minimum deny  
 the
 conflcit of interest applicants until round2, where they can be mroe
 fairly
 considered, and so there is more time to gain fact on what

Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

Well...operators in 2.5 GHz can put out up to 2 kW (E.g., 2000 Watts) EIRP at 
the tower site, have a noise floor of -100 dBm which allows them to take full 
advantage of more advanced technology, and in some cases, have access to almost 
200 MHz of spectrum

Compare that to 900 MHz, where you're limited to 4W of EIRP, have a -80 dbm 
noise floor, and a total of 24 MHz of spectrum that's being shared with 20 
other users

-Charles

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of St. Louis Broadband
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 7:06 PM
To: 'WISPA General List'
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

I am just not getting this.  We have two competitors that state that they
can provide 14 Mbps wireless broadband to a very heavily tree canopied area.
The best we could do is with 900 MHz and that would only provide 3.3 Mbps,
if luck.

How can these folks get away with such amazing statements?

Victoria

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On
Behalf Of Tom DeReggi
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 2:24 PM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

I dont have much confident in anyone gaining access to someone else's
network inexpensively, unless that network is owned by a small local
company, short in front end sales resources themselves, that truly benefits
from having other partners to drive demand.

Example... Yesterday I tried to buy capacity (7 mbps) Wholesale access to
TowerStream's broadband network for 1 day, and they quoted me $11,000 and
refused to budge.
And they had a live tower/NOC 500 yards away. The wholesale price for 1
year, would have been just as bad. Obviously, we chose another option.  To
them, its all about what the market will bear, and has absolutely nothing to

do with their cost.  Many grant winners will have the same mentality, and
the fact that they got their grant for free, will have no effect on their
pricing sctructure, or pricing structure for wholesale, or desire to even
havea wholesale offering.

The truth is, I just dont see Public traded or VC funded companies sharing
their grant funded networks ethically, regardless of the open access
requirments.
And a lot of the grant winners are likely going to be the one with financial

and investment backing.

Its different for small WISPs. Small WISPs partner with other WISPs all the
time, because there is a mutual benefit for doing so.
I sure hope some small WISPs win some grants, and maybe the wholesale
requirements of the program might actually make it to a beneficial reality.

Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL  Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband


- Original Message -
From: Robert West robert.w...@just-micro.com
To: 'WISPA General List' wireless@wispa.org
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects


 Nah, the plan they have is just to use microwave to bring it in.  A system
 of towers, is what they propose.  No fiber.  A million bucks worth of
 towers
 and radios?

 -Original Message-
 From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On
 Behalf Of Chuck Bartosch
 Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2009 10:18 AM
 To: WISPA General List
 Subject: Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

 Why not? You should be able to take advantage of that cheaper
 bandwidth too I'd think. Assuming it's a fiber build, they are going
 to have tons of excess capacity.

 Chuck

 On Sep 17, 2009, at 9:20 AM, Robert West wrote:

 In our case, our competitor applied for a shade under a million
 bucks to
 provide middle mile into the area, as in to bring cheaper broadband
 to the
 masses.  That doesn't sound like it will benefit us, the cheaper
 broadband
 is for their system.



 -Original Message-
 From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org]
 On
 Behalf Of Chuck Bartosch
 Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 6:28 PM
 To: sarn...@info-ed.com; WISPA General List
 Subject: Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

 Though it is a requirement (as Tim set out), the requirement doesn't
 really have a lot of teeth in my view. If a competitor doesn't want
 you on, they can design it so it's hard to get on.

 For example, a fiber carrier has to have an attachment point built in
 for you to attach at a given location. If there isn't one nearby, well
 tough.

 If there is an attachment point but you can't come to terms, it goes
 to arbitration. However, they aren't obligated to give you wholesale
 access...just attachment, whatever the heck that means. There just
 seems to me to be 100 ways to Sunday for a large carrier to play their
 usual games with this stuff and block the intent.

 So basically, based on the wording of the rule, it's hard to see how
 they are going to achieve the intent behind the goal unless the
 provider is willing to and

Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

They either lie or they legitimately dont know what they are doing.

Or maybe you don't know what is possible with licensed spectrum =)

For example, in the 2.5 GHz band, there are over 30 6 MHz channels available 
(e.g., almost 200 MHz of spectrum) -- we have one customer that owns/leases 
almost every channel in their respective market (I believe they're at 28 or 
so), and they have the ability to do some really cool stuff

-Charles



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Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

Hi David,

While I applaud your efforts in being involved with the broadband stimulus, it 
is my understanding that MVN.net is/was applying for stimulus funds for Round 1 
-- maybe I'm missing something, but I can't figure out how you'd be able to 
over-come the conflict of interest clauses?

-Charles

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of David E. Smith
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 11:00 AM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Searchable Map of Stimulus projects

Tom DeReggi wrote:

 Again, I jsut hope decission makers are smart enough to see the truth, and 
 grant to those with the most proven experience.

The best way to help ensure this would have been to volunteer to review 
the grants (unless, of course, you're interested in pursuing a grant 
yourself). I really hope I'm not the only WISP employee who did so.

I think it's too late to volunteer and still review the first round of 
grant applications, but there will be further rounds over the next 
several months. As there are more than a few applications asking for 
money to build out wireless, a few extra nonsense-detectors wouldn't hurt.

David Smith
MVN.net



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[WISPA] Stimulus Round 1 Application Update and some interesting analysis from the WiNOG Grants Cooperative

2009-08-27 Thread Charles Wu

Commerce and Agriculture Announce Strong Demand for First Round of Funding to 
Bring Broadband Jobs to More Americans - Nearly 2,200 Diverse Applications 
Submitted for Share of $4 Billion in Funding to Expand Broadband Access and 
Adoption

Full story available here: 
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/press/2009/BTOP_BIP_090827.html

WiNOG GC Analysis (www.winog.orghttp://www.winog.org)

Approximately $2.4 billion from RUS...is available in the first grant round

Infrastructure:


-  More than 260 applications were filed solely with NTIA's Broadband 
Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP), requesting over $5.4 billion in grants 
to fund broadband infrastructure projects in unserved and underserved areas

-  More than 400 applications were filed solely with RUS's Broadband 
Initiatives Program (BIP), requesting nearly $5 billion in grants and loans for 
broadband infrastructure projects in rural areas

-  More than 830 applications were filed with both NTIA's BTOP and 
RUS's BIP, requesting nearly $12.8 billion in infrastructure funding 
(Applicants for infrastructure projects in rural areas must apply to BIP but 
were given the opportunity to jointly apply to BTOP in case RUS declines to 
fund their application)
As Quoted from the RUS/NTIA ARRA Workshops

RUS, when providing a loan, gets to leverage their appropriation $0.072 / 
dollar (e.g., a $1 million loan only costs RUS $72,000 in appropriations)

Our Round 1 experience showed that a BTOP application represents approximately 
60% more work than a BIP application.  Coupling this information with the tight 
round 1 timeline, we conclude that applicants focused on BIP funding wouldn't 
go through the extra work of creating a dual BTOP filing and that applications 
with dual BIP/BTOP applications went that route due to the rules and were in 
general written with the with the purpose of failing BIP and moving into the 
BTOP program.
Based on this observation, we adjust our application buckets in the following 
manner

BTOP

-  Total Submissions: 1090 applications

-  Total Requested Funding: $18.2 billion
BIP

-  Total Submissions: 400 applications

-  Total Requested Funding: $5 billion
Probability of BIP Success

To qualify for RUS funding, unless one services remote unserved areas (an 
extremely low percentage), RUS requires a minimum 50/50 Loan/Grant combination. 
 Assuming that RUS award funding is distributed in this manner (normalizing for 
the 100% unserved grant solicitations and for applicants having a more 
aggressive loan/grant ratio), one can calculate some numbers and extrapolate 
that the $2.4 billion in RUS appropriations as follows


-  Average BIP Loan/Grant Combo Amount: 50/50

-  Loan to Appropriation Multiplier: $0.072 / dollar

-  Total BIP Round 1 Appropriations: $2.4 billion

-  Total Round 1 BIP Grant Monies: $2.232 billion

-  Total Round 1 BIP Loan (in Appropriated Funds): $0.168 billion

-  Total Round 1 BIP Loans Monies: $2.333 billion

-  Total Round 1 BIP Funding Available: $4.565 billion
Following these assumptions, we have a total Round 1 BIP Funding availability 
of $4.565 billion.  Assuming that 100% of dual-purpose applications will be 
rejected by BIP and adding in a 30% rejection rate of submitted applications 
(due to incomplete applications, improper documentation, lateness, etc), we 
have total Round 1 BIP Funding solicitation amount of $3.5 billion.

WGC members who followed our Round 1 Advice on their stimulus applications 
should be happy =)

-Charles


[cid:image001.jpg@01CA2724.D36D1DD0]http://www.ippay.com/

Charles Wumailto:c...@ippay.com
President
c...@ippay.commailto:c...@ippay.com
cell: 773-870-0962 * office: 847-346-0990 x2500


16W235 83rd Street, Suite A, Burr Ridge, IL 
60527http://www.converge-tech.com/www.ippay.com * tel: 847.326.0990 fax: 
847.346.0991




inline: image001.jpg


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Re: [WISPA] ITEXPO West 2009

2009-08-21 Thread Charles Wu

Kevin,

It's worth noting that there are actually 2 separate wireless tracks / shows 
within IT Expo

Ours (that we're doing with WISPA), is called WiNOG @ IT Expo -- track / 
seminar info is here: 
http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/west-2009/attendees/w09-winog-at-itexpo.htm
 -- it is a track that's going on within IT Expo -- this deals with fixed 
wireless, WISPs and issues that are related to WISPA

Collocated at IT Expo is another show more focused on 4G and wireless mobility: 
http://4g-wirelessevolution.tmcnet.com/conference/west-09/  -- that show deals 
more with mobility, LTE, 4G... .e.,g Sprint / Clearwire stuff

The nice things is everyone goes to one big exhibit booth area

-Charles

P.S. - if anyone needs / wants some extra conference passes, I have a few that 
I can give out (ping me offlist)

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of Kevin Suitor
Sent: Friday, August 21, 2009 1:13 PM
To: wireless@wispa.org
Subject: [WISPA] ITEXPO West 2009

Who is planning on attending this conference/exhibition in two weeks.  I have 
been asked to present on two topics:


a)  Use of WiMAX within the SmartGrid for Energy companies, this leverages 
off the work we have been doing with several US coops and with several of the 
major electric utilities in Canada such as Hydro One

b)  Stimulating rural WiMAX discussing why WiMAX enables effective service 
offers

I will be at the conference all three days and would be pleased to get together 
with any WISPA members that are attending to discuss face to face some of the 
new products that will be launched at 4G World in Chicago.

Cheers!
Kevin



[cid:image001.jpg@01CA2269.6DAF0EA0]
Redline Communications Inc.
Kevin Suitor
Vice President, Corporate Marketing
302 Town Centre Blvd. Markham, ON L3R 0E8 CANADA
o: +1 905.948.2299 f: +1 647.723.0451 m: +1 416.508.1252
Skype:   ksuitor
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Re: [WISPA] Joliet, IL bandwidth

2009-08-05 Thread Charles Wu

Our old WISP had a tower on the Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet (200+ foot 
monopole) with plenty (100 Mb+) of bandwidth

I believe BOB (the guys that bought my WISP) still operate that site

http://www.bobbroadband.com 

-Charles

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of Mike Hammett
Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 11:32 AM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: [WISPA] Joliet, IL bandwidth

Can anyone immediately deliver 20 megs to the Joliet, IL CO or a business off 
of that?  Short contract term is required unless terms are good.  They do have 
towers available for wireless delivery.

They've encountered problems getting their OC3 to 350 Cermak installed in a 
timely fashion.


-
Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions
http://www.ics-il.com




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Re: [WISPA] Canopy Distance

2009-07-30 Thread Charles Wu

Hi,

A 5200 SM operates in 5.2, not 5.8

The difference between 5.2 and 5.8 is FCC rules

-Charles

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of Jason Wallace
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 11:01 AM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: [WISPA] Canopy Distance

Speaking of 5.8 distance...

Does anyone know what the real world maximum distance the canopy 5200sm 
can do?  Assuming a quiet noise floor, best ap setup, etc.

Jason



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Re: [WISPA] Canopy Distance

2009-07-30 Thread Charles Wu

It's generally illegal to use a dish on a 5.2 SM

From a *theoretical* perspective, 5.2 will propagate just as good as 5.8

-Charles

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of Jason Wallace
Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 5:48 PM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Canopy Distance

Sorry, I thought I'd read in their literature that the 5200sm could 
operate at 5.8...

The 5200sm is what I am interested in.  Does anyone know what the 
maximum useful distance is with the dish mounted 5200sm like:

http://www.ojbox.com/ebay/new/5200sm-dish/5200sm-dish.htm

Jason

Charles Wu wrote:
 Hi,

 A 5200 SM operates in 5.2, not 5.8

 The difference between 5.2 and 5.8 is FCC rules

 -Charles

 -Original Message-
 From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On 
 Behalf Of Jason Wallace
 Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 11:01 AM
 To: WISPA General List
 Subject: [WISPA] Canopy Distance

 Speaking of 5.8 distance...

 Does anyone know what the real world maximum distance the canopy 5200sm 
 can do?  Assuming a quiet noise floor, best ap setup, etc.

 Jason


 
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Re: [WISPA] just attended broadband stimulus seminar and WOW.....

2009-07-28 Thread Charles Wu

With that in
mind, WISP need to think of ways that they can tap the government money
without losing their local focus.  WISPs might seriously want to consider
forming cooperatives in which a group of WISPs within a geographic region
enter into a joint venture to expand overall capacity.  Then that joint
venture can apply for stimulus money.  

Already exists: http://www.winog.org

Although one might say that I'm currently in-charge as Executive Director -- 
keep in mind, this was done because

(1) someone had to step up to the plate and get the idea going
(2) the person stepping up to the plate also had to put  behind it to make 
it a reality

That being said, this has been organized as a 501c(6) organization with the 
intention of turning things over to membership if we can get legs under it

-Charles



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[WISPA] Your FREE Webinar Invitation: Join us for You've read the NOFA...Now What?

2009-07-14 Thread Charles Wu

You've read the NOFA...Now What?

Join us for a Webinar on July 17

[http://img.gotomeeting.com/g2mimages/webinar/themes/business/button_registerNow.gif]https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/455299394

[http://img.gotomeeting.com/g2mimages/webinar/themes/business/defaultUserImage.jpg]

On July 1, 2009, the United States Federal Government released a 121 page
Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) for the $7.2 billion allocated towards
broadband stimulus. On July 9, 2009, the NOFA was published in Vol. 74, No.
130 of the Federal Register. The application for both the RUS BIP and NTIA
BTOP programs are now available for download at
http://broadbandusa.sc.egov.usda.gov/download_app.htm.

Ironically, all this information has just created more questions.

This 60 minute presentation by the WiNOG Grants Cooperative will cover the
following:

1. Overview of the BIP/BTOP programs (this will be brief as familiarity with
the NOFA is assumed)
2. Overview of the BIP/BTOP infrastructure applications
3. Overview of the BIP/BTOP post-application audit process
4. Clarification of some of the more ambiguous NOFA definitions, including
service areas, census blocks, unserved/underserved, in-kind match...
5. Which program (BIP vs. BTOP) should I apply for?
6. I don't know anything about applying to governmental programs, are there any
solutions that can help me

About the WiNOG Grants Cooperative

The WiNOG Grants Cooperative is a not for profit (NFP) business association
that was established to help rural broadband providers take advantage of
Broadband Stimulus Program Funding. We were formed to pool the collective
resources of small service providers to increase the probability of obtaining
stimulus funding awards. Our goal is to work together to reduce the
administrative costs of applying for and implementing broadband stimulus
projects.

More information on the WiNOG Grants Cooperative can be found at
http://www.winog.org

Title:

You've read the NOFA...Now What?

Date:

Friday, July 17, 2009

Time:

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM CDT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information
about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows(r) 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh(r)-based attendees
Required: Mac OS(r) X 10.4 (Tiger(r)) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/455299394

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Re: [WISPA] NTIA Seeks Volunteers to Review Broadband Applications

2009-07-10 Thread Charles Wu

Well...it's better than the idea of reassigning people from the fish and 
wildlife to read BTOP applications (we've been talking to NTIA, and I kid you 
not, this was one of the ideas thrown out)

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of Israel Lopez-LISTS
Sent: Thursday, July 09, 2009 4:20 PM
To: 'WISPA General List'
Subject: [WISPA] NTIA Seeks Volunteers to Review Broadband Applications

Did you guys hear about this?
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/070909-ntia-seeks-volunteers-to-review.html?page=1

Some people think its scary, but I think if done with enough guidance 
Volunteer Reviewers could cull a lot of crap out of this program 
applications.

-Israel

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[WISPA] SBA ARC Loans

2009-06-27 Thread Charles Wu

As a non-bank financial institution, we (IP Pay side) are investigating the 
possibility of offering this product to help pay off newly qualifying debts 
to the CTI side of the business =)

Would there be any interest in the WISP community?

SBA ARC Loan Program

If your small business is stressed meeting expenses during these economic 
times, the U.S. Small Business Administration has a new loan program designed 
just for you. 

SBA's America's Recovery Capital Loan Program can provide up to $35,000 in 
short-term relief for viable small businesses facing immediate financial 
hardship to help ride out the current uncertain economic times and return to 
profitability.  Each small business is limited to one ARC loan.

ARC loans can be used to make payments of principal and interest, in full or in 
part, on one or more existing, qualifying small business loans for up to six 
months. ARC loans provide an immediate infusion of capital to small businesses 
to assist with making payments of principal and interest on existing debt.  
These loans allow borrowers to redirect cash flow from making loan payments to 
investing in their businesses, to help sustain the business and retain jobs.  
For example, making loan payments on existing loans with proceeds from an ARC 
loan can allow a business to focus more funds on core operations, such as 
buying inventory or making payroll. 

ARC loans are interest-free to the borrower and require no fees paid to SBA.  
Loan proceeds are provided over a six-month period and repayment of the ARC 
loan principal is deferred for 12 months after the last disbursement of the 
proceeds.  Repayment can extend up to five years.

http://www.sba.gov/recovery/arcloanprogram/index.html

Let me know your thoughts

-Charles



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Re: [WISPA] OT, pesky email stuff

2009-06-26 Thread Charles Wu

There are a bunch of companies that will outsource it for cheap -- for 
example...I know IKANO is reselling a branded gmail interface (e.g., you get 
all the functionality of Gmail and GApps but with your domain)

-Charles

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of Marlon K. Schafer
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 10:33 AM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: [WISPA] OT, pesky email stuff

Hi All,

What are you guys doing for email these days?  I LOVE my setup for it's 
reliability, ease of use etc.

Hacked customer accounts and virus's are killing me though.  We don't catch 
things until 100,000s of messages go out and we get black listed.  This has 
now happened 3 or 4 times in the last couple of years.

My server admins aren't coming up with a solution to this other than to 
limit cc's to 25 per message.  We did that once before and my phone rang off 
the hook because people can't send jokes to their friends.

The other thing that makes it hard is that the log files that I get (up to 
40 megs per day!) don't list the authenticated sender, only the reply 
address.  So I see tens of thousands of messages from a user that's not even 
mine (faked info).  sigh

We use Courier MTA.

My thought is to set the server to allow a max of 1000 messages per day per 
user.  And to somehow make the log file ONLY send me the number of messages 
received per a user, and the number sent, user name and ip addy of all those 
sending.  Twice now I've asked about that idea and gotten no response from 
the server admins.

Suggestions?

laters,
marlon




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Re: [WISPA] OSPF and BGP for Internal Network

2009-06-13 Thread Charles Wu

Dynamic route redistribution if your network is sufficiently complex and you 
have customers that you are servicing bgp to that you want to protect from 
intra-network failure

-Charles

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of Gino Villarini
Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2009 2:50 PM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: [WISPA] OSPF and BGP for Internal Network

What are the bennefits of running both protocols in the internal
network?
 

Gino A. Villarini 
g...@aeronetpr.com 
Aeronet Wireless Broadband Corp. 
tel  787.273.4143   fax   787.273.4145 

 



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Re: [WISPA] Quesiton on Funding / Financing / Capital Availability

2009-06-03 Thread Charles Wu

Yep, me too. Right out of the starting gates over 10 years ago, straight with 
S-Corp. Too much stupid s**t too be sued over by being a service provider. 
For instance... Oh, your child saw porn? Maybe you should be watching over 
your child instead of trying to screw me out of every penny I own? Or... 
there were three companies products that YOU could have bought to protect 
your children from seeing that!

Heh...we used to joke that our ISP was responsible for destroying billions of 
dollars of value in missed stock trades and market timings =)

-Charles




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Re: [WISPA] Magento Commerce

2009-05-29 Thread Charles Wu

We (IP Pay) have a pre-integrated / written module for Magento =)

-Charles

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of Mike Hammett
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2009 2:47 PM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: [WISPA] Magento Commerce

Has anyone ever used Magento Commerce?


-
Mike Hammett
Intelligent Computing Solutions
http://www.ics-il.com




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Re: [WISPA] Cell phone with wifi?

2009-05-27 Thread Charles Wu

My iphone has a SIP client that can do this

-Original Message-
From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf 
Of George Rogato
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 5:12 PM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: [WISPA] Cell phone with wifi?

Is there a cell phone that can connect to someones wifi ap and still 
make phone calls or recieve data when not in range of the cell service?

Thanks





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Re: [WISPA] Quesiton on Funding / Financing / Capital Availability

All I can say is if you are holding back on doing more installs because you 
can't afford it, you need to find some financing and get installing. Once that 
customer is installed with something else (DSL, Cable, competitor), it's 10x 
harder to get them to switch to you. You have to get the customers NOW.

Now that's a more interesting discussion

What's the business plan for customer acquisition?  Do you still keep building 
out into unserved areas (e.g., first to market)?

At this point, I would guess that most areas have competition - so then is the 
business model based upon arbitraging attrition and moves?

e.g., the average American moves every 7 years - so that means 12% of the 
population is available yearly as a new customer

So, say you have 5,000 customers in a market of 100,000

You'll churn 1%  / month (50) - but there's a market of new adds of 1,000 
customers every month due to just organic moving activity...so assuming 20% 
market share, market equilibrium would be 20,000 subscribers

Not necessarily a bad thing =)

That said, I'd be curious to talk about secret sauce methods to convert 
customers from the competition

-Charles



Charles Wu wrote:

Hi Scott,



Regarding debt...I've found that there's a scale inflection point in running 
a WISP (or any business for the matter) that needs to be reached -- the main 
purpose for taking on debt (because due to interest, you end up paying more in 
the longer term instead of buying cash), is to accelerate growth so one can 
progress beyond this point



e.g., if you can organically fund 30 new installs a month with cash, if you 
take on debt, you could leverage yourself and now do 100 installs / month



Now, from a business perspective -- in looking at the WISP



As a stand-alone sustainable business -- it costs a minimum of about $30k / 
month to operate a small WISP -- now, I'll argue that that $30k/month in 
operations remains relatively constant and whether it's supporting 300, 800 or 
1500 customers -- however, at 300 customers, the business is bleeding cash...at 
800 customers the business is just about at a break-even, and at 1500 
customers, the business is a cash machine



-Charles



-Original Message-

From: wireless-boun...@wispa.orgmailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org 
[mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Scott Reed

Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 4:20 PM

To: WISPA General List

Subject: Re: [WISPA] Quesiton on Funding / Financing / Capital Availability



So I will take option 4 from a previous post since Travis made the point.

Up to 60 months with $1 buyout is the same as a 5 year bank loan.

I want to run debt free as soon a possible.  That being the case I don't

lease and have not leased to keep debt down.  I do have a start-up loan

that is being paid on a little slower than I would like, but we have

paid off 1/2 of it in  5 years and based on our payments, we are cash

flow positive.

Granted, my WISP is a lot smaller than many that post here and our

growth rate is small, but some of that is managing growth to stay

cash-flow positive.

I have seen several companies die because they became cash rich, but

still could not cover the debt.



Travis Johnson wrote:



The banks can sell a car with little effort. They already have

relationships with dealers and auctions. And often, if the consumer's

credit is questionable, the dealer will guarantee to take the car back

if the loan defaults.



Who is going to buy a $10,000 radio that has been repo'd? Even for

$5k, I wouldn't touch it. I'd buy a new radio with warranty, that I

know is good and hasn't been fried or broken.



The banks will never loan on the equipment alone. There is no security

there... but again, why do you need a bank loan for equipment when you

can just lease it and get the same results? Up to 60 months with $1

buyout is the same as a 5 year bank loan. What's the difference?



Travis

Microserv



Tom DeReggi wrote:



Maybe when talking about CPE.



But what about when one is talking about a $10,000 Part101 radio?



Just like a car, all that the lender should need is to hold the title of

the radio until paid off, and get a down payment of $2000 to cover the cost

of tower climber/repo man, and a signed letter of authorization from lanlord

stating the location of the tower gear is installed on and they acknowledge

that the gear is not abandoned equipment. (So it does not automatically

become property of landlord in 4 months, and teh landlord knows the

equipment owner has first rights to the gear).



Think about it... Wouldn't repo costs be reduced when the repo man knows

exactly where to find the radio? A car can easilly be relocated and

hard-to-find, when the owner skips town.

Plus the home likely has an owner with a shot gun or a big dog, which the

tower/MTU likely does not.  The MTU building might even have a security

guard to escort teh lender safely to the roof :-)





Tom DeReggi

RapidDSL  Wireless, Inc

Re: [WISPA] Quesiton on Funding / Financing / Capital Availability

Marlon,

Charles, your numbers are WAY off there.

You can't base your numbers on the fact that you're willing to be on call 24x7, 
work 12 hour days 7 days / week as a function of normal business operations 
-- it simply isn't sustainable from a long term perspective

Eventually, your wife WILL leave you if you keep this up (on a side note, one 
of the biggest reasons I've seen for small WISPs selling out is the wife factor 
=)

If you were to replace yourself with normal employees that work 8-5 and who 
make market wages, you'd probably discover that your labor costs will go up 
$!0-15k / month (I would argue that you probably personally do the work of 3 
people in your company)

By the time I hit 600 to 800 subs I'm gonna need some help.  Hiring that
person will suck big time because I won't have enough work for them right
away.  That move alone will likely cut my margin down to nearly nothing for
a couple of years.

After you factor in your time / opportunity cost / resources / overhead / time 
spent training -- you will spend an additional 2x an employee's salary during 
the first 6 months of employment trying to get them trained up and productive 
-- and then, there's a good chance they just don't work out =)

-Charles


- Original Message -
From: Charles Wu c...@cticonnect.com
To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 8:07 PM
Subject: Re: [WISPA] Quesiton on Funding / Financing / Capital Availability


 Hi Scott,

 Regarding debt...I've found that there's a scale inflection point in
 running a WISP (or any business for the matter) that needs to be
 reached -- the main purpose for taking on debt (because due to interest,
 you end up paying more in the longer term instead of buying cash), is to
 accelerate growth so one can progress beyond this point

 e.g., if you can organically fund 30 new installs a month with cash, if
 you take on debt, you could leverage yourself and now do 100 installs /
 month

 Now, from a business perspective -- in looking at the WISP

 As a stand-alone sustainable business -- it costs a minimum of about $30k
 / month to operate a small WISP -- now, I'll argue that that $30k/month in
 operations remains relatively constant and whether it's supporting 300,
 800 or 1500 customers -- however, at 300 customers, the business is
 bleeding cash...at 800 customers the business is just about at a
 break-even, and at 1500 customers, the business is a cash machine

 -Charles

 -Original Message-
 From: wireless-boun...@wispa.org [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On
 Behalf Of Scott Reed
 Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 4:20 PM
 To: WISPA General List
 Subject: Re: [WISPA] Quesiton on Funding / Financing / Capital
 Availability

 So I will take option 4 from a previous post since Travis made the point.
 Up to 60 months with $1 buyout is the same as a 5 year bank loan.
 I want to run debt free as soon a possible.  That being the case I don't
 lease and have not leased to keep debt down.  I do have a start-up loan
 that is being paid on a little slower than I would like, but we have
 paid off 1/2 of it in  5 years and based on our payments, we are cash
 flow positive.
 Granted, my WISP is a lot smaller than many that post here and our
 growth rate is small, but some of that is managing growth to stay
 cash-flow positive.
 I have seen several companies die because they became cash rich, but
 still could not cover the debt.

 Travis Johnson wrote:
 The banks can sell a car with little effort. They already have
 relationships with dealers and auctions. And often, if the consumer's
 credit is questionable, the dealer will guarantee to take the car back
 if the loan defaults.

 Who is going to buy a $10,000 radio that has been repo'd? Even for
 $5k, I wouldn't touch it. I'd buy a new radio with warranty, that I
 know is good and hasn't been fried or broken.

 The banks will never loan on the equipment alone. There is no security
 there... but again, why do you need a bank loan for equipment when you
 can just lease it and get the same results? Up to 60 months with $1
 buyout is the same as a 5 year bank loan. What's the difference?

 Travis
 Microserv

 Tom DeReggi wrote:
 Maybe when talking about CPE.

 But what about when one is talking about a $10,000 Part101 radio?

 Just like a car, all that the lender should need is to hold the title
 of
 the radio until paid off, and get a down payment of $2000 to cover the
 cost
 of tower climber/repo man, and a signed letter of authorization from
 lanlord
 stating the location of the tower gear is installed on and they
 acknowledge
 that the gear is not abandoned equipment. (So it does not automatically
 become property of landlord in 4 months, and teh landlord knows the
 equipment owner has first rights to the gear).

 Think about it... Wouldn't repo costs be reduced when the repo man knows
 exactly where to find the radio? A car can easilly be relocated and
 hard-to-find, when the owner skips town.
 Plus

Re: [WISPA] Broadband Stimulus Allocations?

Hi Scott,

What has WISPA came up with to help WISP's get in on the broadband stimulus 
package? Throw me some bait? As I promised before, my membership fees(after 
tax season) are sitting here... give me something to bite. Not being an A**, 
but I belonged to one place(not WISPA), but didn't get much out of it.

I did receive an invitation from Double Radius to help me get in on this. Just 
wanting to know if WISPA got anything going on, before I jump on that 
opportunity? One of my regular suppliers that I trust.

From someone who's successfully navigated this process in various iterations, 
the process of putting in an application for government funding (be it 
RUS/NTIA/etc) is something that's measured in inches of thickness of paper and 
months (or years) of labor -- at the last ISPCON, Donny Bell, a WISP out of 
Minnesota mentioned that he spent in excess of $250k in time / effort / 
manpower / legal fees for his first RUS loan application -- and was denied!

Keep in mind too, if you take a look at the comments on the stimulus funding, 
there were thousands of comments (and many from people with deep pockets and 
plenty of lawyers and DC lobbying) -- the competition for this money will be, 
IMO, incredibly stiff and will require a full-time expensive, sustained effort 
if you even want to have a chance to win

I think it's a bit unrealistic to expect $250 / year in dues to provide you a 
turn-key solution for grant funding

That said, for your information -- here's a link to the latest in BTOP updates: 
http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/program-planprogram_id=5517#schedule

-Charles

-- Original Message --
From: RickG rgunder...@gmail.com
Reply-To: WISPA General List wireless@wispa.org
Date:  Sun, 24 May 2009 13:00:41 -0400

I find the secret sauce of converting a customer a very interesting
subject as well. For the most part nearly every WISP I have run had a
monopoly. The ones that didnt had a niche of some kind. My first
owner/operator venture was not good because it was in a highly
competitive market and I could not overcome the go with the big
company mentality. My customers said I gave great service but even
they succumbed to price. Therefore, I sold that and went back to the
monopoly world (read boondocks). Even here, I eventually expect
competition to enter my market. It would be nice to know the secret
sauce so I can be better prepared for that day.

-RickG

On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 9:33 AM, Charles Wu c...@cticonnect.com wrote:
All I can say is if you are holding back on doing more installs because 
you can't afford it, you need to find some financing and get installing. 
Once that customer is installed with something else (DSL, Cable, 
competitor), it's 10x harder to get them to switch to you. You have to get 
the customers NOW.

 Now that's a more interesting discussion

 What's the business plan for customer acquisition?  Do you still keep 
 building out into unserved areas (e.g., first to market)?

 At this point, I would guess that most areas have competition - so then is 
 the business model based upon arbitraging attrition and moves?

 e.g., the average American moves every 7 years - so that means 12% of the 
 population is available yearly as a new customer

 So, say you have 5,000 customers in a market of 100,000

 You'll churn 1%  / month (50) - but there's a market of new adds of 1,000 
 customers every month due to just organic moving activity...so assuming 20% 
 market share, market equilibrium would be 20,000 subscribers

 Not necessarily a bad thing =)

 That said, I'd be curious to talk about secret sauce methods to convert 
 customers from the competition

 -Charles



 Charles Wu wrote:

 Hi Scott,



 Regarding debt...I've found that there's a scale inflection point in 
 running a WISP (or any business for the matter) that needs to be reached -- 
 the main purpose for taking on debt (because due to interest, you end up 
 paying more in the longer term instead of buying cash), is to accelerate 
 growth so one can progress beyond this point



 e.g., if you can organically fund 30 new installs a month with cash, if you 
 take on debt, you could leverage yourself and now do 100 installs / month



 Now, from a business perspective -- in looking at the WISP



 As a stand-alone sustainable business -- it costs a minimum of about $30k / 
 month to operate a small WISP -- now, I'll argue that that $30k/month in 
 operations remains relatively constant and whether it's supporting 300, 800 
 or 1500 customers -- however, at 300 customers, the business is bleeding 
 cash...at 800 customers the business is just about at a break-even, and at 
 1500 customers, the business is a cash machine



 -Charles



 -Original Message-

 From: wireless-boun...@wispa.orgmailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org 
 [mailto:wireless-boun...@wispa.org] On Behalf Of Scott Reed

 Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 4:20 PM

 To: WISPA General List

 Subject: Re

Re: [WISPA] Quesiton on Funding / Financing / Capital Availability