One thing that you must understand, this is a completely different type of business model
The Winstar/FiberTower/etc model is wall street play; keep in mind, while the business may fail miserably, it's worth noting that the original founders / VCs generally end up doing quite well Case in point, a buddy of mine just got funding...before, he had a nicely cash-flowing WISP (~$100k MRC) -- and he still had room to grow on his network -- however, under the realization that it wasn't of any scale to sell for big money, he has recently sold out to a VC firm for $3 million. Now that he's got the $$$$ in his checking account, he has to spend it building new towers / expanding just for "show" -- even though he could easily triple his revenue on existing towers / infrastructure alone. However, his goal is to sell on "hype" to a big carrier / telco / etc in the near future -Charles ------------------------------------------- WiNOG Wireless Roadshows Coming to a City Near You http://www.winog.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dustin Jurman Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 7:27 PM To: 'WISPA General List' Subject: RE: [WISPA] Industry failings Importance: High Well I guess we all learned something different from Winstar. I can think of a bunch of other things, I surely have never thought that a 10 year ROI was a valuable lesson to be learned from them when they clearly made more grave mistakes. As far as American Tower is concerned, Fantastic! To have a tower company in your back pocket, we'd all kill for that one. Funny thing is I haven't seen them on very many American sites, but I have seen them on everyone else's. Doesn't matter where I am at, I'm always looking up and counting equipment hanging in the air. I've seen a lot of good and a lot of bad. I also make it a point to speak with everyone going in and out of tower sites and the local groups that support them. Like I said, I run into these guys quite a bit at a lot of different sites. Time will tell how they monetize the network. I'm just pointing out that a lot of folks in this industry have a very different viewpoint on fibertower, and they can do a lot of good for legitimizing the industry which I believe was the original intent. Dustin -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Matt Liotta Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 1:55 PM To: WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] Industry failings Dustin Jurman wrote: > Being an ISP you understand build out costs, some put a lot more into > a site > than others. We'd probably do things a little differently, maybe not. > Here is what I do know. > > WinStar's plan assumed a 10 year ROI on a site. In hindsight that seems rather foolish now, but back then they convinced people it made sense. > 2. They seem to have very good dealings with all of the tower > companies which gets them bulk pricing, reduced costs, etc.. > American Tower is a major shareholder, so this should be expected. > 6. Look how many sites they have built in a year. It's sick... > Look how few they have monetized. It's sick... > 7. We all know that once you build a site it takes some time to > monetize them, they seem a little behind but maybe not. > Very behind! > 8. Wall street will keep feeding them as long as they are executing, > and they are doing a good job of that. > Who says they are executing? Good installs, good equipment, lots of sites built, and happy customers are all important things, but none of them mean they are executing well. They actually need to execute against their business plan, which includes things like cash flow and profitability. Both currently stink. -Matt -- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
