Matt,
Nice post. This is exactly what the two-way radio, paging and
cellular/pcs
industries did. For those of us who were around to witness that, this is
familiar territory. If you need some tools to help you manage your big
projects hit me off list. Might be able to save you some hair pulling and
white knuckle times. You'll have fun managing the fast paced large projects.
It's real fun to see things come to completion in such a short time after
you had to fight over a very long period the first time.
Thank You,
Brian Webster
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Larsen - Lists [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2007 3:20 AM
To: WISPA General List
Subject: Re: [WISPA] way OT: Did I mention I love the WISP business?
Um....thanks Patrick. :^) I'm not afraid to appreciate you for what
you have done for us and the challenge you put before us.
With regards to the "big money" types, I have some additional
perspective from a slightly different viewpoint.
The big money is definitely coming in this direction. Two years ago
there were suits sniffing around. Last year, a lot of little guys
started to get consolidated into bigger operators. This year you will
see massive investment start by existing companies, and probably a few
startups with lots of money behind them.
I thought that I had built a fairly large WISP operation. 50 or APs,
covering about 40,000 square miles, good back office operation, steadily
growing subscriber base. It took me three years to get there, and that
was putting in a lot of late nights and maxing the credit cards and
banker's patience to get it done.
One of my consulting clients is building a network about the same size
as mine, covering about the same amount of area and offering a very
similar set of services. The difference is they will have it done
within 90 days. 90 FRICKIN DAYS!!!! Money, human resources and
existing infrastructure are all being leveraged into the creation of an
uber-WISP that represents a pretty natural and seamless evolution of
what most WISPs have been doing for a few years now. On their scale,
it makes total financial sense - this scale seems huge to me, but it
fits under their "misc expenses" line item to them - sort of an
interesting side bet that everyone is watching. If the initial
deployment goes well, there are 400+ more towers in the plan. Its a
little daunting, but I'm not one to back down from an interesting
challenge. Sometimes I think that WISP operators were just
"beta-testers" for the business model that is about to hit our industry
and turn it from a hobby business into a money machine.
There are other models out there, but I think the unlicensed one is
going to have more legs than the others. Even if we don't get more
unlicensed spectrum, innovations like 5mhz channels and more intelligent
radios are going to give us the functional equivalent of a lot more
spectrum. Once 5.4-5.6 is added into the mix, there will be something
like 60 non-overlapping channels of unlicensed spectrum available with
5mhz channels. With all of the skills that we have been honing over
the last few years learning how to deal with interference and work
around others, this should give us enough capacity to meet the demand of
customers, and just as importantly the investors who want to see a plan
for growth. I would put that up against just about any licensed
broadband wireless plan out there, save possibly the ones aimed at the
very high end market.
Kevin Suitor from Redline once told me that this is a seven year
industry (I think that was the right number of years, but I could be
wrong). He said that the first couple of years would be fun, with a lot
of new blood and new ideas. Then the weaker ones would drop out and
consolidation would start as the industry started to mature. Then the
big guys would start buying out the consolidators and building up their
own networks. And by year seven it will be a commoditized and boring
business, with stable cash flows and standardized services/technology.
Then it will be time to find something else to do.
I am still operating my WISP operation, but I am also leveraging the
skills from the last few years to maximize my opportunity in the
wireless broadband industry. I know of lots of other WISPs that are
doing the same thing, and hopefully there will be plenty of reward for
our work. We should all be aware of what is coming and what we can do
to make the best of it.
Good night, and good luck,
Matt Larsen
vistabeam.com
Patrick Leary wrote:
> Fair warning, a post like this reflects a large ego by its very nature,
> but it comes from a committed champion of WISPs none-the-less....For
> God's sake, please don't post any "thanks for your efforts" type
> replies. I'm not fishing for them or public appreciation in general,
> though I do appreciate the thoughts of those so inclined. Those inclined
> to be critical, go for it, but offlist is best as this post is
> gag-worthy as it is. I just wanted to fully explain why I do what I do,
> wrong or not.
>
>
>
> So after all this rancor and railing, I wanted to close today with a
> post about some of things I love about this business and WISPs in
> particular. Let me explain it by telling you that for me it is not
> unlike when I was an enlisted soldier in the Army (alas, too many years
> ago). In the military one lives among people from all walks of life; it
> was the rule, not the exception, that even in a unit as small as any one
> platoon I'd be among former inner-city gang bangers, cowboys, country
> boys, beach bums, suburban college drop-outs (I was one of those at the
> time), hillbillies, former refugees, and a few Puerto Ricans and
> Samoans. Outside of the service, we had little in common, or less. But
> there we all wore green. We all toiled in the paradoxical boredom of
> maintain gear and training, largely in the hope that we'd really never
> need to use those things we kept squared away.
>
> My brothers-in-arms could get on my nerves second only to my little
> brother, and I often found myself apologizing to the locals overseas in
> the wake of my peers' youthful boorishness and cluelessness about
> offending our host nationals. But put those guys together and they could
> do anything, they could build a machine from the dirt; they could solve
> any problem. I discovered among them artists, musicians, and any number
> of wonderous talents. I would have fought alongside with any of them
> (well, almost) and Lord knows I broke up more fights than I can remember
> many a late night out, as happens when young, fit and hard-partying men
> get bored and get stupid. But because I loved and respected them, I
> challenged them and did what I could to pull out their excellence. The
> camaraderie and sense of mission we shared was indescribable, as were
> the frustrations and conflicts engendered by the nature of tasks and
> mission.
>
> This market and WISPs are not unlike that to me. I have the great joy of
> meeting, knowing, and working with some of the most interesting people
> imaginable. WISPs are people that by sheer force of their will and
> stubbornness create their own realities. You are not corporate
> automatons working just some job to earn your 3 hots and a cot. You
> genuinely care about your communities, and with rare exceptions, you are
> not just looking for the quick hit off the backs of those your service.
> I get that, have always gotten that and I get enormous professional and
> personal satisfaction knowing I am playing and have played a not
> inconsequential role in literally nurturing this market. I've had the
> joy of witnessing and participating in the growth of many, many WISPs
> regardless of their vendor affiliation - complex and passionate people
> like John Scrivner, aka Scriv, from his first moments in this business
> to his current role as WISP sage and literal grandfather. This market
> and my work have earned me the friendships of a fantastic cast of
> characters that enrich my life on a daily basis.
>
> I live here in the vendor world though, and while I appreciate you may
> have perspectives to which I cannot have, I am also daily witness to
> what is happening in the other sides of this business, the really big
> money rolling in. And while I know many of you are happy to remain
> small, and there is zero wrong with and nothing to disparage about that,
> some of that money IS going to some of your peers who have who have
> decided they want to break out of the I'm-just-a-little-guy mindset
> enough to actually do it. Nothing but you prevents any of you that would
> like to do the same from doing it. It is all about your choices and your
> desire. That should be empowering. Your success is NOT in the hands of
> the FCC or any other entity; it's in your hands.
>
> I've been here a long time in this space and I watch with some measure
> of pain as the WISP community at large has a hell of a time learning
> from its mistakes. I have my very first posts archived about an FCC I
> intentionally started on the old isp-wireless list (there was no other)
> back in April of 2000 and the issues are just the same. The same
> characteristics that makes WISPs can-do and self-sufficient is the same
> thing that fosters a fatal flaw - that's an abject refusal by so many to
> accept authority or otherwise conform to certain norms. WISPs are sort
> of like guerillas and in the event you can manage to organize long
> enough to defeat the disciplined forces that threaten you, or at least
> carve out a solid niche, your nature makes you prone then to again
> factionalize (like we've seen happen before). I want to do what I can to
> lift WISPs out of that and to become a disciplined force in your own
> right, a goal I know WISPA shares (which was why I was the first paying
> vendor member).
>
> I know I've a none-to-small arrogance and ego to even make this sort of
> post. But the fact is you I care enough and respect you people enough to
> tell it like it is from my learned view, for better or worse. I know
> first hand that most of my peers have long since been told by their
> employers, "Stay off the lists!" out of their company's perceived
> self-interest and because they don't have the stomach for it. In my view
> it is a credit to my company that it allows me this unfiltered dialogue
> with you. I will not tell you what is comfortable, but untrue, just to
> schlep another radio. I'm here to build an industry and to drive that
> industry to the fore of telecom. The part of that industry I've chosen
> is all WISP all the time. YOU have my full attention. And while I'm no
> altruist, I damned sure don't do this (engage WISPs at this level of
> commitment) just in the hopes that one day I can plant an Alvarion flag
> atop WISP Mountain. I do this so that one day I can look back with
> sinful pride and say, if only to myself, "Look at what I helped to
> build!" and that I did it with total commitment, honor, and
> fearlessness, no stone left unturned in the effort, no idea left
> untested. And if that occasionally means trying to wrestle some of you
> into being more professional operators (yes, in my subjective, but
> knowledgeable judgment), NOT into submission, then I'm going to try from
> time to time.
>
> Have a good night. Tomorrow I'll keep it light.
>
> Patrick Leary
> ****A V P W I S P**** Markets
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> This footnote confirms that this email message has been scanned by
> PineApp Mail-SeCure for the presence of malicious code, vandals & computer
viruses.
>
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>
>
>
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