HYPERLINK "http://www.wispa.org/?p=129"Travis Johnson and Microserv Technologies awarded 2007 WISPA Best WISP Operator Award
Recently WISPA held its biannual reception at the ISPCON conference in San Jose, California. The highlight of this reception was the announcement of the winner of the Best WISP Operator Award. This year’s selection was Travis Johnson of Microserv Technologies in Idaho Falls, Idaho. WISPA President Matt Larsen awarded Travis with a plaque and commended him on his dedication and fine service to the industry and his customers. Last year, Mac Dearman won the first award. In the photo below, Mac is shown congratulating Travis on the award. Microserv began as a dial-up ISP in 1994 in Idaho Falls, Idaho, population 45,000. In our region, phone calls only 15 miles away from our main POP were considered long-distance, so we began installing small, local dial-up POPs to cover these areas. In 1997, we discovered the magic of wireless internet. We began by using Lucent Wavelan 900mhz ISA cards installed in PC’s running a DOS based routing program. The service was sold as “up to T1 speed” and was easily sold to businesses that were paying four times as much for their T1. Our next wireless path began by using Lucent Orinoco PCMCIA cards installed in ISA adapters. These used 2.4ghz and were able to deliver up to 5Mbps of bandwidth. We began growing our wireless footprint to include more and more areas, based on getting access to more and more towers. At this point we had hundreds of wireless customers, but were beginning to run out of spectrum. It was around 2001 when we heard of a new wireless company called Sunstream Wireless. They were beta testing a new 5.8ghz product that would deliver 10Mbps at the AP and to each customer. We quickly became a beta tester and began installing radios. The company was then forced to change their name, so they went back to their parent company name of Trango. We continued to grow and expand using Trango products. We currently have 900mhz, 2.4ghz, 5.3ghz and 5.8ghz Trango products. Our network now consists of 65 wireless towers with over 150 AP’s. All of our towers are backhauled to our main NOC in Idaho Falls using point to point radios using 5.3ghz, 5.8ghz, 18ghz (licensed) and 38ghz. We cover from the Utah border to Island Park, Idaho (200 miles north to south) and from Arco, Idaho to Jackson Hole, Wyoming (150 miles east to west). Microserv now consists of 25 employees. We provide wireless, DSL and fiber internet access along with web hosting, PC repair and on-site network support. We are a small company and every employee is valued. Our strength is our customer service and local support. We are locally owned and operated with no outside influence or investors. We enjoy living in our small community and look forward to providing the best internet service available. WISPA is a 501c6 Not-For-Profit Trade Association representing wireless Internet providers in the US and other countries. The association lobbies the FCC, Federal Government and State Governments for positive influences on wireless industry regulation. The association is owned by its membership and is governed by an elected Board of Directors. WISPA also held a raffle of many vendor donated items at the reception. The raffle was very well received and obtained much needed recognition for the vendor contributors. Membership in WISPA can be achieved by going to http://signup.wispa.org and filling out the form. A representative of WISPA will contact each potential member to verify information and discuss which membership level is appropriate and what you think WISPA can do for you. No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.15.5/1085 - Release Date: 10/22/2007 10:35 AM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** Join us at the WISPA Reception at 6:30 PM on October the 16th 2007 at ISPCON ** ** ISPCON Fall 2007 - October 16-18 - San Jose, CA www.ispcon.com ** ** THE INTERNET INDUSTRY EVENT ** ** FREE Exhibits and Events Pass available until August 31 ** ** Use Customer Code WSEMF7 when you register online at http://www.ispcon.com/register.php ** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
