----- Original Message ----- From: "Charles Wu" <c...@cticonnect.com> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 8:49 AM Subject: [WISPA] Quesiton on Funding / Financing / Capital Availability
> With all the hype being generated by the stimulus bill, we have been > approached by a multitude of third party financial organizations that have > a renewed interest in potentially financing rural broadband...now, > specifically, for WISPs, in the past, equipment leasing has been a very > popular option for financing, but in looking at our numbers over the past > year, I've noticed a marked decline in the amount of leasing that we do - > that said, I have the following questions for the listserv about financing > > Assuming that WISPs are still need to buy equipment... > > 1. Are you able to just purchase equipment out of cash-flow organically > generated from operations Much more so than we were able to in the past. > 2. Have you gone to more traditional forms of money (e.g., bank / SBA / > RUS loans)? We almost always went bank loans instead of leasing. Leasing is a major PITA as far as I'm concerned. I've never had one, well maybe one, that ended the way it was supposed to and without a TON of work on my side. One of the most successful mechanisms I've used is customer loans. They give me the money I need to get to their area and I give them free internet till it's paid back plus 10% interest (not per year, just 10%). They get internet sooner, I get customers sooner. Win win. > 3. Are you doing more vendor leasing programs (e.g., Motorola 3% financing > deal) Nope. Never have done that. Not yet anyway. > 4. Have you not been able to borrow money due to the credit crunch (e.g., > not deploying as aggressively) That's always been a problem for us. We started deeply in debt and our hardware sucks for collateral. The up side to that is that I've had to have VERY solid business cases in place to get loans. That's helped keep my from borrowing myself out of business. Something I've seen more than one company do. > 5. Are you holding off on deployments because of the economy No way. Out here things are booming! > 6. Have you gone to Agility...<cough> Louie the loanshark =) Not yet. Been tempted though! > > Or any other thoughts / comments on this topic? Many of the markets I have left to cover don't lend them selves to loans at all well. They are too small and the money can either go into equipment and other overhead or to loan payment. It'll be hard to do both and make any money. marlon > > -Charles > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
