Nuts & Volts - July 2005

Tech Forum

wireless alternative. I live about eight miles out of town, and we did a business case study. In the subdivision I live in, there are about 30 homes clustered. I contacted every home owner in the subdivision, but only three showed any interest to the point of committing to high speed for around $30-$50 a month. We were surprised on how few people in a rather affluent area showed no interest whatsoever in high speed, even though many of them (probably at least 50-60%) use dial-up daily. So, we had to base our business model on net revenue of $150.00 a month, with me providing electricity, tower space, and the ISP doing the same gratis.

I have a 60 foot ham tower in the back yard. We both went in half, and purchased a microwave radio back bone made especially for point-to-point ISPs.

We both agreed to try and limit the cost to less than $2,000.00 apiece in capital outlay, with me paying for the link on my end, and the ISP on the other.

This ISP already has a backbone Internet connection, so that cost was underwritten by him. Most other hams will have to pay more than $100.00 a month for just the connection to an Internet backbone.

Unfortunately, we could not make the eight mile hop with antennas in our price range on a 60' tower on this end and a 12 story building roof eight miles away on the other. The path was unobstructed, but with the limited ( 36") antenna size, we just couldn't get a reliable connection.

To make this work, it would have required a much taller tower on this end with larger antennas. And, with only three persons committing to service, the cost to go any further would have been a net loss for both me and the ISP. We abandoned the project.

I am very familiar with the situation Curt mentions in Calypso, NC. There are two cell phone towers there that are about 300 feet tall.

I assume that this company he speaks of might be making a profit, if

JULY 2005

they can serve at least a few hundred customers. The last rural company in Calypso, underwritten by US government grants, went belly up about two years ago. Cell phone tower space rents for over $1,000.00 a month on the towers he speaks of. Add to that another $300-$500 a month for bandwidth to the Internet backbone, equipment costs, electricity, maintenance, and depreciation, and you can quickly see that even if every member of the local ham club signed up (~ 35 members), it would not support this business model.

And, of course, most of the local hams in the area already have high speed that want it.

It’s just not feasible in most areas without high speed for an individual or small group to put together a system that will come anywhere near breaking even. And, in more densely populated areas, cable and DSL are already installed, negating any

possible business model being successful.

I am sure there are exceptions, and perhaps someone with deeper pockets than me, who is willing to pay $100.00 or more a month for high speed could obtain it.

Hope this sheds some light on the situation. All we can do is wait for cable, DSL, or some other technology to come along. It looks to be a decade away for many of us in rural Eastern NC.