WISPing in McCall

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WISPing in McCall

• Jim Pace, owner
• Strategic Information Services LLC
• Jim.pace_at_ctcweb.net
• www.ctcweb.net
• 208-634-1013

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Where?

• McCall, Idaho a resort and government town
• 100 miles or so north of Boise
• The traditional summer and winter resort for
  Idahoans the movie stars go to Sun Valley
• Economy formerly diversified, but now dependant
  on 2nd home owners. The mill closed down. The
  tracks are gone. Same old story
• Many high tech refugees
• An incredibly beautiful place to live

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Yea, I live here
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Yea, I live here continued

• Stuff we do

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Where, did you say?

• Next to the largest chunk of roadless country in
  the lower 48
• County population density is around 3 per square
  mile.

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What weve built

• A wireless point to multi-point network using
  products from Redline, Motorola (Canopy), and
  Wi-Lan.
• Were branching into Wi-FI hot spots using
  Motorola Canopy customer premises radios to link
  out to the net. How are you doing that?
• Were reaching an existing customer base, that of
  my JV partner, CTC Telecom. I didnt have to
  start an ISP from scratch.

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The map

• The NOC is in the valley to the West. The
  customers are in the valley to the East where the
  lakes are.

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Does it work?

• Yes. Bottom line is around 2Mb throughput to
  each customer.
• Fiber DS3 backhaul at the NOC
• 36Mbs Redline AN-50 hops of 30 miles each.
• 20 and 10Mbs Moto Canopy Backhauls to Moto and
  Cascade Networks Canopy Access points.
• Range limited by transmit power to 15 miles from
  AP to subscribers.
• No problem (so far) with weather.

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Customers? Potential is around 3000 half that
without trees in the way

• Boise is a very high-tech townMicron, HP, lots
  of others.
• They all have a place (or want to) in Long
  Valley.
• Every day we can keep them up in our mountains is
  a day they spend money, pay taxes, support our
  schools.
• We have more than our share of creative people,
  finding great ways to make a living using the
  web.
• Both commercial and residential users

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Shots from the field

• June 17 on Brundage mountain

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Snowbank Mountain May 18
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Same day on the drive there. I hope stuff
doesnt break in January!
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Typical install. Notice the sloppy work by
satellite TV guys below our Canopy antenna! All
our installs require a reflector.
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The view from that same dish. The AP for this
site is on top of Brundage mountain ski area, in
the distance.
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Redline backhauls (the little square dishes) on
Snowbank Mountain. These work great! We get
some freznel zone interference from those big
dishes though.
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Another typical install. Notice the mountain top
AP location in the far distance, about 12 miles.
A shot through the trees like this works rather
well.
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That same location (my house) before Christmas.
We have some weather issues
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What have we learned?

• Dont start from scratch. Partner up with an
  existing ISP.
• Expect to spend twice as much as your most
  pessimistic estimate.
• Unlicensed frequency allocations do drive
  innovation and quick adoption of new
  technologies. But I sure want my sheriff's
  radios to be on a licensed freq.

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Whats the next big thing?

• Roaming protocols that would make surfing with
  your laptop as easy as using my cell phone in DC.
  
• Just a little more power (like the 5.7Ghz
  allocation) in a freq range that busts through
  trees would be great.

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Money?

• I used my own, but saved by doing a lot of work
  myself.
• I saved even more by using the talents of good
  licensed radio engineers up front in designing
  the system.
• Do your research first. Get on some lists and
  find out what works.
• No fancy trucks.

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Hiring and management guidelines

• Find high school and college computer geeks with
  a liking for climbing towers.
• Pay better than everybody else in town. People
  show up for work!
• Part time subcontracting is the way to go for
  installs in rural areas.
• A good liability policy helps you sleep at night.

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Finally, low life kayak scum make the best
installers. They want to get the job done to get
back on the river ASAP!