Have you ever driven from Odessa to Spokane?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Travis Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 6:22 AM Subject: Re: [WISPA] WISP Peering > Marlon's main city is Odessa, WA. Within 65 miles is Spokane, WA that has hundreds of thousands of people, plus all the suburbs. > > It seems he is "short sighted" by not expanding into that market 6-8 years ago. Sixty miles is nothing... I have a single 73 mile shot that has been running 100% uptime for almost 2 years. > > Travis > Microserv > > Mark Koskenmaki wrote: > I have to come to Marlon's defense a bit here. The idaho falls / > pocatello area has DRAMATICALLY more people than the central washington > wasteland Marlon serves. > > You serve the populated areas of Bonneville, Bingham and Bannock Counties, > if I estimate your coverage. This approaches a quarter million people, at > least for the three counties, it does. > > Marlon's town is about 1000 people, Lincoln and Adams County together have > less than 30K people, and his main competition is a utility which is using > it's financial might to subsidize buried fiber to every home in Grant > County. > > I have seen Marlon's territory, driven through it, and seen his "operation". > It's a collection of small community markets. I would say that in spite of > being small, he probably has considerably higher market share than you do, > for the places he covers. > > None of this is to disparage anyone. But you can't compare apples and > oranges like that and have it make any sense at all. I suspect you'd > struggle mightily to adapt to marlon's situation... and vice versa. > > Let's not go off on each other here.. We have much better targets to aim > at. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Travis Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> > Sent: Friday, April 27, 2007 9:19 PM > Subject: Re: [WISPA] WISP Peering > > > Well, I seem to be holding my own ground pretty well... and I DON'T turn > customers over to my competition... over 65 towers in operation, over > 3,000 wireless subs, hundreds of DSL subs, almost 50 fiber subs (banks, > hospitals, insurance, etc.)... and NO outside investors, stock holders, > or any long-term debt whatsoever. :) > > (OT: Our annual gross revenue has been within 1% of the previous year > for the past 4 years. However, I have managed to decrease our expenses > by 10% every year. While this doesn't seem like a lot, realize we are a > multi-million dollar company. There is EASY money to be made by just > cutting expenses. Things like shopping around for better CC rates, > better insurance rates, cheaper bandwidth, etc.) > > Also, if you leased your equipment, you could put the new tower up for > less than $200 per month for EVERYTHING. ;) > > <rant> > Call it what you will Marlon, but I believe you started your wireless > operation around 1997 (going off your website). In 1997 we started our > wireless service as well. Today we have over 3,000 connected wireless > subs and are growing at over 100 per month. We have been profitable > since our first year in business. This will be _another_ record breaking > year for us. We have a backbone uptime of 99.99% over the last 2 years > (including scheduled maintenance). Our wireless subs see a 99.9% uptime > (including maintenance, interferance issues, blown AP's, etc). We > deliver over 150Mbps of internet traffic during business hours using > three diverse providers (DS3 via Qwest fiber, OC3 via seperate Qwest > fiber, Level3 via fastethernet via seperate fiber via seperate NOC). We > provide service to 8 entire school districts (out of a possible 10 in > our entire 25,000 square mile coverage area). > </rant> > > So, if I'm short sighted and you are not, why is my company 10x the size > and making 10x the profit when both of us started at the same time? > > Travis > Microserv > > Marlon K. Schafer wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Travis Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> > Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 8:16 PM > Subject: Re: [WISPA] WISP Peering > > > Why wouldn't you just put up your own AP's and service the same area > rather than give that customer away to the competition? > Spectrum congestion. > > Cashflow > > Speed. > > Expanded coverage, very quickly, for no money. > > I would spend $5k and put up my own tower before I turn a "potential" > customer away to the competition. I've done it many times over the > years and it has always paid off. Once one person is connected, they > tell their neighbors about it. Pretty soon an AP that was put up for > a single customer has 10 or 20 customers on it. > Um, the competitors ALREADY have networks in place!!!!! > > Doesn't seem to make business sense to me. Plus when they need tech > support, how do you troubleshoot the competitors AP's? How do you do > RF link tests and packet loss tests at 10:00PM when the customer is > on the phone? > I call the competitor on his cell phone. Just like he does with me. > > Your attidude, while pretty typical, is very short sighted. The more > we work together to keep the airways clean and maximize the > investments, the better all of our networks run and the faster we can > grow. > > It's that silly ol' "Together we stand" thing. > > I was watching a group of kids play Red Rover the other day. I had to > wonder how that game would turn out if the kids all tried to stand > there and hold their OWN ground instead of working as a team. > > Travis > Microserv > > Marlon K. Schafer (509) 982-2181 wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- From: "George Rogato" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "WISPA General List" <wireless@wispa.org> > Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 6:42 PM > Subject: Re: [WISPA] WISP Peering > > > Marlon K. Schafer (509) 982-2181 wrote: > Two of my competitors just sat down for lunch and worked out a > network sharing agreement. It's a handshake deal at this point > though. > > Basically we carved up a hilltop laying out coverage zones for > each of us, and we set a price for using each other's ap's. > > Marlon > Hey I think thats a good thing you've done there Marlon, getting > along and even doing business with your competitors. > Yeah. It's something that the three of us have already been doing > for a couple of years. We sell on each other's ap's at the same > price. The only catch is that each of us has to live under the bw, > and bit cap rules of the other guys network vs. our own. But that > seems perfectly fair to me. > > We also handle all tech support for the cusotmer. The customer > should NEVER contact the other isp. We have however, shown up > together at problematic customers and worked jointly to fix any > issues. > But where do you think the line would be drawn in respect to anti > competitive practices? > I'm not sure. We've not had that come up yet. > > Did you have a specific situation in mind? > > -- > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -- > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -- > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > -- > WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe: > http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless > > Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ > -- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
