Butch, I am not downplaying your response. The problem I am seeing is that my main competition is two rural cooperatives, the cable comp in my area is virtually nill. The cable co's are privately owned. I am not sure how they(cooperatives) are doing it, but they must be getting $$$ to fund their buildouts from somewhere besides the members? I was serving areas they were not 2 years ago, but now they are. And they are servicing them not only with DSL but video?
I have to BITCH about the cost of gear, or not compete. I am a mostly Canopy shop at 900 Mhz, our area is 400 to 500 ft hills every mile or so. So, I have had to eat much more than most would. In my area, 5.7 will NEVER go beyond 3 miles, if it will work then. They(Co-ops) dropped their price almost in half in the towns that they cover for 3 MB DSL to $75/mth, I still offer 1.5MB for $90/mth and have only lost 1 business customer in 2 years. That can show their service level? Although my scenario, may sound good, I am fronting all the money on these Canopy 900 Mhz units. We lease the unit to them included in their monthly cost. We are still in the red after 3 years. When they(Co-ops, or anyone that owns the local loop) can buy a Stinger DSL DSLAM (for instance) that will service 24 customers at about $1500, and DSL modems for less than $50/cpe... What is left for us to compete? On top of that, they OWN the local loop to here. I have a 2XT1 from AT&T that 2/3rds of the cost of it is local loop (to the local Co-op)at a total cost of $1379/mth. So, Yes, although most Wireless MFG's build stuff for the last mile, maybe they should look at the REAL last mile in BFE, and see what we have to compete against, if the competition even exist? Just a side note....the local Co-op requires you to take their landline to get DSL, we get %95 of our customers who do not want their POS landline and use their cell phone, but the barriers are still there! Scottie ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Butch Evans <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: WISPA General List <wireless@wispa.org> Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:18:48 -0600 (CST) >On Mon, 24 Nov 2008, Mike Hammett wrote: > >>Where has the innovation in the last few years gone?</rant> > >How many in this industry bitch and moan over the cost of gear? How >many would purchase an AP at under $200 and STILL think that's too >high? How many in this industry are willing to purchase something >JUST BECAUSE IT IS CHEAPER? Look at how many people in this >industry are using DSL as a transport to the Internet. > >Answer THOSE questions and you'll begin the see the answer to YOUR >question. The problem isn't just "us". The "big boys" have been >busy trying to drive pricing levels down in an attempt to "buy the >market". And too many of "us" have decided that we have to compete >on price alone, so we found ways to cut cost by buying cheaper gear >(there are 2 WISPs within a 30 minute drive of my house that are >selling service using Linksys gear for APs). There is at least 3 >WISPs whose service would cover my house that have DSL for their >internet connection. I'm not condemming the practice as much as I >am attempting to illustrate WHY the innovation is leaving the >industry. It is NOT gone. It just doesn't exist in the price range >that MOST people are willing to pay (WISPs, that is). > >-- >******************************************************************** >* Butch Evans * Professional Network Consultation* >* http://www.butchevans.com/ * Network Engineering * >* http://www.wispa.org/ * WISPA Board Member * >* http://blog.butchevans.com/ * Wired or Wireless Networks * >******************************************************************** > > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >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/ >--- >[This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus] > > Wireless High Speed Broadband service from Info-Ed, Inc. as low as $30.00/mth. Check out www.info-ed.com/wireless.html for information. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
