Company & Organization Descriptions

Started in 1995 as an ISP, AMATechTel has grown to become a strong regional facility-based CLEC serving West Texas. As a regional provider, its focus is to continue to integrate broadband with other technologies to assist rural communities in economic development, telemedicine, and community networking. AMATechTel serves a combined customer base of 18,000, approximately 4,000 of whom are wireless broadband subscribers using licensed-exempt wireless equipment. AMATechTel's wireless footprint now exceeds 20,000 square miles. Its customers include schools, public offices, and rural residences and businesses. Although it competes in some markets with other types of services, it also serves many locations where no wireline broadband alternative exists. AMATechTel employs unlicensed devices operating in the 900 MHz, 2.4 GHz, and 5.7 GHz bands for last mile connections to its customers and unlicensed devices in the 5 GHz band to connect most of its tower locations.

Established in early 2000, the Aspen Wireless Network has had the longest operating, ubiquitous Wi-Fi network for roaming and multi-megabit connections for laptop users. The Aspen Wireless Network now has over 450 customers on base stations engineered, a fiber optic OC-3 connection, a NOC facility (for monitoring, billing/authentication for fixed and Wi-Fi, centralizing intelligence, etc) in Denver, and coverage of hundreds of square miles and towns in the western slope of Colorado. The company been featured in the Wall Street Journal, TechTV, and National Public radio as pioneers in Wi-Fi and fixed wireless broadband. Its work has provided inspiration for the likes of Sky Dayton, the founder of Earthlink and the new wireless company Boingo. The Aspen Wireless Network operates unlicensed equipment in the 2.4, 5.3, and 5.7GHz bands, and will be implementing 23 and 28GHz licensed backhaul and multipoint solutions as well. Under the company's "Multi-Megabits to the Masses" program, it offers such services as voice over IP (VoIP) and video, as well as wireless replacements for leased-line and dedicated circuits up to DS-3.

Founded in 1989, Evertek, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Farmer's Telephone Company, which has been in business since 1914. Evertek holds the MMDS BTA's for Mason City, Sioux City, and Fort Dodge, Iowa with towers that extend coverage into eastern Nebraska and South Dakota. Evertek has offered wireless video services since 1989, FLOS broadband wireless since 1999, and NLOS broadband wireless since 2001. Evertek has been recognized for Advanced Next Generation NLOS broadband deployments and for delivering NLOS broadband to underserved urban and rural markets. The company is headquartered in Everly, Iowa.

GCI is an Alaska-based company providing voice, video, and data communication services to residential, commercial, and government customers. Founded in 1979, GCI introduced long-distance competition to Alaska and is now an integrated telecommunication provider. The company provides nearly half of long-distance service in Alaska and is the state's largest provider of dial-up, cable modem, wireless, and DSL Internet connections and dedicated access. In rural communities across the state, GCI offers Internet access and Distance Learning Services to 225 schools (K-12), Telehealth and ConnectMD services to 110 locations, and Wireless Internet to 74 villages. GCI's cable television network passes 90 percent of the state's households and 90 percent of its subscribers have digital cable and cable modem available to them. The company offers facilities-based local telephone services in Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau. GCI's services are connected to the lower 48 states through company-owned fiber optic, satellite, and metropolitan area network facilities.

Started in August of 1998, Ice Communications, Inc. is a wireless internet service provider in Haines, Alaska that operates throughout the southeastern panhandle of Alaska. It currently offers both dial-up and wireless service to Petersburg, Haines and Juneau, Alaska. It is a subsidiary of Digital Health Exchange, headquartered in Cordova, Alaska. With its subsidiaries Wybear.com, and Mitkof.net, in Petersburg and Haines respectively Ice Communications acts as an aggregator and reseller reducing the cost of connectivity and IT services in rural areas. Another important part of its business is servicing Alaska's commercial fishing fleet with wireless Internet, electronic services, components, and parts. The company is now adding Seattle, WA and ten new cities in Alaska to its network. The company plans to deploy high-speed wireless service to all of Alaska and the lower 48 states.

Margaretville Telephone Co., Inc. (MTC) is an independent rural exchange carrier (LEC) serving 4500 access lines in a 200 square mile area in the Central Catskill region of New York State. In addition to being an independent LEC, wholly owned subsidiaries of MTC operate a 1750 subscriber cable television system, a long-distance company, and a 9000 customer ISP (in partnership with a neighboring ILEC). Broadband services are offered via DSL, cable modem, and fixed wireless. MTC has been a family-controlled business for over five generations since its inception in 1916. Thirty percent of the company is owned by an employee stock ownership plan formed in 1985. MTC owns or has interest in PCS, LMDS, LPTV, and 700 MHz spectrum. It is currently operating fixed wireless services using both PCS spectrum and unlicensed devices.

Headquartered in Kirkland, WA, Monet Mobile Networks, Inc., was founded by telecommunications industry veterans in mid-1999 to offer high-speed, wireless Internet access service in select cities in North America with gradual expansion to nationwide networks. Monet is now a high-speed wireless Internet service provider, offering users high-speed mobile access to the Internet and for corporate intranets. Monet utilizes a low-cost, easily installed wireless modem that subscribers can plug into a desktop, laptop, or handheld PC. This will help eliminate the high cost and long lead time associated with the installation and service initiation of current broadband services. The company's investors include Soros Private Equity Partners, QUALCOMM, Mayfield, LG Electronics, Intel Capital and Hook Partners.

Founded in 1995, Odessa Office Equipment formed an Internet division offering local dial-up services in 1997. The company's founder, Marlon Schafer, designed and installed one of the first high-speed wireless DSL systems in the country. Since that time in early 2000, Odessa Office Equipment has built nine broadcast sites in five markets. Mr. Schafer has also and authored the Homebrew DSL page to help other ISPS to save time in getting broadband access to their customers. This has helped hundreds of other ISPs to begin to offer wireless DSL. Odessa Office Equipment markets a wide range of wireless equipment and also provides design, installation, and troubleshooting services for most types of wireless systems.

PDQLink provides fixed wireless Internet services via 28 remote points of presences (WiPOPs), covering over 1,000 square miles in northern Illinois. Offering service for the last four and a half years, PDQLink's network employs unlicensed devices for its wireless communications. PDQLink was the first wireless ISP in northern Illinois and has since grown to be the largest, covering rural and suburban communities. It is also the largest unlicensed wireless broadband provider in northern Illinois. Most of PDQLink's customers are businesses and residents that are unable to get broadband access by any other means, while some of its customers simply prefer wireless broadband over hardwired, cable, or satellite broadband services.

Prairie iNet, of West Des Moines, Iowa is a recognized national leader in the deployment of high-speed Internet services to small towns and rural communities. Prairie iNet utilizes unlicensed 802.11b wireless technology to provide broadband solutions for homes, businesses, educational, and government entities in 120 rural communities, located in Iowa and Illinois. Since its inception in April 2000, Prairie iNet has used its private equity capital to build a network of wireless facilities capable of serving 40,000 rural customers.

Pixius Communications, LLC is headquartered and locally owned in Wichita, KS with major facilities in Junction City, KS and Burnsville, MN. The company provides Internet connectivity, software development, and a web hosting throughout the Kansas and Minnesota regions to both the residential and business markets. Pixius' rural WISP offering includes broadband Internet via its wireless solution, extendSM ,where DSL or cable modem may not be available or reliable. With a strategy of building a 'Simple Wireless Network', Pixius is able to deploy its network to communities underserved by broadband and offer services at affordable rates.

Sioux Valley Wireless ("SVW") is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sioux Valley Energy in Colman, SD. SVW owns the Sioux Falls MMDS BTA, and has three MMDS wireless television and MMDS wireless Internet "super-cell" tower facilities. These provide service to 4,500 MMDS television customers and 1,500 high-speed wireless Internet customers in the Sioux Falls metro and rural areas. The company began providing first generation two-way wireless Internet services in 1998 upon obtaining a Developmental Two-Way MMDS Authorization from the FCC. SVW uses its MMDS licensed wireless Internet frequencies to provide bidirectional connections to metro and rural subscribers and as "back-bone" connections. It also uses unlicensed devices for "fill-in" boosters and for "hot-spots" to provide Internet access throughout its service area. SVW provides consulting and engineering services for companies starting to provide wireless ISP services.

Strategic Information Services LLC (SIS) operates a wireless Internet network in western central Idaho, servicing an 800 square mile area that includes the towns of McCall, Donnelly, New Meadows, and Cascade. SIS operates through a joint venture agreement with CTC Telecom, a long time ISP in the area. Together, CTC and SIS provide high speed connectivity and home town service to a wide variety of both business and residential customers. The wireless network utilizes the Motorola Canopy system and wireless bridging equipment from Redline and Wi-LAN.

The Tribal Digital Village (TDV) connects and serves more than 7,600 Native Americans living on reservations in isolated and scattered rural communities stretching from the California-Mexico border into Riverside County - an area that encompasses 150 miles and takes 4 ½ hours to visit by car. Nearly 30 percent of the tribal community's population lives below the poverty line, and 50 percent are unemployed. Tribal Digital Village's work, enabled by a grant from Hewlett-Packard, connects the 18 American Indian reservations in southern California to a high-speed, wireless Internet backbone and uses the Internet to build communities of interest among tribal members in ways that resemble family and community networks. The objective of the Southern California Tribal Chairman's Association, with which the Tribal Digital Village works, is sustainable development supported by a tribally-owned ISP and digital printing facility. Additional goals are the preservation of the tribal community and culture, particularly native languages utilizing technology.