Transcript Planning a WISP Deployment Marlon K. Schafer Owner Odessa Office Equipment 11/6/2015 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)

Planning a WISP Deployment
Marlon K. Schafer
Owner
Odessa Office
Equipment
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11/6/2015
Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)
Bio, Marlon K. Schafer
Born and raised in the farming community of Odessa, WA. After high school he entered
the United States Air Force and became a Linesman. During his stint in the Air
Force Marlon worked on overhead and under ground high voltage electrical
distribution systems, security lighting, and runway lighting. Upon his Honorable
Discharge in 1988 he returned to Odessa to help with the family specialty foods
business. In 1989 he and his wife moved to Spokane where Carr Sales, an
electrical supply store, hired him. Marlon went from delivery driver to rec. clerk to
warehouse manager over the next couple of years, while also taking electronics
classes. In 1991 he went to work
for a copier repair company where he serviced copiers, printers, faxes etc. until
1995. In
1995 he and his family moved back to Odessa and launched Odessa Office
Equipment. In 1998 he bought his second largest local copier competitor. In 1997
Odessa Office Equipment formed an Internet division offering local dialup
services. As a pioneer in the High-Speed Fixed Wireless Industry, Marlon designed
and installed one of the first High-Speed Wireless DSL systems in the country and
authored the Homebrew DSL page www.odessaoffice.com/sdsl.htm. Since that
time in early 2000 he's built 7 broadcast sites in 4 markets. As CTO and part owner
of KMS Wireless, Marlon has helped hundreds of other Internet Providers break into
the WDSL game. Marlon markets a wide range of wireless equipment and also
provides design, installation, and troubleshooting services for most types of wireless
systems.
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11/6/2015
Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)
Look Before You Leap
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Make sure that you
have a plan
Make sure the plan will
even work in your area
Research your market
Work your plan
11/6/2015
Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)
First Things First
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Identify your market.
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Identify the competition in that market
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At this point it may make sense to hire help
Spectrum analysis
Business plan analysis
Marketing plan analysis
Locate “tower” sites
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Cable
DSL
Other WISPs
Look for existing systems and sanity check the plan
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Business
SOHO (small office/home office)
MTU (multi tenant unit)
Residential
Houses on hills
Water towers
Tall buildings
“Real” towers
Sign contracts
Get money! (Hopefully that’s already been done)
Order equipment
Install
Make lots of money
Sell out to whatever is left of Sprint (the rest are going to be gone by then, right??? hehehehe)
11/6/2015
Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)
Identify Your Market
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How many people live/work in the area?
How many businesses are in the area, how
large are the?
What’s the type of business people are in?
Are there apartment buildings or office
buildings where you can put in one radio to
feed the whole structure?
11/6/2015
Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)
Identify Competition
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Is cable there?
DSL?
Other WISPs?
If not, why?
If so, for how long?
What market share can you get (are people
begging for what you are going to offer or are
you doing this because you think it’s cool)?
11/6/2015
Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)
Look For Existing Systems/Sanity
Check
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Do a spectrum survey
Double-check the business plan
Double-check the marketing plan
Hire help for this?
11/6/2015
Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)
Locate Tower Sites
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Look for the tallest place around, and don’t go there!
(usually…)
Watch for places that most of your customers can see
Pick more than one, in case the first choice doesn’t work out
I like buildings better than towers, they are cheaper to work on
People who live on hills may trade rent for service
Cities are under great pressure to bring broadband to town, will
the city give/rent you space on any water towers?
“Real” towers work fine. Watch out for harmonics at cell phone
sites
11/6/2015
Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)
Sign Contracts
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You’ll want to have signed contracts for your
rented properties (towers, offices, etc.)
Customers should sign some kind of contract
(our contract indicates that use of the service
constitutes agreement to the terms)
I like non interference contracts better than
exclusive use ones
Try for exclusive service contracts for MTUs
11/6/2015
Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)
Get Money
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Now you’ll be ready to finish up the funding portion
You should have money lined up by now, just waiting
on a few contracts to be signed
Having customers presigned to 12 month contracts
will help a lot with the money people
Don’t get the money before you need it, don’t pay
extra interest
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Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)
Finish Up
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Once you get the money you need it’s time to order equipment
Don’t schedule any people till EVERYTHING is on the ground
at your location though
Hang the gear
Install customers (can be done while waiting for the tower to
come online)
Sell
Sell
Sell
Get rich
Sell out to your competitors ;-)
11/6/2015
Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)