WISPs nest

Still don't have broadband out there in the hinterlands of Vermont? Tom Evslin of Fractals of Change has a rural broadband success story. He got connected at his South Hero camp via wireless internet service provider GlobalNet. 

Says Evslin (in tech speak):

Terrestrial WISPs like my new best friends at GlobalNet send a signal from a ground-based radio to a small radio on your premises. I’m getting a true 3meg both up and down with latency of well less than 100ms for $39.95/month. Installation was $99.00 and I signed a one-year contract. Old telecom nerds like me will note that the plan I’m on is giving me the equivalent of two T1s. There is also a $29.95 plan with 1.5meg down and 400Kps up. ...

GlobalNet’s solution for the east shore of Lake Champlain is clever. They rented colocation space on an tower on a hill across the lake in Plattsburgh, NY.  There’s good line of sight to that from anywhere along the Vermont side of the lake. Even though I’m physically, over twelve miles from the GlobalNet repeater, I’m getting the full bandwidth they promised. 

 

Note that this service is significantly better than most DSL and comparable to most cable. Also note that the service is symmetrical – same bandwidth for uploads as for downloads. Most of us still download much more than we upload but that is changing. Work-at-homers often have a lot to upload. More and more of us are uploading photos and videos. Home surveillance cameras accessible through the web are not uncommon. Just like phone lines, some day we’ll always expect as much bandwidth up as we have down.

Remember, Gov. Douglas wants 90% of Vermonters to have access to broadband by 2007. I found this article on the Vermont Broadband Council website that says the state is up to 83 percent of Vermonters with broadband access. Too bad there's no date on that article. Fortunately, I found this version from the Times Argus, from February 2006.