04/19/23 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)1

Planning a WISP Deployment

Marlon K. SchaferOwnerOdessa Office Equipment

04/19/23 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)2

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 workfor a copier repair company where he serviced copiers, printers, faxes etc. until 1995. In1995 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.

04/19/23 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)3

Look Before You Leap

Make sure that you have a plan

Make sure the plan will even work in your area

Research your market Work your plan

04/19/23 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)4

First Things First

Identify your market.– Business– SOHO (small office/home office)– MTU (multi tenant unit)– Residential

Identify the competition in that market– Cable– DSL– Other WISPs

Look for existing systems and sanity check the plan– At this point it may make sense to hire help– Spectrum analysis– Business plan analysis– Marketing plan analysis

Locate “tower” sites– 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)

04/19/23 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)5

Identify Your Market

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?

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Identify Competition

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)?

04/19/23 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)7

Look For Existing Systems/Sanity Check

Do a spectrum survey Double-check the business plan Double-check the marketing plan Hire help for this?

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Locate Tower Sites

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

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Sign Contracts

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

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Get Money

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

04/19/23 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)11

Finish Up

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 ;-)