Byte by Bite

WildBlue and Other News

by Marv Dealy

WildBlue doesn’t actually have any employees that directly install their equipment, at least not in our neck of the woods, I’m not sure about in their home-town of Greenwood Village, Colorado. They use local companies, generally those associated with other satellite services or some similar field. Reports have been good about a company called Blacksheep Satellite out of Georgetown (877 203-1884) and I have personal experience with them, as they installed the dish at the San Jose Family Camp and also were involved in Jason Niedens’ training.

I also got a good report from Ann Marie and John Kleinfelter who had WildBlue installed at the Blackberry Inn (www.Blackberry-Inn.com). Ann Marie emailed: “Hey Marv. I'm emailing you right now with my fabulous wireless Internet connection courtesy of WildBlue. The dealer in Oakdale (Prime Direc at 209/848-9200 or 209/848-2600) charged me about $350 for equipment and installation.”

“The installer was here for two or three hours and did a great job hooking up my old Windows 98 PC to our new satellite dish. After he left, I installed a Linksys router (which I bought at Staples for about $70), and now we have wireless Internet in every room of our house. I have two Macintosh computers and they both pick up the wireless signal perfectly. Hooray! This is the biggest thing to happen in Buck Meadows since the 49er Restaurant opened last year (unless you count that small wildfire we had here last February).”

“Thank you for all your help with the Blackberry Inn Wireless Project!”

On the other hand, Peter and Cherylann Schimmelfennig, proprietors of the Hotel Jeffery, report a far less pleasant experience with their installer. Apparently this company dispatched an installer from the Bay Area at 6 pm in the evening with instructions to drive to Coulterville and install the antennae that night.

I don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve been to downtown Coulterville, but trust me there ain’t enough street lights to light the roof of the Hotel Jeffery enough to make satellite dish installation a safe night-time proposition.

So, kindly Cherylann offered the installer a steep discount on a room for the night to make sure he would stay and install the dish the next morning. To shorten a lengthy story, the installer labored away through the day and by mid-afternoon a semi-desperate Peter called my office saying, they’ve sent us someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing, now what?

Fortunately, Jason – who you nearly one dozen faithful readers will remember is a recent graduate of WildBlue U – was available and immediately hied off to see if he could straighten the situation out.

Mind you – the dealer was supposed to be doing this install for only the cost of the hardware, and their representative failed badly enough that the customer had to call for outside help, which isn’t inexpensive.

Upon arrival, Jason discovered that the installer apparently had never done this before, as only part of the mounting equipment was in place, the fine-tuning adjustments weren’t installed, and the dish was pointed in entirely the wrong direction.

When he first called my office, Peter had put the installer on the phone so I could try to explain to him that he was supposed to plug the CAT5 cable from his WildBlue modem into the existing network. It was clear that he didn’t know a network switch from a light switch, and apparently thought routers were only used in woodworking.

Jason was able to get things straightened out and now the Hotel Jeffery is half way toward becoming the literal Hot Spot in Coulterville – we’re adding guest access for both hotel guests as well as anyone who just wants to come in and get a cup of fast Internet with their coffee or lunch.

Which brings to mind the recent press about the agreement between AT&T and WildBlue whereby AT&T will offer WildBlue’s service to the 20 percent of its 26 million residential customers who can’t get DSL.

According to an article in the Denver, CO Rocky Mountain News, WildBlue believes that “with the help of AT&T and their marketing muscle, we believe we can bring WildBlue in front of more prospects more quickly.” (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_4683945,00.html)

The RMN says that “AT&T will begin offering ‘AT&T High Speed Internet Service, powered by WildBlue’ in select markets later this month. WildBlue will provide equipment management, installation and distribution service to AT&T.”

“The agreement isn't exclusive, and WildBlue still will be available via retail dealers, directly from the company and through participating National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative Members.”

So, just who is going to be doing the installing here for the 5.2 million potential AT&T customers? I certainly hope it’s not led by the outfit that screwed up the Hotel Jeffery’s installation.

AT&T Chief Executive Edward Whitacre made the announcement of the alliance with WildBlue in a speech on May 8, 2006 at the Detroit Economic Club. Whitacre also announced the company’s Project Lightspeed, which is a new network AT&T is building to run more fiber optics into neighborhoods to allow fatter bandwidth services such as Internet Protocol TV or IPTV. In an article at ZDNET, Whitacre is quoted as saing that “AT&T is testing wireless technology that could help rural customers get high-speed Internet access. Specifically, AT&T plans to deploy trials of fixed WiMax technology in Texas and Nevada.” (http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6070272.html)

WiMax is wireless technology that backers claim will deliver two-way Internet service at up to 75 Mbps, with some 30 miles between broadcast towers and areas of a mile in radius being saturated with the signal.

What about the rumor that DSL may be available soon in more of Pine Mountain Lake, Twain Harte and other parts of Tuolumne County? You’ll have to tune in next month.