Wireless broadband Net makes debut in Missoula

Sen. Burns helps introduce technology from golf cart

For those whose Internet access has always been a phone call away, the wireless, broadband Internet is on the way.

By Michael Moore- Missoulian

Fro those who live beyond the reach of digital subscriber and T-1 lines, a new technology could end the long waits for graphic-intensive Web sites to appear. No more getting kicked off the Web by the phone. Nor more waiting and waiting and waiting to check while your teenager talks on the phone.

On Monday, Missoula became the first city in the country to make use of a new, third-generation technology that used towers to bounce signals around the valley, where they’re picked up by small modems that you can take with you from home to office or vice versa.

"It’s finally become possible for the technology to go to areas that don’t have billions to spend on technology," said Chris Gilbert, CEO of IPWireless, the company whose technology is being used in Missoula.

The technology was greeted in Missoula on Monday by U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, long a proponent of broadband service for rural Montana.

"Think of the impact this can have in the business community," Burns told a group of people gathered at the University golf course on Monday morning.

Burns then sat in a golf cart and surfed the Net for a while as principals in the new venture explained it to the media. The technology is an exciting development in the rural West, which doesn’t have the population to draw full broadband services to its hinterlands. IPWireless’ technology, and others like it, eventually could bring broadband to any place that picks up a cell phone signal.

"In theory, any place with a cell tower could work," Gilbert said.

The service will be available through the Missoula company Internet connect Services, but the deal also involves IPWireless and a third company, Teewinot Wireless Data.

It works like this: Teewinot has the cell phone towers that are used to bounce multi-path signals- at least for now- around the Missoula Valley. IPWireless has the third generation modems with built-in antennas that pick up the signal.

And Internet Connect Services, situated in an area where broadband connections aren’t available, has a strong customer base of more than 5,000 users.

"This will really be great for people who need broadband service at their office and their homes and can’t get it at either," said Jeff Smith, president of Internet Connect. "It really lets people have the Internet at high speeds even when there’s no cable lines."

Initially, ICS will offer three tiers of service, with a basic service that offers connection speeds at least five times faster than dial-up starting at $44.95. That’s about the same price as a digital subscriber line, known as DSL, but many places in Missoula have no access to DSL.

At least for now, a customer will have to buy the IPWireless modem, which costs about $400. That price should come down by the first of the year, Smith and Gilberts said, with a price of about $200 likely.

What also will decrease is the size of the modem. Currently, it’s about the size of a handheld tape recorder. Within the next several years the same technology will be available on a chip the size of a penny.

"At that point, they’ll just be installed on machines and probably won’t change the price much at all," Smith said. "Right now it’s sort of expensive because it’s cutting-edge technology."

Smith said ICS hopes to be able to subsidize some of the costs of the modem when customers start signing up for the service, which is available now.

For now, the service- called LightningLine Wireless – will be available only in the Missoula area, but Teewinot’s Gene Twiner and Smith said new towers will be added soon.

"We’re hoping to have it available in Hamilton in the not-too-distant future," said Twiner, who founded Teewinot and also owns Montana Wireless Television.

About Wireless Broadband-

Cell towers bounce multi-path signals around the Missoula Valley, which are picked up by third-generation modems with built-in antennas connected to computers at home or work. Internet connect Services will offer three tiers of access, starting at $44.95; the IPWireless modems cost about $400.

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