Amid all the buzz tying big brands to WiMAX, a local communications company quietly setting up its version of the next-generation wireless technology may have slid under the radar.
“4G is now in Kansas City, and Sprint didn’t do it,” exulted Graeme Gibson, CEO of Independence-based Computers & Tele-Comm Inc.
Gibson estimated that the new broadband service, which CTC started selling this month, could double the company’s roughly $1 million revenue next year. The company financed the initial $200,000 WiMAX setup internally and with a loan from Agility Ventures LLC, through which it has a $1 million line of credit to continue rolling out the service.
WiMAX is a wireless broadband technology that is similar to Wi-Fi but boasts a broader coverage area, more security and speeds three to four times faster than comparable wireless technologies. Rather than ripping up streets for fiber-optic connections or scaling roofs to set up WiFi service, CTC installers merely secure WiMAX antennas outside a client’s window. And because the equipment is off the ground, it’s more protected from incidents such as floods or misplaced digging.
An entire installation can be done in a few hours and costs about $500, Gibson said. After that, the monthly fee for a high-quality T1 connection is about $250.
CTC has partnered with Kansas City-based Avid Communications LLC to offer phone service that can work through a landline and a wireless connection. The companies provide services to each other at wholesale prices.
“Our business model is to try to provide advanced voice and data communication features to small and medium businesses here in Kansas City,” said David Hollingsworth, an owner of Avid. “Historically, our main means of reaching customers is with traditional T1s. … This offers one additional means to reach customers and help them improve the resiliency of their entire communications network.”
He said it’s too early to tell how much the partnership could increase Avid’s sales. But leveraging new access technology always has provided significant increases in reach and revenue, he said.
CTC’s initial WiMAX coverage circles out as far as eight miles from the downtown area, and that’s accomplished by a single transmitter location. CTC’s WiFi service in the metro area required 46 transmitters. Gibson wants to see where WiMAX demand boots up before selecting a second WiMAX transmitter spot, with Johnson County and Lee’s Summit the most likely contenders.
For now, CTC appears to be the only local provider of WiMAX.
“He’s the first I’m familiar with, and there are just a few of us,” said Shannon Jones, who owns Kansas City-based Skyspan Wireless LLC. Jones said he expects to start moving ahead with WiMAX in the next year.
But at some point, CTC will face competitors with big names and plentiful resources.
WiMAX has catapulted to national awareness in the past couple of years, boosted by Overland Park-based Sprint Nextel Corp.’s late 2008 deal with Clearwire Corp. Sprint and a pack of blockbuster investors, including Time Warner Cable Inc., Intel Corp. and Google Inc., pitched in to a $14.5 billion deal to help Clearwire roll out WiMAX, which the investors can resell under their brands. Sprint, majority owner but not manager, has pledged an additional $1.2 billion.
But Kansas City has not been on Clearwire’s rollout map. This year, the company launched WiMAX in 27 markets, covering 30 million people. The only markets confirmed to get the 4G service in 2010 are New York, Washington, Houston and the San Francisco Bay area, a Clearwire spokesman said. However, that doesn’t mean Kansas City doesn’t have a chance next year — Clearwire’s target is to cover 80 markets and 120 million people by the end of 2010.
It’s a powerful technology. Gibson demonstrated, positioning an octagonal, dinner plate-sized antenna in a less-than-ideal spot, where it had to pull the wireless signal from reflections off downtown buildings.
Using that connection, Gibson downloaded the movie “Star Trek” in about three minutes. Except when pointed at the solid walls inside the north face of the Bryant Building, it was able to maintain a strong connection.
Many of CTC’s roughly 400 existing customers — which represent thousands of computers — will be transferred to WiMAX, and Gibson expects to repurpose CTC’s WiFi infrastructure, selling it for new wireless backup services.
Read more: Local firm beats giants to WiMAX – Kansas City Business Journal