Building A Large Scale Wireless Community Access Point

[mitekcomputers]

Hello,

My name is Mike and I own and operate one of the largest computers sales and service centers in Berea, Ky. Due to some health issues, it seems as if I will be turning over my mainstream business to my son, and will be forced to work from home for a large percentage of time from this point forward.

Now for my idea and I do not even know if it is possible. I am a fortunate individual that has 2 - fully burstable T1's at my home as well as 2-10MB cable connections through Time Warner. I live ina very densley popualted area, however , in this quiet and somewhat backwards community, nearly 100% of the residents have dial up connections, with only a 7% rate that are connected via broadband.

The story on the T1's is a very long story but suffice it to say I was in upper management of MCI and then eventually Worldcom and was such in their commercial applications and sales department. Part of my retirement package, when we were forced to either move or take retirement was fairly negotiable. I traded my stock options (not real stock) for the two T'1s for life.

Luckily for me, the breakup killed all of the stock option worth, where I being a little smarter and seeing things as they were comming sold all of my true stock before the dot com bust, and then later the Bernie Ebbers revelations.

This gave me more than enough money to open our sales and service center and live quite comfortably for about 20 years. I was 46 at the time.

As far as research, I witha few volunteers, have been conducting door to dorr surveys since 2006 and just recently completed them, and have compiled the information

Here's what we have discovered, and in all reality I was even suprised at the percentages.

Our surveys of this area have shown that over 90% (93.125%) would opt for broadband service, yet they are unwilling to pay the extremely high prices for the local phone companies DSL (starts at $49.00 per month for DSL lite 768KB) and Time Warner, which starts at $42.00 per month (1.5MB). 3.0 DSL and 6.0 DSL as well as Time Warners larger broadband packages increase substantially past their basic offerings.

Many of those surveyed have tried DirecWay (9.4%), but feel it is too expensive as well.

The majority of the residents in the area work in factories, or lower pay scale jobs, and even though they want a broadband connection and feel they need a broadband connection, they simply cannot afford the prices the two monopolies in this area charge. The average mediun income for ALL surveyed was $32, 763.00 annually) with an average of 3.6 residents per household)

Out of these percentages 96.22% use the internet at home approximately 20-30 hours weekly.

I live on a very nice 126 acre farm, and my farm is located at the highest point within a 5 mile radius in our community. In fact we have been approached by numerous wireless phone compnaies such as Sprint, AT&T etc, asking if they could install a large tower on the highest point on our farm. There is already a road, the land is as flat as a board, and I can see where it would be advantageous for these companies to have a tower here.

I should also state that I share the farm with my mother and my brother, all of whom live on the front portion of the farm. The highest point is almost dead center of our three properties, and is co-owned by all of us, and after I have thrown this idea at them, they are just as adament as I to get something in place to serve our community.

During the door to door survey we talked to well over 1300 families. Out of these 1300 families over 1200 families had computer systems. Out of the computer owners 100% were connected to the Internet and use their systems on an average of 2-5 hours on a daily basis.

Out of the computer owning families, over 94% are using dial up, with only using any sort of broadband (DSL-Cable-Satellite)

When asked if they had a 3rd option for broadband at 1.5MB or better, that would be 35-50% less that what is currently offered would they be interested, and even I was taken aback at the surveys number on this one 98.88% stated they would GLADLY and IMMEDIATELY switch to a service of this nature.

So this is where we stand now. We have the height, we have the connections that could easily be shared, we definietly have the customer base (1000 customers with desktops) not even taking into consideration the number of mobile users.

My thoughts are this.

I would like to build a small tower at the highest point and install wireless antennas to send wireless signals out in an omni direction format. We would use the full T1's for our transmissions and receptions.

We would also be selling the boxes and/or cards to the customers, as well as installing the cards or boxes needed for their systems to connect to our service. We would definitely be using the best security, with an account and secuirity key for each account. We know this would stop theft.

We would then charge a flat rate (which has yet to be determined) to each customer.

• What would be the most cost effective, the most relaible, and yet still send adequate signals to service this area?

• Would repeaters be necessary or not?

• How tall should tower be in theory?

• What would be the best antennae to use in this scenario?

• What would be the suggestion for routing, DHCP, and the RECEIVERS on the customers end?

• What would be the best and most reliable system software to control users that are in the system, perform billing,sign ups and shutoffs etc?

• Would this even be possible?

I should also mentin that I own 4 - colocated web servers all of whch are in Phoenix, as my partner in the web hosting business, houses 3500+ domains, and out of the 4 - 1 server belongs to my company Mitek.

Mitek is a privately and woman owned company (My wife is listed as CEO, President and Owner. I am listed as President of Development and Technology, CIO) and we have 5 full time employees. 3 are A+/MCSE Technicinas with my lead technician and right hand Tim at the helm when I am not available at our retail brick and mortar establishment. I also have a 32 x 36 shop that I use for experimenting, repairs, and is also used a home office)

I do not wish to come off as a braggart, I am merely stating what tools and locations are available to me, and the benefits they bring that would enhance the launching of this major undertaking.

In all realiy I am just a frtunate farm boy, that was extremely good with computers, which I feel was a left over from my CB and HAM radio days when I started designing and constructing extremely high wattage output Linear Amplifiers (5000 watts and larger)

I started getting into computers in 1984 and have not looked back since. This is my love and passion, and as long as these hands have the ability to turn a screwdriver, or my brain dream up the next and best computer system, I will be doing this until the day I die with no regrets.

I sincerely need someone with the same passion either as a mentor or onboard completely.

On a sidenote:

I do have numerous other questions, and I am open to all suggestions. I am an MCSE/MCP/A+CompTIA and am extremely knowledgeable when it comes to pretty much anything to do with hardware, software, databases, web design in all forms including Ajax and Java.

I currently am 53 years old. I am scared that once I do leave my shop in the hands of my family, that I will be bored out of my skull. I have been offered teaching positions at two local community technical colleges, but this is seriously not my cup of tea.

I am a technician, and always will be. If I could have the ability to offer this service to my community, and still make a decent profit, then I would be doing something I love, have the ability to be the humanitarian I wish to be, yet still operate as a for profit business.

Any suggestions or help or guidance and mentoring would be deeply and sincerely appreciated, and if you like I live in Central Ky, and would like to jump on board in this unique opportunity, we would be more than happy to have true technical expertise onboard.

I shoud also mention, that even though was can have electricity ran to any section of our farm, it would be nice if we could come up with a greener solution such as solar panels or other forms of GREEN energy to power our tower and as much electronics as possible.

This is NOT a requisite, just a thought. Windmill generators would work, and we have a fast rrunning stream available for water powered generators as well.

So does anyone have any ideas? Is this just a pipe dream on my part, or is it a feasible product.

Thanks in advance for any iput or suggestions.

I can be reached privately via email at themitekproject@gmail.com or via a reply to this thread. If interested in a position with the Mitek Project please forward a resume to the address above.

I must state that we are very easy to check out. Do a search for Mitek Computers in Berea Ky, and also a search for SouthEast Telephone.

We are members of the BBB, I am a Kentucky Colonel (the highest honor bestowed on a standard citizen in Kentucky) and have hundreds if not thousands of references that are more than willing to vouce for me and my company.

Any and all information we collect is safe beyond belief, and we would never or EVER share any information we collect with any third party no matter what the circumstances without your explicit written permission such as for a job reference and things of that nature, and then only after you have asked us to do so.

I am 53 years old, I have 3 children, and 4 grandschildren.

This is simply MY DREAM, and I would truly and sincerely like to see it to completion before I leave this earth.

I am VERY committed both financially, emotionally, and enthusiastically to this project, and will not sleep until I see it through to truition. I am now at the point where I can use the brainpool of those that are much more aware of the possibilities than I

Thanks for your time and I sincerely hope that everyone knows , this is by no means a hoax or a plea for money . I have no need for money, but I do have a need to complete this project IF it is anywhere nearly feasible. I for one refuse to accept the fact that it cannot be accomplished, and if it hairlips every cow in Texas I will prove that it can be done, be profitable, and still serve the community that I love and live within. This is my main goal. When I die I want people to remember me as a humanitarian, that gave back to their community, and a father and grandfather that can leave a legacy for my family.

Thanks for your time, thanks for reading this, and more importantly if you decide that what I am doing is worthwhile, thanks for your suggestions and input. We being the logisticians that we are look constantly any pro's or con's and would welcome any that you may feel needs brought into the light.

I know that I, being so close to the situation and somewhat prejidous, may be looking at things with blinders on, and not seeing the entire picture peripherally, which at times I do have the tendency to do.

My wife states and I quote: "You are a dreamer, however as bad as I hate to admit it, you are the kind of dreamer that sees the light at the end of tunnel and then accomplishes these dreams... just like someone DARED you to... and that really pisses me off!

I am extremely in love my wife of 32 years... she is not only my best friend, but THE BEST business partner and sounding board.

She knows once somthing is in my head, there is no stopping me from pursuing it 110% and accomplishing it no matter how long it takes, or how far I dip into our retirement savings and business savings.

Just between you and me, I think in all reality she admires me for this, but I am quite certain I will never hear as such and I am certainly not going to ask

I do like eating from time to time, and I really love my bed as opposed to one of the sofas.. the recliner is not that bad actually LOL.

Once again thanks in advance for any suggestions, pro's, con's, or emails. schematics, whatever. I am adament about launching the Mitek project within the next year or so. please don't think an idea is too far out there or not worth mentioning.

I am always willing to listen and learn and I retain information like a sponge. What might seem like an idiotic idea to some, may sound genius to me.


Warmest Regards,

Michael "Gev" Gevedon
themitekproject@gmail.com
CIO: Mitek Computers LLC
VP: Berea Phone Service Ltd
CIO: Mitek Communications Inc
Visionary: The Mitek Wireless Project
VP: Bad Dog Web Hosting LLC
President: GevCo LLC

Mike