Internet access an economic issue, says ISP owner
by Gaye Bunderson
Published: February 16,2010
Time posted: 11:51 am
Tags: Intermax Networks, Mike Kennedy
Mike Kennedy
Mike Kennedy is president and one of the startup owners of Intermax Networks, an Internet service provider based in Coeur d’Alene. He recently took the time to speak over the phone about his company and what’s current in Internet service, and later answered the following questions by e-mail.
Q. Could you explain the microwave concept and how it benefits more isolated areas of Idaho?
A. Intermax delivers service multiple ways, but the most frequent is through a private microwave network that we have built in north Idaho. The benefit of microwave is that there is no hardware infrastructure (like cable or phone lines) needed from a wired telecommunications company to provide access to isolated areas.
This allows for high-speed Internet to many areas that have never had the chance for service in the past, faster speeds than the national firms here provide, and better pricing to the users.
Q. Explain why you see Internet access as an economic development issue.
A. Education and business development are the lifeblood of any community that wants to maintain its economic position and grow.
Smaller remote towns and homes in north Idaho don’t compete easily for small companies or relocating companies because of the lack of high-speed Internet infrastructure. Intermax allows them to compete by offering Internet service in areas that the national firms won’t extend service to.
Additionally, people who work from home – or “wired workers” – are an area of the economy that continues to expand everywhere. Intermax creates an equal opportunity for rural home owners to compete for these positions by allowing them service when they had no access before.
Q. How does what you’re doing benefit the businesses in your area?
A. The fact that we are providing exceptionally fast service to remote school districts without the cost of infrastructure makes a huge difference in rural school districts’ ability to keep up with the other districts around the state.
Not having to pay for expensive wired infrastructure data transport allows for businesses to get faster connections at equivalent or better pricing. Intermax also provides second connection service to many local businesses – in town and out of town – as a redundant “failover” for their mission-critical applications that rely on the Internet to be up and running. This technique avoids the risk of having to send employees home in the event of an Internet connection failure.
Q. Why is it also so vital to residential customers?
A. Many reasons – here are some: home schooling, job searching, digital phone services, Virtual Private Network access, streaming video and audio, Internet phone service and other Web-based communications services are just a few of the things that our customers are using.
Q. What are the most profound ways Intermax and other Internet service providers in other areas are benefiting the communities they serve?
A. Access to the outside world on the Internet is the key benefit. For example, Hope, Idaho, has no real options for high-speed connections that allow for current and needed services such as VoIP (Internet phone service) and VPN (secure private connections to offices).
Yet Hope also has a large contingent of seasonal residents who require Internet access while they are living in Hope for half or more of a year, and in turn those residents help bolster the local economy.
Q. How much of the northern Idaho area do you cover?
A. We currently focus on Kootenai and Bonner counties, but we have targeted clients in surrounding areas as well. We are actively engaged in growing the network and intend to keep expanding that footprint.
Q. Do you have a sense of how many customers you serve?
A. Our current customer base is in the low thousands, which represents a very high growth rate in just the last three years alone. We’ve been in business for nine-plus years. Our growth curve has been large even in the midst of this very difficult economy.
Q. In our phone conversation, you said WiMax is one of the newest trends at Intermax, so please explain this more fully: how does it work, what are the benefits, etc.?
A. This may be more technical than you need, but WiMax technology is a microwave system that is more efficient in the handling of frequency and allows for greater bandwidth with less channel space. Streaming video is better, digital phone (VoIP) calls are crisper and customers can get more bandwidth with WiMax than on other more traditional connections.
Q. Why do “tech guys” like WiMax?
A. WiMax provides faster bandwidth with less spectrum use, so the end-user experience is better, faster and more efficient. It’s also new and game-changing, so technical professionals always want to be aware and on top of what’s new and exciting.
Q. What will getting stimulus funds do for your company and the area you serve?
A. The goal of infusing rural broadband development funds is to fast-forward delivery of high-speed Internet access in communities where the huge infrastructure investment hasn’t made sense to traditional national telecommunications and cable companies.
Stimulus funds would allow for more coverage of lesser served areas in northern Kootenai County and the growing but still small communities like Spirit Lake, Athol, Bayview, Twin Lakes and the outlying unincorporated areas of rural north Idaho.
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February 16th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
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