Digital Futures & BC Broadband Conference

Lots has been happening here at Mage!  April 25 & 26, Sisso attended the Digital Futures Alberta conference in Pincher Creek and made many excellent connections with communities all around Alberta who really need upgrades to their broadband speed  – in short order!  We’re working on getting back to everyone there, and once we get maps of desired coverage areas, we’ll reply with network designs and quotations.

Sisso and Jacqueline also attended the BC Broadband Association Conference in Richmond BC last week (May 1 – 2).  This conference allowed us to reconnect with many of the Wireless Internet Service Providers we’d met through CanWisp and meet many new ones as well.  Sisso spoke on day two, and one excellent bonus was that Tim Ryan, of Kaslo Infonet Society, also got up to say a few words on Mage’s behalf, regarding his experience with the field test we ran there in early April.  Tim’s message was that Mage’s equipment would be a very useful additional “tool in the toolkit” for internet service providers,  since it can affordably reach homeowners that would be not economical otherwise, and that he was planning to deploy Mage’s equipment in various areas across the Kaslo valley this summer.  Thank you Tim!

We are very excited to be rolling out more networks this summer, and we are working to get our network designs/quotations out as fast as we can!  If you’d like to inquire about improving high speed broadband in your area, please contact us today.

Sisso and Simon from National Research Council talk NLOS wireless

Tim Ryan of Kaslo Infonet Society and Sisso speak at BCBC 2018

 

Revisiting Forgotten Homeowners

A speaker giving a presentation at CanWISP

Hello Folks!

We had a great visit at the CanWisp conference last month, and it got us thinking about the perspective of the Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs).  These folks are typically very technical, and yet also quite creative individuals, especially when it comes to problem solving.  We noticed that most have strong IT and hardware backgrounds, and found their way into the rural wireless broadband market often out of pure necessity; let’s face it, if they’re still in business today, serving rural homeowners with wireless broadband, given all the changes in technology over the years, they really know their stuff.  Several have even given us some new ideas we can use to improve our deployments!

One other interesting factor: they also seem to generally get along well with each other, and see themselves as all being in the same, quite challenging, boat.  The result of this is some degree of respecting each others’ territories.

So this is where things get interesting with Mage, as we present a new kind of technology that WISPs can employ to reach rural areas. How does a WISP grow its business, ideally without competing too directly with a fellow WISP?  Mage has a solution.

It seems most WISPs have a “NO” file.  This is a database of customers that they have not been able to service, or service well.  These are forgotten or rejected homeowners – homeowners that are in their area or near their areas of service, but are in tough terrain or non-line-of-sight (NLOS) areas that are simply too expensive to reach with either fiber or construction of new towers. They are people that have been told, “Sorry, your location is too difficult and expensive to reach, we can’t help you.”

Surprisingly, with trees and ridges, there are about 13 Million such households all over North America.  Every WISP likely has a file of a few dozen or a few hundred customers to whom it has had to say “NO”.

So to the WISPs we say – grab the opportunity to grow your business! Try our equipment – it’s inexpensive, fast to deploy, and will give you brand new customers in all those tough areas.  There’s no big capital investment – you can simply buy enough units to service as few as 5 or 10 customers in a given pocket, and get them up and running.  Send us a map of any areas you have in mind, and we’re happy to provide a free network design and quotation.

You’ve got nothing to lose, and so much to gain!