Teton Wireless’ MMDS Play

A Cable Operator Found a Way To Add Services, Reduce Churn and Avoid Truck Rolls Without Using Wires

By Annie Lindstrom

Teton Wireless, which began its life 20 years ago as a wired cable franchise, has morphed into a wireless MMDS provider of cable programming and Internet access.

Today, the Gig Harbor, Wash.-based company has active MMDS systems serving more than 30 cities in the northwestern United States. Among those cities are Idaho Falls, Twin Falls and Pocatello, Idaho (about 30 percent of the state), as well as Missoula, Mont.

Teton Wireless delivers cable programming to approximately 20,000 customers and provides Internet access to another 2,000 customers using its MMDS network, according to Tom Carey, director of engineering at Teton Wireless. The company plans to turn up service this year in Jackson Hole, Wyo. and Sun Valley, Idaho, which are popular tourist destinations.

A Way To Reduce Churn

The company started testing Internet access service in Missoula two years ago, according to Donna Nims, director of regional marketing at Teton Wireless. It put 100 people on the network and got such a strong response from the community that it quickly made the decision to go after high-speed Internet access in a big way, Nims said.

“Our motivator was to add another service that customers were demanding to increase our customer base and add more stickiness with customers in order to decrease churn,” she said.

Teton Wireless rolled out commercial Internet access service to its business and consumer customers last June. The company spent a year testing many vendors’ equipment, but eventually selected Vyyo Inc.’s line-of-sight MMDS gear, Nims said.

“It was the “strongest and easiest for us to operate and deploy,” she explained.

So far, Teton Wireless has deployed four main transmitter sites to deliver service to 16 cities. Because of the flat terrain, the transmitters reach customers up to 35 miles away.

“We are done as far as installing base stations is concerned, except in the outlying areas of Sun Valley and Jackson Hole. We’ll use repeaters and backhaul traffic from those areas,” Nims added.

Teton Wireless aims to add another 200 to 300 Internet access customers to the network every month. The biggest challenge in marketing the service has been convincing people that it’s worth it to change their e-mail address, Carey said.

More than 70 percent of the customers who purchase Internet access from Teton Wireless purchase cable service as well. The competing technology is satellite cable. Teton Wireless charges $34 a month for cable service and Internet access costs $40. Customers who buy both services get a discount, Nims explained. The only up-front cost for customers is the modem, which costs $80 in Idaho and $125 in Montana.

Hotspot Biz

In addition to providing Internet access to the home or business, Teton Wireless has been busy establishing hotspots at the local airport, hotels/motels and coffee shops.

“One of our hotels is now boasting 90 percent occupancy, which it attributes to providing guests with high-speed Internet access,” Nims said.

The hotspots are equipped with standard 802.11b or 802.11g base stations. Traffic collected at the hotspots is transported to Internet access points via the Vyyo equipment, Nims added.

No Wires, No Truck Rolls

Carey explained that Teton Wireless went after the MMDS spectrum because using wireless held the promise of enabling the company to get rid of a cable franchise owner’s biggest headache — the bucket trucks needed to install and maintain a wired network.

“We heard about wireless cable and how we could use it to serve an area as big as 35 square miles from one site,” Carey said. “It sounded good, so we got into it and found out it was for real.”

In addition to purchasing the spectrum, Teton Wireless also bought the Basic Trading Area (BTA) licenses.

“Most MMDS spectrum owners do not own the frequency and the BTA. We own both in all our markets to protect us,” Carey said.

The company was advised that getting the BTA licenses was the “smart thing to do.”

About the Author: Annie Lindstrom is a free-lance writer based in Florida. She writes for several leading telecommunications publications and has been covering telecom for 15 years. Her articles have covered the full range of technologies and issues within the industry, including fiber optics, central office switching, outside plant, DSL, cable modems and wireless access. She can be reached at annielindstrom@aol.com.

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