Fixed wireless internet service providers represented by WISPA are telling the FCC that intention to discriminate should undergird any rules meant to prohibit digital access inequity based on race, ethnicity, income, religion, color, or national origin. It also says rules should be tech-flexible.

That came in comments on the FCC's inquiry into its legislative mandate to come up with rules that promote digital equity by eliminating discrimination in broadband deployment and access.

WISPA told the FCC it needed to avoid "creating inadvertent consequences and additional market entry barriers or barriers to growth for small providers," like punishing inadvertent inequity. "The Commission should require proof of intent to discriminate based on the six listed characteristics in the Infrastructure Act, in addition to its consideration of the totality of the circumstances," it said in comments filed Monday (May 16).

Also: AT&T: Digital Equity Needs Subsidies, Not Unfunded Mandates

WISPA said the FCC, in trying to define and identify digital discrimination, needs to take into account the significant differences among technologies used to deploy high speed broadband. The Biden Administration favors fiber but has signaled it is open to other technologies, including fixed wireless, so long as it can deliver high speeds at low cost.

The association also put in a plug for defining exclusive rooftop access agreements in multiple tenant environments (MTEs) as discrimination. ■

David Zumwalt has been tapped as the new president and CEO of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA), the Washington, D.C., group representing fixed wireless ISPs.

Zumwalt, who succeeds Claude Aiken in the post, founded and served as chairman of radio frequency engineering services firm CNet and most recently served as chief operating officer of U.S. Virgin Islands ISP Broadband VI, which was bought by Liberty Latin America last year.

Aikin had joined WISPA in 2018 from the FCC, where he had been an adviser to chairman Tom Wheeler and commissioner and acting chairwoman Mignon Clyburn.

Zumwalt comes aboard effective June 1.

Also: WISPA Names Broadband Board Chair

“It is a crucial time in the industry, and his history of success in several different leadership roles will serve our members during this unprecedented time of broadband growth, government funding, and increased private investment,” WISPA board chair Todd Harpest said.

“Broadband service continues to transform communities and markets, and all Americans deserve high-quality broadband no matter where they may live or work,” Zumwalt said. “WISPA’s members are, and have long been, the front-line responders delivering Broadband Without Boundaries.” ▪️

Earlier in January, the Treasury Department unveiled its final rule on permitted use of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding and support. This funding is designed to rescue Americans from the ravages wrought by COVID-19, helping to get us back on our feet, and to prevent and prepare us for the future.

With our economy shut down during the peak of the pandemic, broadband represented a lifeline. It allowed Americans to manage their healthcare needs, work, school, find entertainment, and communicate with family, friends and the outside world. Consequently, ARPA wisely funds the fortification of our internet-based communications infrastructure by providing direct support to the states, bridging lingering gaps in broadband coverage.

Among other things, the final rule expands eligible areas for additional broadband infrastructure investment, works to ensure uptake for marginalized individuals and communities through affordability measures, and encourages recipients to prioritize projects that are designed to provide service to locations not currently receiving at least 100 Mbps of download speed and 20 Mbps of upload speed.

We commend the Department of Treasury for striving for these laudable goals.  WISPA and our community-based members have long-advocated for the need to close the so-called digital divide. They provide evolutionary, high-speed connectivity to more than 7 million Americans in the toughest, least-served reaches of America.  Notwithstanding the challenges inherent in such service, our members have year-over-year grown access in the digital divide using an array of broadband technologies and business models. This work continues and expands daily.

Still, millions of Americans lack affordable broadband solutions, which as the pandemic has revealed, represents an intolerable public safety crisis. To this end, we greatly appreciate the focus within the final rule on working toward getting all Americans online. And, our members look forward to partnering with the states and local governments as they use ARPA funds to reach the unserved with the broadband lifeline they need and deserve. The final rule establishes a flexible, open approach to bringing broadband where it is not.

For example, the final rule provides flexibility for states and local governments to choose a broad range of solutions to reliably meet technical speed and other baseline needs in the rule. The final rule also makes it abundantly clear that, even where practicability is not at issue, its preference on such issues as transmission technology, business models to build out that technology, and other aspects within the rule are essentially suggestions, not mandates. Encouragement, not decrees. In short, states and local governments have discretion to fund the right tool for the right broadband deployment job.

This is tremendously prescient. We believe that many different solutions coming to the table remain the best way to bridge the digital divide and keep all Americans safe. Our members’ success in working in that space depends on such flexibility.  And that approach has borne out elsewhere throughout history in our economy:  Where inclusive systems promote the development and deployment of more solutions, better results always prevail.

States and localities, nonetheless, have a fine line to walk. Ignoring existing community-based providers who are serving broadband to rural America could result in lost rural jobs, and shuttered small businesses. Entrepreneurs who invested in their communities could see their livelihoods destroyed.

But an inclusive approach to broadband deployment would smartly seek to enlist the help of those on the ground, such as WISPA’s community-based providers, many of whom employ a hybrid approach of fiber and fixed wireless technologies in their networks. We encourage recipients of these grants to keep fidelity to this accommodating approach because, simply, it works – quickly, cost-effectively, and in a manner which promotes “future-proof” growth that serves vital communities in need.

More choices. Access anywhere. Better lives.

ARPA can realize that if it remains flexible and inclusive, as the final rule clearly contemplates. ■

Wireless internet service providers have some modifications they are asking the Federal Communications Commission to make to its draft Affordable Connectivity Program broadband subsidy before it adopts the rules by Congress‘ January 14 deadline.

That came in meetings Monday between WISPA, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, and top FCC officials.

The modifications, according to an ex parte filing by WISPA, include: 1) ISPs should be reimbursed for partial services because if, as proposed, there are no subsidies for service provided for only part of a month, that will discourage ISPs from participating if they are forced to absorb those “lost costs;” and 2) the FCC should allow providers to downgrade the service due to subscriber nonpayment, as long as advance notice is given, rather than not being allowed to downgrade without the subscriber‘s advance consent.

Also: FCC Won't Set Minimum Service Standards for Affordable Connectivity Program Bucks

WISPA also said the draft rules as presently written would allow a subscriber disconnected for nonpayment to re-enroll and the ISP could not deny them because of their nonpayment history. The ISP would then have to wait 90 days before de-enrolling them if they do not pay, a cycle that could continue ad infinitum.

WISPA did say it was on board with the FCC's decision to prohibit credit checks for subsidy recipients and to adopt a hybrid opt-in/opt-out approach to transitioning subscribers from the Emergency Broadband Benefit program that the ACP supplants. ■

From a recent Las Vegas visit to the fixed wireless and hybrid fiber wireless association’s 2021 WISPAPALOOZA convention, a couple of fascinating new pieces of information arose (or were reinforced).

Profitability of IT Home Services

First, was a growing confirmation among wireless internet service providers (WISPs), AKA “operators,” that the top grossing among ancillary services they offer is the provision of Internet Technology (IT) services on a regular, repeating basis. Provided by WISP installers, this mostly residential service is delivered typically in the form of a monthly warranty and broad IT coverage charge of less than $10/month. This added offer is also considered the most profitable among others, such as 1) security and monitoring, 2) voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) and 3) virtual private networks. The only so-called “added service” that is consistently more profitable — and is not yet regularly provided by most hybrid fiber wireless operators — is that of a so-called “upgrade” basic broadband connectivity, delivered as a business service to a new business customer.

And although not tested, one guesses that since most hybrid fiber wireless operators are locally based and trusted, most customers would feel more comfortable letting those technicians and installers regular access to their homes than they might for a distant-based, large Midwest, Southern or East Coast-based incumbent cable or satellite provider. 

Data from The Carmel Group’s two 2021 independent surveys of both vendors and operators shows further that a handful of the other services provided for the purpose of customer acquisition, retention, satisfaction and revenues are the provisioning of local and cable and other video programming, as well as web hosting, and repair and maintenance of consumer computers and other tech equipment not provided by the operator. A new offering mentioned by a greater number of respondents this time around, is that of provisioning services around the technology and software that makes up the Internet of Things (IoT).

WISPA’s Name Doesn’t Work Well

And what was second? 

For years, even when speaking at a prior WISPAPALOOZA event in 2018, I have joined many among WISPA’s leaders and decisionmakers in lobbying for the WISPA organization to change its name. 

For one, the word “wisp” is, well, weak. It‘s very definition intends so. Formally, according to Merriam Webster, “wisp” means frail, slight, fleeting, light and impliedly insignificant. Additionally, the acronym, WISP, stands for “wireless internet service provider.” Yet, in contradiction, it has long been clear that for now and well into the future, the huge majority of fixed wireless operators already include and are implementing more or deploying fiber. Today, our data shows that few systems do not include measurable connectivity via fiber. Indeed, the formal title of The Carmel Group’s most recent industry report is The 2021 Fixed Wireless and Hybrid Fiber Wireless Report.

Furthermore, The Carmel Group’s question number 82 from its 2021 WISPA-affiliated independent survey of hundreds and hundreds of both operators and vendors showed that by year-end 2023, 20% of the infrastructure that makes up every system will involve fiber. Far smaller percentages were offered by respondents for systems that will add GEO satellites, LEO satellites, cable and independent third-party fiber services, for example.

So what would the new trade group name be? Many names, such as “Competitive Broadband Provider“ (CBP), “Broadband Wireless Access Provider” (BWA), “Fixed Wireless Access” (FWA), and “Wireless Local Loop” (WLL) were offered in the past. Yet, of late, the best I have heard is plain and simple: just call the broadband industry served by WISPs “ISP.” ISP is, of course, short for “Internet Service Provider.” Thus, the new name for WISPA would be ISPA, short for the Internet Service Providers’ Association. Or even BISPA, short for Broadband Internet Service Providers’ Association?

That way, the focus is always in the future on what they provide, which is the broadband content. And in turn the focus is never again on how they provide it, e.g., whether wirelessly or via wireline or via satellite. 

This presents a very elegant, logical and positively emotional solution. The Carmel Group truly hopes this name and identity change happens soon.

Meanwhile, see you at the next WISPA/ISPA/BISPA show, “WISP/ISP/BISPA America 2022.” It is scheduled to be held in New Orleans, Louisiana, March 14-17.

Wireless internet service providers are working on a “Climate Resilience” certification program based on protecting broadband plant against extreme weather events.

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) said it has created a working group to develop climate-resilient best practices to protect "vulnerable internet and cloud access" in the public and private sectors from climate-related impacts.

“Industry must take a leadership role in developing proactive practices to take us from disaster recovery towards resilience,” WISPA president Claude Aiken said. He said that would be critical as climate-related events increase. “This will be a differentiator in the marketplace, equipping the industry with needed skills and know-how to meet mounting resiliency challenges that lie ahead.”

WISPA has tapped member David Theodore, chief technology officer of Climate Resilient Internet, to chair the working group.

According to the World Meteorological Association, the number of extreme weather disasters — drought, floods or hurricanes — has increased five-fold over the last 50 years, driven in part by climate change as well as improved reporting.

WISPA, the wireless internet service providers association, has named Eric Slee director of government affairs.

Slee was formerly the legislative director for Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who chose not to run for a fifth Senate term in the last election.

Slee will head up advocacy at the federal, state and local levels for the 1,000-member group.

His resume also includes senior account executive for the DCI Group of public affairs strategic consultants, "developing and maintaining long-term relationships with think tanks, political activists, issue experts, and advocacy organizations on public policy issues related to the telecommunications industry."

Mark Radabaugh of Amplex Internet of Toledo, Ohio, has been named chairman of the board of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA), succeeding Nathan Stooke.

It is a non-compensated one-year term.

Radabaugh has been a member of the WISPA board since 2013 and since 2015 has chaired its committee on FCC regulator policy formation and FCC filings.

He has also been a WISPA point person on "removing state and local barriers to broadband."

“Mark has long-been a staunch advocate of the WISP model of broadband deployment and knows our evolving industry inside and out,” said WISPA president Claude Aiken. 

WISPA represents about 1,000 fixed wireless internet service providers (WISPs), equipment suppliers, support services, and others.

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) said the Department of Defense should definitely not insert that government into the private sector's role in 5G by nationalizing a 5G network.

DOD has asked for comment on government partnering with the private sector to secure the next generation of wireless internet access, which will be the conduit for an internet of things (IoT) world that will connect myriad systems from the power grid to medical devices to toasters.

Related: USTA, NCTA Oppose Nationalized 5G

WISPA said it is fine with looking at innovative ways to share spectrum between federal and nonfederal users, which it said could help close the rural digital divide, but says that the government should definitely not "pursue any approach that substitutes central government planning for a market-driven wireless infrastructure approach that has served millions of American consumers well for decades.

"The federal government does not need to own or even directly operate commercial networks, but can utilize “private networks” and can operate isolated networks within networks in which the control, security, and operational aspects of the network function as if they are entirely under the government's control," it said. "In addition, a model in which DoD leases spectrum under a revenue-sharing arrangement would tend to disfavor small providers that cannot provide DoD with sufficient scale."

Related: House Democrats Investigate DOD 5G Plans

WISPA associates itself with a letter from 19 senators that says “nationalizing 5G and experimenting with untested models for 5G deployment is not the way the United States will win the 5G race.” 

WISPA argues that such an approach, though meant to protect the network, would actually raise its own security concerns.

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) will be trying to get physical for its WISPALOOZA 2020 convention. 

WISPA said it will hold the annual four-day event in person Oct. 19-22 in Las Vegas at the 550,000 square foot Caesars Forum. 

The association is looking to get over 2,500 people together, safely, along with almost two hundred exhibitors. 

A source said the association will take the requisite precautions to protect the health and safety of attendees and exhibitors during the ongoing pandemic, including not letting people in from banned territories, following CDC and WHO guidance, scrubbing down high traffic areas and warning members about hygiene precautions with signage and online notices. 

WISPA had to cancel its March 16-19 WISPAMERICA 2020 in Dallas due to COVID-19, but it is hoping its largest meeting can proceed in person, and it is planning on that being the case.

WISPA, which represents wireless internet service providers has come up with an estimate of how much it has cost its members to Keep Americans Connected over the life of the FCC-prompted voluntary pledge that they do so during the pandemic. 

Over 750 ISPs agreed not to cut off customers for nonpayment, to waive late fees and to offer free WiFi hotspots to anyone who needed them. 

FCC's Pai: Congress Needs Take Up Keep Americans Connected Pledge 

That WISPA accounting comes as Congress is contemplating compensating ISPs to keep Americans connected beyond the June 30 pledge's end date, something FCC chairman Ajit Pai applauds and said the FCC will work with Congress on such an initiative. He also asked ISPs to continue to keep nonpayers on the sub rolls past that date via deferred payment plans. 

In fact, it was the FCC that reached out to WISPA to get a sense of how much it was costing, according to a source.

Pai told the Senate at an oversight hearing this week that Congress should take the opportunity to "provide funding in July to help ensure that Americans have continued access to broadband and telephone services."  

According to WISPA, which polled its members on June 23, the average cost was over $30,000 per operator. 

That was based on an average sub count of 1,500. The costs broke down this way: $25,000 to cover nonpayment; $3,200 in waived late fees, and $4,500 in free WiFi. 

While the connectivity pledge technically ends June 30, a WISPA spokesperson said its members, who are connected to their local communities, would make decisions on a case-by-case basis with an eye toward erring on the side of tolerance and keeping people connected.

In a preview of its plan to free up the lower 45 MHz of the 5.9 GHz spectrum band for WiFi, the FCC said the wireless internet service providers (WISPs) it has allowed to use the band temporarily during the pandemic are increasing speeds, reducing congestion and extending coverage areas. 

The FCC began extending special temporary authorities for emergency use of the band in late March. To date, it said it has granted more than 100 WISPs to handle the increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Related: FCC Lends WISPs 5.9 GHz Spectrum for Pandemic-Driven Traffic 

The STA's are kind of a dry run on the FCC's grander plan. 

The commission voted unanimously Dec. 12, 2019, to share that 5.9 GHz band by dividing it up. The proposal is to free up the lower 45 MHz exclusively for unlicensed use and to keep the the upper 30 MHz for V2V communications, including 20 MHz of that for C-V2X. 

But that has not officially happened yet, so the STAs are a preview of things to come.

“American consumers are relying more than ever on broadband, so I’m pleased that 5.9 GHz spectrum is helping fixed wireless broadband providers deliver faster and more efficient service for consumers,” said FCC chair Ajit Pai in a release from the FCC promoting the efficacy of the STAs. “I’m grateful to these companies for making a positive difference in their communities, delivering Internet access that’s sorely needed in some of the hardest-to-connect places in our country.” 

"Americans are depending on WiFi networks to work, learn and stay connected to critical information and the FCC is using all the tools in its toolbox to expand network capacity," said WiFi Forward. "The Chairman, his colleagues and WISPs have taken quick action to connect people when they need it most. We hope these efforts show that the FCC's longer-term compromise approach to the 5.9 GHz band is the right one: take unused spectrum and put it to work for our communities, now." 

The compromise was to allow V2V communications exclusive use of the upper 30 MHz--it used to have all 75 MHz--and WiFi the lower 45--rather than have them all try to share all 75 MHz. 

"We are grateful, too – to both the FCC who granted the STAs, and our members," said WISPA, the wireless internet service providers association, "including: Amplex, Bolt Internet, Gtek Communications, Intermax Networks, MetaLINK Technologies, Nextlink, Softcom Internet Communications, Southern Broadband, TCC Skywire, Wavelinc Communications, ZIRKEL Wireless, and countless others who are using the 5.9 GHz spectrum to keep Americans connected and safe through the pandemic."

The FCC has given CBRS users in the 3.65 GHz band extra time to comply with requirements that they have properly certified equipment. Those users supply high-speed broadband, including to rural areas.

Back in 2015, the FCC gave those operators until April 17, 2020. But given the current coronavirus crisis, the FCC said Thursday (March 19) that it would now give them until Oct. 17, 2020 to come into compliance. The FCC said it would not impact the planned June 25 auction of priority access licenses (PALs) in the 3.5 GHz band.

Related: FCC Approves Framework for CBRS Band Auction

The FCC wants to make sure that, among other things, rural broadband customers don't lose service, "something especially important given the role Internet connectivity will play in keeping us safe and in touch with the world during the COVID-19 pandemic," said WISPA, the wireless internet association that had asked for the blanket extension, though the FCC's Wireless Bureau issued the extension on its own motion.

“This is a logical delay of the transition during the pandemic to ensure that current licensees, like WISPs and electric utilities, can keep their eyes on the ball when it comes to helping consumers," said FCC chair Ajit Pai. "We can allow this flexibility while still maintaining a reasonable timeline for this transition."

WISPA explained why, after five years to come into compliance, the extension was needed. "The complexity and several year delay of certifying, developing and integrating numerous interdependent parts to make the CBRS band a reality threw the overall transition process off schedule and out of kilter," it said. "The CBRS band only recently saw full commercial deployment, two years behind what was anticipated. This had a cascading effect on the rest of the process, with the hardware, software and services ecosystem just now coming online. Further, WISPs recently learned that some popular pieces of equipment they employ in the 3.65 GHz band will never become CBRS compliant. The COVID-19 crisis has only added to these challenges, limiting supply of CBRS-compliant gear."

The Wireless Bureau said the CBRS Part 90 licensees affected "will have more time to transition and can use this period to remain focused on keeping Americans connected."

Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) president Claude Aiken will remain atop that organization at least through 2022. 

The WISPA board has extended his contract. 

Aiken joined the association in 2018 from the FCC, where he had been an adviser to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler and commissioner and acting chair Mignon Clyburn. 

Related: Little FCC Reforms Can Have Big Benefits for Rural Broadband 

“Our growing members are in the business of connecting unserved and underserved communities with broadband," said Aiken, "[and] of giving choice and great connectivity where there wasn’t. WISPA is here to help them concentrate on that instead of red tape and other distractions which can get in the way of that important work.” 

WISPA is a trade group representing over 850 fixed wireless internet service providers. 

When a vision of growth arises in the mind of a small-to-mid-sized telecom entrepreneur/operator, often the very next step is for him/her to ask, “How will I pay for it?”

Described below are four distinct types of small-to-mid-sized telecom providers. Each delivers broadband content as a core part of its network.

Why do they need money? How much do they need? Who do they ask for funds? When do they ask? What is involved in the process? Is it public funding or private financing that they ask for?

These and a plethora of additional questions are “must asks,” if success is to be expected. This article presents the basics to get there from a private financing POV, and a view at what comes next.

Succeeding articles will provide operators with additional guidance through the lending process. These will include focused looks at key players in each silo, as well as a look at public funding.

Cable Operators

Likely no better spokes group for America’s small-to-mid-sized cable operators exists than the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based trade group, ACA Connects – America’s Communications Association (ACA). Formerly branded as the American Cable Association, ACA has, for decades, been guided by top execs including Matt Polka, president and CEO, Matt Polka; , Ross Lieberman , senior VP, government affairs; Rob Shema , executive VP/chief of staff; and Ted Hearn, communications VP. Like its peers below, ACA is eager to put new funding options and thus new funds into the hands of its then, usually, much better-off constituents.

For example, many small-to-mid-sized ACA cable operators are looking to study and implement new wireless operations, on top of their current wired models (See, article about cable operator, Midco, buying a regional wireless provider, WOW Lawrence (Kansas)).

Moves like this place the cable ops in the realm of a new generation of wired providers, known as “Hybrid Operators.” Another version of these “Hybrids” comes in the form of fixed wireless operators, adding more fiber to their infrastructures.

Not unlike their usual rivals, i.e., WISPs and FISPs (discussed below), the next generation of cable TV and other broadband providers needs mature financial support from those other than sometimes-unreliable friends and family. All broadband providers are competing aggressively in more populated areas, most are reaching deeper into rural areas, and thus are constantly looking at development options.

For these growth and long-term development opportunities, fortune supports them: more and more banks are “getting it.” More financing is coming to these four broadband sectors, as more banks understand and accept—as a substitute for traditional, personal, assets-backed collateral—the relative steadiness of loyal subscribers, together with a new-found appreciation for the financial strength that monthly cash flow presents.

WISPs

Wireless internet service providers (WISPs) have been around since the early 1990s. They are also known as broadband wireless access providers, or BWAs. These operators’ growth as a U.S. industry has been sometimes slow, but steady, to the point where today they number well over 2,250 nationwide (See, “2017 BWA Report“).

Recently revised estimates by The Carmel Group suggest WISP/BWA 2023 U.S. subscriber growth will stretch to over 11 million in the next five years, from a current base of over six million users. Growth in overall U.S. industry revenue increases during the next two years from just under $4 billion currently, to over $6 billion. Concurrently and well into the future, churn and subscriber acquisition costs (SAC) remain the lowest in the industry (i.e., lower than satellite, fiber, cable, mobile, or telco). In general terms, return on investment continues to exceed that of the four major competitors.

Most BWA operator funding today is aimed at expansion. This expansion comes typically in the form of spending for new infrastructure, such as more fiber in the ground to connect the broadband pipe to towers and some neighborhoods. Other WISP development needs include next generation, in-home equipment (AKA: consumer premises equipment, or CPE), towers and antennas, marketing, operational purchases, supplementing government grants and loans, partner buy-outs, employees, benefits, spectrum acquisition, working capital, refinancing, and audits, as well as mergers and acquisitions.

Yet, traditionally, WISPs have been stymied by traditional banks and those maintaining traditional banking perspectives that base lending decisions primarily upon the pure collateral of the business, rather than a focus on the steadiness of cash flow and the loyalty of a growing subscriber base.

Recently, several bankers are beginning to investigate broadband and are finding new avenues to introduce those operators to better choices, having to do with terms and lending decisions. CoBank’s website notes, “CoBank customers form the backbone of the economy in rural America –- agribusiness, power, water and telecommunications.” iNet Capital professes, “Financing that provides secured growth capital to businesses in the fixed wireless and broadband industries.” Live Oak Bank claims, “Financing to acquire, refurbish, refinance and operate America’s small businesses.” And United Community Bank states, “We have small business financing options offered through the Small Business Administration that help your business grow stronger…loans for major fixed assets, payment of operating expenses, equipment purchases and more.”

The main U.S. WISP trade group, WISPA, assists member operators and vendors in their quest for a better financial basis upon which to expand their businesses. Non-members are encouraged to join WISPA, and members are recommended to reach out to WISPA communications director Mike Wendy, specifically within WISPA, in order to discover more about WISP funding choices. WISPA’s CEO and president Claude Aiken, transitioned to WISPA a year ago from then-FCC commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s staff, where he served as that office’s wireline legal advisor. Before that, Aiken was associate general counsel and special advisor on internet law and policy in the FCC’s Office of The General Counsel.

FISPs

Newly appointed Fiber Internet Services Provider Association (FISPA) executive director Betty Burke has her work cut out for her on multiple levels, as she and her FISPA team try to grow a trade group of many hundreds, to many more hundreds of members, in the few years ahead.

FISPs are not unlike WISPs, in many regards. In fact, as noted above, many WISPs find that once they have created a wireless pipeline to profitably service their new wireless customers, that often the investment of wires into the ground or hanging from telephone poles is a good one, because of enhanced capabilities offered only by fiber. Those WISPs then become both FISPs and WISPs, in the true “hybrid” sense of the word.

As fiber continues to be generally regarded as the optimum form to deliver content to the world, the attractiveness of FISPs, to more and more consumers, will rise. Thus, as more and more financiers realize the trend of more broadband being delivered by more fiber operators, that financial playing field will become more fruitful and accretive.

Hybrids

These new “hybrid providers” (such as WISPs becoming FISPs, and cable ops becoming WISPs) then need additional funds to supplement their wireless with wired (and vice versa) growth. This is often because fiber can be so much more expensive to deploy than wireless (See, “2017 BWA Report,” page 12, figure 6, which notes on a relative scale that fiber usually costs five times more than fixed wireless to deploy, and cable costs typically three times more).

Taking Oklahoma-based @Link as a model, it calls itself a “Hybrid Wireless-Fiber Network.” Within its systems, @Link typically deploys fiber to its towers in the form of the trunk or backhaul of the content to that distribution point. Less often, @Link takes fiber right to the home, but only in rare cases where that makes sense. Adds @Link principal, Samual Curtis, “@Link still uses some wireless point-to-point backhaul wireless links, but when use increases, we often switch to fiber.”

More Money Moving

As noted above, in recently updated figures, The Carmel Group finds both the subscriber and revenue growth of just the WISP industry, to be substantial. Indeed, in a world looking inside the traditional pay TV industry and seeing significant shrinkage, there is on the other hand optimism among FISPs, WISPs, and “Hybrids.”

Much of this expansion comes as the wise money minds become more creative, making money not just for their institutions but, as importantly, working with and guiding their broadband lending clients toward making far more money – and thus “wise money” – in the process. That “wise money” will typically be the funding that comes from things like the lowest rates, plus less or no business collateral, longer payment time frames, and serving the borrower and its business after the loan closes.

It’s a good time – and getting better – to be a WISP, a FISP, a “Hybrid,” and/or a small-to-mid-sized cable operator in America. It’s also a good time to be a specialized SBA- and USDA-backed government lending bank, because those banks are increasingly jumping in, as well.

The money is beginning to move. And America’s broadband borrowers are delivering much better answers to that age-old inquiry: “How will I pay for that?”

Jimmy Schaeffler is the chair and CSO of The Carmel Group, a broadband, broadcast, and pay TV/video consultancy. He has spent nearly five decades studying, writing, researching and analyzing, working with every type of player in the space. If you are a small-to-mid-sized operator looking to expand or better understand the industry, and the financing and funding available, feel free to reach out to him at jimmy@carmelgroup.com.

Mike Wendy, who had been president of the industry-backed MediaFreedom.org, has joined the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) as head of policy and grassroots communications.

WISPA represents more than 800 smaller fixed wireless providers serving primarily rural Americans. Rural broadband is high on the FCC, and President Trump's, to-do list as the commission tries to close the rural digital divide. The President promised help to farmers looking to get some digital aid to monitor crops and increase yields.

WISPA has for main policy priorities Wendy will be promoting:

1) "Balanced spectrum approaches, ensuring that small and rural providers have a fair shot at accessing airwaves that are critical building blocks for fast, reliable broadband.

2) "Targeted subsidy programs that expedite broadband deployment to unserved locations in a technology-neutral and cost-effective manner.

3) "Fast and fair access to infrastructure for broadband deployments no matter the location, whether federal, state, municipal, or private.

4) "Keeping small businesses competitive by ensuring regulatory burdens are appropriately calibrated for those who have the least ability to shoulder them."

“We’re excited to have Mike and his broad expertise aboard and look forward to building with him a strategic and persuasive communications program for WISPA’s diverse membership," said WISPA President Claude Aiken.

The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association says that a national spectrum plan must take into account the importance of smaller players on the front lines of closing the rural digital divide.

That came in its comments to the National Telecommunications & Information Association on the Trump Administration call for such a plan.

WISPA offered up three key parts of the plan:

1. The government should declare that new spectrum is the fastest way to get broadband for rural areas.

2. The country must balance unlicensed and licensed spectrum, geographic sharing, and both fixed and mobile.

3. Smaller providers—like WISPA members—should have access to licensed spectrum, including through smaller license areas and buildout requirements that incentivize rural deployment.

WISPA had a bone to pick with the feds over spectrum sharing: "WISPA has been involved with Federal stakeholders in connection with purported interference at Patrick Air Force Base near the Cape Canaveral launch site," it told NTIA. "In WISPA’s experience, the governmental interests have taken heavy-handed approaches with broadband providers and have been unwilling to provide private industry with certain information that could be used to effectively analyze and resolve problems in an efficient and reasonable manner."

Some have argued that federal agencies might need financial incentives to become more flexible about letting others share their spectrum.

And while the race to 5G was one of the goals the President made explicit, WISPA suggested that the government take a broader view. "While 5G (however defined) may be an important policy objective, Federal policy also should not forget those that have “no G” – the millions of rural Americans who lack access to terrestrial broadband service – and mid-band spectrum is the Holy Grail."