Planning a WISP Deployment Marlon K. Schafer Owner Odessa Office Equipment 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)

Bio, Marlon K. Schafer 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181) Born and raised in the farming community of Odessa, WA.  After high school he entered the United States Air Force and became a Linesman. During his stint in the Air Force Marlon worked on overhead and under ground high voltage electrical distribution systems, security lighting, and runway lighting. Upon his Honorable Discharge in 1988 he returned to Odessa to help with the family specialty foods business.  In 1989 he and his wife moved to Spokane where Carr Sales, an electrical supply store, hired him.  Marlon went from delivery driver to rec. clerk to warehouse manager over the next couple of years, while also taking electronics classes. In 1991 he went to work for a copier repair company where he serviced copiers, printers, faxes etc. until 1995. In 1995 he and his family moved back to Odessa and launched Odessa Office Equipment. In 1998 he bought his second largest local copier competitor. In 1997 Odessa Office Equipment formed an Internet division offering local dialup services.  As a pioneer in the High-Speed Fixed Wireless Industry, Marlon designed and installed one of the first High-Speed Wireless DSL systems in the country and authored the Homebrew DSL page www.odessaoffice.com/sdsl.htm.  Since that time in early 2000 he's built 7 broadcast sites in 4 markets.  As CTO and part owner of KMS Wireless, Marlon has helped hundreds of other Internet Providers break into the WDSL game.  Marlon markets a wide range of wireless equipment and also provides design, installation, and troubleshooting services for most types of wireless systems. 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)

Look Before You Leap Make sure that you have a plan Make sure the plan will even work in your area Research your market Work your plan 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)

First Things First 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181) Identify your market. Business SOHO (small office/home office) MTU (multi tenant unit) Residential Identify the competition in that market Cable DSL Other WISPs Look for existing systems and sanity check the plan At this point it may make sense to hire help Spectrum analysis Business plan analysis Marketing plan analysis Locate “tower” sites Houses on hills Water towers Tall buildings “Real” towers Sign contracts Get money! (Hopefully that’s already been done) Order equipment Install Make lots of money Sell out to whatever is left of Sprint (the rest are going to be gone by then, right??? hehehehe) 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)

Identify Your Market How many people live/work in the area? How many businesses are in the area, how large are the? What’s the type of business people are in? Are there apartment buildings or office buildings where you can put in one radio to feed the whole structure? 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)

Identify Competition Is cable there? DSL? Other WISPs? If not, why? If so, for how long? What market share can you get (are people begging for what you are going to offer or are you doing this because you think it’s cool)? 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)

Look For Existing Systems/Sanity Check Do a spectrum survey Double-check the business plan Double-check the marketing plan Hire help for this? 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)

Locate Tower Sites Look for the tallest place around, and don’t go there! (usually…) Watch for places that most of your customers can see Pick more than one, in case the first choice doesn’t work out I like buildings better than towers, they are cheaper to work on People who live on hills may trade rent for service Cities are under great pressure to bring broadband to town, will the city give/rent you space on any water towers? “Real” towers work fine. Watch out for harmonics at cell phone sites 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)

Sign Contracts You’ll want to have signed contracts for your rented properties (towers, offices, etc.) Customers should sign some kind of contract (our contract indicates that use of the service constitutes agreement to the terms) I like non interference contracts better than exclusive use ones Try for exclusive service contracts for MTUs 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)

Get Money Now you’ll be ready to finish up the funding portion You should have money lined up by now, just waiting on a few contracts to be signed Having customers presigned to 12 month contracts will help a lot with the money people Don’t get the money before you need it, don’t pay extra interest 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)

Finish Up Once you get the money you need it’s time to order equipment Don’t schedule any people till EVERYTHING is on the ground at your location though Hang the gear Install customers (can be done while waiting for the tower to come online) Sell Get rich Sell out to your competitors ;-) 6/4/2019 Marlon K. Schafer (509-982-2181)