SHOULD YOU?

Pluses: Fixed wireless Internet service providers in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Technology Corridor typically charge from $40 to $50 per month for residential service that is typically at least 18 times faster than dial-up Internet services. In addition to faster Web surfing, wireless broadband is a "always-on" connection. It does not tie up an existing phone line, or require a dialing wait. Minuses: Unlike dial-up Internet services and broadband wire line Internet services offered by cable TV providers, fixed wireless typically requires the installation of an antenna on the outside of the receiving home or business. Installation charges average about $100. The ability to receive fixed wireless signal and its quality also varies with the location of the customer relative to the antenna. Wireless ISPs implement security measures that keep hackers out of the customer's computers. Customers who use a wireless link rather than a wired connection to their home's outside antenna may require additional security precautions.

Ryan's 420 residents have a choice of dial-up Internet services, but speedy broadband Internet service that can supply such services as streaming video and streaming audio through 'always-on' connections have so far passed by Ryan.

Local business owners like commodities trader Ken Ries of Ries Ag Marketing would love to have high-speed Internet service.

Ries' Internet service isn't fast enough for placing market orders, so he places them by telephone. He uses a satellite data network, DTN, to receive commodity quotes. He pays for a second business telephone line in order to have dial-up Internet service that won't interfere with his business line, but finds the data transfer speeds unimpressive.

"If I had a faster Internet connection, I could place my orders on the Internet," he said. "I could probably get rid of the second telephone line, also."

Kim Downs, Ryan's city clerk, has heard such laments before. City Hall has a dial up Internet connection, but when Downs wants to work on the Internet, she has to tie up the city's only phone line.

The answer is sitting atop Ryan's distinctive shamrock-adorned water tower, waiting to be activated in the next few months. It's a technology called fixed wireless.

Fixed wireless is a broadband communications technology that sends and receives data using Internet protocol over microwave radio signals. The high-bandwidth microwave platform is capable of moving large amounts of data across unobstructed distances that typically range up to eight miles without the expense of burying or suspending fiber-optic cables to customers.

Already deployed in many large cities, fixed wireless networks are moving to the Iowa countryside. The modest expense of creating fixed wireless networks makes it possible to build them out in rural areas and towns so small they've been largely overlooked by large cable TV and wire line-based Internet service providers, say fixed wireless entrepreneurs.

GC WorldNet of Marion is about ready to start up fixed wireless Internet service in the Ryan area after rolling out its service throughout most of Cedar Rapids and most of rural Linn County. It is seeking $1.7 million federal funding assistance through the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand east into Jones county and other Eastern Iowa communities.

"Wireless broadband's coming, and you can't stop it," proclaims Alan Lucas, the 34-year-old president of GC WorldNet.

In operation for two and a half years, GC WorldNet has erected seven antennae which it uses to serve under 300 customers. Lucas' enthusiasm for the technology is boundless. He says fixed wireless is inexpensive enough to deploy without incurring debt, and capable of being upgraded and expanded to take in more customers as the need arises.

One of the many challenges Lucas' expansion plans face is finding places to put up antennae. The cost of erecting towers throws off the economics of bringing fixed wireless to small towns, so pioneers such as Lucas enlist the cooperation of small towns to place antennae on their water towers.

Lucas tells community leaders that having wireless broadband "is economic development for your community." That's a statement Downs, the Ryan city clerk, has heard repeatedly at municipal association meetings. All the towns want to have it, she said.

Ryan Mayor Mike Corcoran is doubtful that wireless broadband alone will bring any new businesses to Ryan, but considers it a valuable plus for existing residents who can work from home on their computers and existing businesses. He says GC WorldNet agreed to pay the city about $3,000 per year to use the tower, money that will help pay for repainting the tower every 10 or 15 years.

Fixed wireless operators are betting their investments in small towns will become valuable franchises, like the cable TV franchises they saw built a quarter-century ago by small entrepreneurs and later purchased by large cable companies. Fixed wireless technology could allow operators to offer other services such as voice communication and movies on demand.

"This is the wild west of technology," says Chris Kelly, vice president of CCR Internet Services, a fixed-wireless provider owned by Circle Computer Resources of Cedar Rapids. Wireless broadband is one of the few industries, he says, where shoestring startups can go toe-to-toe with big companies like Qwest and Mediacom and win away business.

"It's going to be painful for these guys," Kelly says. "We're a burr under their saddle as it is."

CCR Internet reaches about 50 percent of the Cedar Rapids metro area through six antennae, and is looking at expanding into the rural communities around it.

"There are a lot of people basically starving for good quality Internet service," Kelly says.

Another provider, Dynamic Broadband, operates five antennae in Cedar Rapids. Michael Miller, president of the Marshalltown-based company, said Dynamic Broadband has been operating in Cedar Rapids for two years, and is looking to add coverage on the northwest side. The company has no plans to move into any new rural communities at present.

Fixed wireless operators consider their personalized service to be one of their competitive advantages over wire line Internet service providers (ISPs) While big ISPs advertise on national television, many fixed wireless operators sell their service door-to-door, passing out fliers. Miller says Dynamic Broadband's customer support staff is located right in Iowa. Customers calling companies such as GC WorldNet with a service problem may end up talking with the company's president.

Fixed wireless technology is not widely understood, making consumer education one of the challenges for wireless ISPs. The technology is easily confused with Wi-Fi, which provides wireless local area networks popular with mobile computer users in cafes and airports. It has also been confused with cellular phone technology which provides access to the Internet. As a technological description, fixed wireless is vague at best, describing a variety of point-to-point wireless broadband technologies with varying data transfer speeds and other differences.

Security is one of the largest perceived concerns about the technology, according to wireless ISPs. They say users are often concerned because wireless signals can be intercepted, and because the connection is always turned on.

Lucas, who specializes in network security, said most ISPs implement security measures that make it virtually impossible for hackers using wireless modems to gain access to customer's computers. He said vulnerabilities can arise when customers use a wireless Ethernet connection to link their computer to the outside antenna, but they can typically be secured by installing an inexpensive firewall router.

As fixed wireless branches out into rural areas, urban wireless ISP's continue to innovate.

X-Wires Communications of Iowa City is deploying what it calls "expanded neighborhood networks" into subdivisions on the city fringes that don't have cable or digital subscriber line Internet service. X-Wires President Ben Anderson says X-Wires is also providing fixed wireless service to sorority and fraternity houses, selling service packages to members that include broadband Internet service in the houses and access to the company's Wi-Fi hot spots at Terrapin Coffee Co., Sunshine Laundry and Tanning, and the New Pioneer Co-op.

GC WorldNet has acquired the Java Room, a Marion coffee house, with plans to add a Wi-Fi hot spot in the coffee house.