Brough Turner's deck from ISOC-DC panel: Connecting Everyone! Mesh Networks, Public Internet and the Drive Towards Universal Access. some of the slides didn't translate and come up blank, but the hyper-local marketing slide is worth the whole trip!
Internet backbone services are extremely competitive, but access from most other locations is not. About 3% of commercial buildings in the US have competitive fiber connections. Over the next decade, that number could rise above 4%, but >95% of buildings will remain stuck with non-competitive monopoly or duopoly access:• Telco (Verizon, ATT, …)• Cableco (Comcast, TimeWarner, Cablevision, …)The result is a raw deal for US businesses: High prices and low reliability!For many workers, access at home far outperforms access at work. Telco “service level agreements” are widely referred to (by IT directors) as “bogus SLAs.”
View looking out the windows at some member locations
In this Hancock Tower installation, the netBlazr radios are completely concealed in corners behind and below the heating and air conditioning units.
netBlazr Inc. Offices:(617) 606-3448 One Marina Park Dr,14th Floorhttp://netblazr.com/ Boston, MA 02210info@netblazr.com Jim Hanley, CEO Brough Turner, CTO (617) 839-9098 (617) 285-0433 Jason Orgill, COO George Kontopidis, SVP Engineering (617) 851-7898 (508) 596-7673
netBlazr dramatically reduces the 3 primary costs to provide Internet access, i.e. Infrastructure Care/Support Customer Acquisition netBlazr members pay for and build the distributed infrastructure.
netBlazr uses a web care model: Wiki documentation, an on-line forum plus open transparent access to current and historical network status. In addition, 3rd party IT shops are available to provide paid-for support to those that want it.
netBlazr’s uses online and offline community building techniques together with our freemium business model to drive down the cost of customer acquisition.Here’s an example of a hyper-local recruiting effort in the 6-8 block region around the Fort Point Channel in Boston. This campaign seeks 60 interested parties so we can justify bringing service to the neighborhood.This list of interested parties means netBlazr can sequence installation around a new local head end so as to reach positive cash flow in a matter of weeks.We’re still learning, but it appears we can do hyper-local recruiting at very low cost.