Wireless Internet Company Launches Savannah Service
A Bluffton company is taking wireless Internet service to new heights in Savannah and will soon expand to Pooler and the South Carolina Lowcountry.
Epproach Communications is introducing a high-speed, broadband wireless Internet service to Savannah businesses. The company plans to expand the service to Hilton Head Island, Bluffton, Pooler, Wilmington Island, Tybee Island and eventually Richmond Hill. In some localities, it will use water towers or other existing structures on which to place the radio transmitters.
The technology is the latest in the evolutionary cycle of Internet service. Bob Ketterhagen, director of technology for Epproach, said it provides T-3 service at T-1 prices and faster access to the Internet: up to 36 megabites. A radio located about 230 feet up on the Savannah College of Art & Design tower at 513 Abercorn St., formerly the WTOC television tower, transmits the signal through the airwaves and over a 5-mile radius.
With the service, Ketterhagen said, businesses can work faster and be more productive on the Internet and access such features as video conferencing and streaming (motion videos). "It allows for real Internet service," he said.
The service also offers more propriety use in accessing the Internet than through a wireless fidelity, or WiFi, network, according to Ketterhagen.
"With WiFi, anyone can buy a card and use it," he said.
Along with faster service, the company promises increased savings. According to Jonathan Wrenn, VP of sales and marketing for Epproach, the company is offering T-1 replacement packages starting at $499.95; average T-1 prices, he said, range from $700 to $800 a month. Furthermore, with the new wireless service, which doesn't rely on telephone company infrastructure, loop charges to customers are eliminated. Those charges average about $150 to $200 a month, Wrenn said.
Customers have the further advantage of a "dedicated" connection line. This eliminates the sharing of a line that is associated with cable modem service. Epproach has built a "hotspot" covering the City Market area and plans to add another one at the downtown Manger Building in the coming weeks. These allow computer users to access the Internet from any device with a standard 802.11 WiFi modem.
Epproach is also partnering with Savannah Spanish Moss, which provides free WiFi service in Savannah. Roel Harsta, the company's COO, said the partnership will allow both organizations to expand and will familiarize people with WiFi service.
Harsta, who lives in the Savannah area, saw an untapped market in making the decision to introduce the high-speed wireless service. "There's nothing available right now," Harsta said. "It's a wide-open market."
Harsta isn't limiting his service to the business community. He'd also like to try residential areas, with his focus on the The Landings and other gated communities. "I think we can provide it as an amenity to these gated communities," Harsta said.
Wrenn, Epproach's marketing executive, said Savannah is the hub of the company's "hub-and-spoke" strategy. The spokes are the localities to which the service will be expanded.
Engineering has been completed for providing service to Bluffton and Hilton Head Island. A tower on Buckwalter Road will have a data transmission radio that will serve Bluffton and a tower on Lawton Canal Road just north of Sea Pines will have a radio on a tower to serve Hilton Head. The Hilton tower will link to the Bluffton tower and the Bluffton tower to the Abercorn Street tower, Wrenn said, noting the company is looking at a pair of towers on Bluffton of 400 feet and 800 feet.
Also, said Wrenn, arrangements are underway to equip an 85-foot Coke Cola Co. tower in Pooler with a radio linked to the Abercorn Street tower, thus allowing expansion of the service to west Chatham County.
Disucssions are underway with Adverture Radio Group to use a tower it has near Mall Boulevard. This would allow expanion of service to midtown Savannah, Wrenn said.
He said expansion into residential areas will come once the company bulks up its marketing efforts to compete with Bellsouth and Comcast. "The revenue implications are obvious," he said. "When you do residential, you've got to able to match Bellsouth and Comcast dollar-for-dollar."
The arrival of the service represents a big stride forward for Savannah's telecommunications infrastructure, said Chris Miller, director of technology development for the Savannah Economic Development Authority and head of The Creative Coast, an effort to enhance development of knowledge-based businesses in the area. "Philadelphia got national coverage when it said they were asking about doing this. Now Savannah has knocked it off first."
He said The Creative Coast has assisted Epproach with its entry into the local market. "These guys are my ideal of a company that works and plays well with the community," Miller said.
By Stephen Prudhomme and Ted Carter