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From the North Frederick Overlook at Gambrill State Park, T. Wesley Poss gains a good perspective.
Firmly fixed to towers nearby in the wooded, hilly terrain are several of his company's transmitters, which help provide businesses the all-important faster broadband service they demand. Eduro Networks of Middletown, which provides wireless broadband service to businesses such as BP Solar of Frederick, is a pioneer of sorts in the Frederick region, said Poss, its president and CEO, as stink bugs swarmed around on an otherwise gorgeous day this week.
"A lot of companies across the country provide wireless broadband," he said. "But there aren't many others in this area."
As the demand for high-speed Internet services intensifies among companies, providers such as Eduro are responding with network upgrades and new resources. The worldwide broadband equipment market alone is expected to grow about fivefold from 2009 to 2013 to some $4.9 billion, according to market research company Infonetics Research.
Altius, which spent about $100,000 last year for equipment on a tower in Baltimore County owned by Maryland Public Television, operates on three towers in the state, officials said in a news release and government application.
Last fall, Sprint Nextel Corp. unveiled a wireless Internet service in Baltimore and then partnered with Clearwire Corp., a Kirkland, Wash., wireless broadband company that has attracted other big investors such as cable giant Comcast and Internet giant Google. Comcast also has made upgrades to its Maryland technological infrastructure and rolled out new products in recent months, including high-speed wireless data service.
Other large carriers such as Verizon and AT&T have recently beefed up their network infrastructure in Maryland, both for their wireless mobile products and fixed wire-line networks.
Verizon Wireless has invested some $153 million in its Maryland-Washington network this year, including a new cell site along Route 29 in Silver Spring. The expanded data coverage allows customers using notebook computers or smart phones to more quickly download video conferences and send large e-mail files, executives said.
In addition, Verizon's wire-line side recently expanded its fastest high-speed Internet service to areas of the state such as Randallstown and Poolesville. The service delivers download speeds of up to 7.1 megabits per second along a wired network, executives said.
"We constantly make improvements to our network, both on the land-line and wireless sides of the business," said Sandra Arnette, a Verizon spokeswoman.
Wireless versus wire line
In general, the fixed wire-line system still provides faster Internet speeds than wireless broadband, said George W. Riggins, Verizon's director of national broadband engineering, who visited a Gaithersburg transmission facility this week.
However, officials with wireless broadband companies say they can deliver speeds every bit as fast, with lower costs, quicker installation times and greater flexibility for clients. In addition, wireless equipment is not affected by many of the pitfalls associated with the wire-line networks, such as fallen utility poles and damaged transmission lines, they say.
A key selling point for Eduro is that it owns the "last mile" to the customer, which helps keep costs down and improves customer service, Poss said. The last mile refers to the final segment of delivering connectivity from a provider to a customer.
"We can deploy quickly in the event of outages since we are not dependent on the larger carriers like Verizon," he said. "Other companies have to rent the last mile. ... There is no one but us [that customers can] point the finger [at]."
Frederick Web and graphic design company Wood Street signed on with Eduro's system about three years ago. The local provider has come through, said Jon-Mikel Bailey, Wood Street president.
"We went with Eduro because they were local and promised us good speed and good [voice-over Internet protocol] for a better price" than competitors, Bailey said. "More than that, when we call or e-mail support, we get a response right away. The other companies force you through a maze of choices, and then you still aren't guaranteed a solution to your problem."
Eduro has 14 transmitters on towers in Frederick and Washington counties, including some on water towers in Frederick. After focusing on Frederick County since 2003, the company recently expanded into Washington County. Besides broadband Internet, Eduro offers voice, remote data storage and managed firewall services.
"We've continued to grow, even during the recession," said Poss, who previously worked as a developer in Frederick County. Eduro has some 500 clients and 13 employees. "Since we focus exclusively on businesses, we can be real supportive to those customers."
For the mobile business
Business owners who operate virtually out of their cars or from home are ideal for AT&T's third-generation, or 3G, wireless network, said spokeswoman Beth Gautier. Customers can use the service with a laptop embedded with 3G service and an AT&T data plan.
AT&T executives said this week that the company has made a substantial upgrade of its 3G mobile broadband network in the Baltimore area, including in Fells Point, the Inner Harbor, Pikesville and Towson. The investment builds on AT&T's recent 3G wireless network expansions to Frederick, Hagerstown and the Eastern Shore.
From 2006 to 2008, AT&T invested about $500 million to upgrade technology infrastructure in Maryland, Gautier said. "This is about providing our customers the service they come to expect," she said.
About 95 percent of Maryland is covered by the 3G network. AT&T has built 25 new cell sites in Maryland just this year, Gautier said.
Also, Sprint Nextel this month expanded the Sprint and Nextel service to customers in numerous underground Metro stations, including Bethesda and Friendship Heights.
Federal stimulus applications
The federal stimulus program sets aside $7.2 billion to expand broadband services. The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service received almost 2,200 applications requesting nearly $28 billion in funding for proposed broadband projects, officials said in August.
Among the applicants was one from Freedom Wireless Broadband of Sykesville, which requested a $6.5 million grant and $2.8 million loan to build a wireless broadband network in Carroll County. Altius Broadband requested a $762,261 grant to provide broadband Internet to underserved rural areas in Baltimore, Carroll and Harford counties, plus parts of Kentucky.
Germantown satellite company Hughes Network Systems applied for several grants, including one for $398.3 million for "last mile" broadband infrastructure in underserved areas across the nation. The private-public initiative Maryland Broadband Cooperative in Salisbury asked for $126.4 million for broadband services via a fiber optic network that serves rural communities in Eastern, Southern and Western Maryland.
