Public school systems, colleges, universities, local government, and hospitals represent the majority of ProNet's client base. ProNet has implemented some interesting applications for the private sector. They have installed radios on riverboats that were linked to ATM machines for the convenience of gamblers. Several years ago, a foundry needed to link two networks that were in buildings about two miles apart and they needed to build a network inside the foundry. Due to the extreme heat, unfriendly electronic environment, and the constant traffic of forklifts carrying heavy loads, the foundry provided significant challenges for any wiring plan. ProNet installed a 10Mbps network within each building with a T1 link between the two buildings. Wireless links were installed to each intelligent machine on the shop floor. Other wireless customers have included banks, pharmaceuticals, and textile and furniture companies.

Public sector locations typically fall within a thirty-mile radius of each other, well within the range of many wireless solutions. ProNet has learned that an ideal solution for many communities is a Community Area Network. Historically, schools, health and mental health departments, sheriff's offices, and county and local governments implement separate networks. Nationally recognized economists and enlightened local leaders recognize that a community cannot expect to participate in the "digital economy" or e-government without broadband local access. Except for the largest fifty markets in the U.S., broadband local access is either not available from traditional suppliers or is cost-prohibitive. Therefore, it is in the best interests of a community to band together with nearby communities to develop a network that meets their requirements.

ProNet has learned that these efforts must be championed at the top level - by county managers, county commissioners, town and city managers, councilpersons, state senators and representatives, technical managers, and economic development managers. During the past twenty-five years, many counties have seen their brightest students leave the area for better jobs in metropolitan areas. These people could be a great asset to their home counties if jobs can be created that will allow them to return. In addition to allowing an area to maintain its culture, this improves the economic well being of the region. Twenty high tech jobs will often generate an annual payroll of one million dollars. This one million-dollar payroll has the potential to turn six times for an annual economic boost for an area of $6 million.

It is ProNet's experience that most counties can cost-justify installing broadband communications to a single location - such as the county seat. That central location is the perfect place for a technology center that supports both the private and public sectors in that county or region. This central location also serves as a logical hub for a county or region-wide Community Area Network which links public agencies to each other as well as to private users that require access to governmental records. For example, real estate agents and lawyers need access to deeds and tax records; and builders may need access to building permits and inspection records. All can benefit from sharing a higher-speed connection to the Internet than each could afford individually. The central site can be configured with a switch or router for controlling communications throughout the county or region. Broadband fixed wireless links can then be installed between the county seat and each population center at a one-time cost, creating a countywide or regional wireless backbone. Today it is practical to consider speeds from as low as four T1's to more than 100Mbps for IP based traffic. Once the smaller towns are linked to the central site, ProNet can link the local users to the backbone link with a variety of products that can be point-to-point or point-to-multipoint.

"It has been surprisingly easy to build consensus in the more than 100 counties where we have been involved," said Dick Starling, President of ProNet. "By planning the Community Area Network jointly, there are usually enough savings that the participants can build out a broadband local access network for the cost of a traditional lower-bandwidth network utilizing telephone lines. Most communities have not implemented extensive networks due to the cost of phone services. Often we have discovered that they are spending much more money than they realize on personnel costs to fax information or provide verbal information over the phone. In many counties people are driving great distances to access information that would be readily available on a well conceived Community Area Network," adds Starling.

Many local governments reprint hundreds of documents each year with minor changes. Providing these documents electronically would be an easy implementation for a regional technology center. Centralized storage and sharing of software and hardware offer huge savings. Sharing of human resources for network management and help desk add to the potential areas for expense reduction. Applications such as distance learning, telemedicine, video storage, and document storage can be implemented based upon resources.

For many years ProNet was the only company championing wireless as a solution for broadband local access. Today giants such as Cisco, Lucent, and others are validating the concept. ProNet has enjoyed an eleven-year relationship with Tessco and has modeled its approach to the market as a complement to Tessco. ProNet will now provide site surveys, installation and maintenance on all of the products within the Tessco product line for Tessco customers and resellers nationwide.

For more information contact Dick Starling.