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Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Company and partners claim their solution can provide high speed Internet access to rural areas
Peak Industries, Inc. CEO Jerry Newman speaks to 5th Congressional District Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers in front of a mobile radio tower that was part of a broadband demonstration by Peak and its six business partners at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds Friday, Oct. 15.
DAVENPORT-Peak Industries Inc., of Spokane and its business partners demonstrated what the company claims is a solution for rural communities struggling with high-speed Internet access for Fifth Congressional District Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and a few community members at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds Friday, Oct. 15.
The demonstration showcased Peak's turnkey rapid broadband deployment using digital electricity, which the company says is the first of its kind. The mobile set-up comes with options including a rapid mobile deploy vehicle, parking garage model, node cart, colt and mini colt and solar charging trailer.
Friday's display included a mobile radio tower transmitting the signal, and a nearby trailer with a solar tower featuring an antennae that would catch the signal plugged into an ethernet cable at the fairgrounds. During the demonstration, visitors connected their phones to the tower with success.
Peak's business partners on the project include coreNOC, Inc, Wavetech, KelTech IoT, Hoss & Associates and Intelsat.
Peak Industries CEO Jerry Newman told those at the demonstration the towers can reach through traditional obstacles and provide broadband to those blocked by cellular towers by rolling wheat hills or trees up by Lake Roosevelt.
coreNOC chief information officer Ben Ealey said the set-up can be done in three days or less and noted the fairgrounds demonstration was set up in three hours. He said the solar/hybrid option starts as low as $100,000 depending on the batteries needed, which solar model is chosen and whether the user wants to use it for cellular, broadband or both.
"Right now, it's meant for broadband to get Internet to the homes, because it's the most cost-effective way to get fiber-like speeds," Ealey said. "Google tried to do fiber to the home, and if a company like Google said it's not cost-effective, then that creates a challenge. (But) if you're able to do it wirelessly, people get what they need, and it doesn't have to be as expensive."
For 4G broadband to the home, Ealey said the solution can get up to 100-megabit speeds. On 5G, he said it would be in excess of a gigabit. However, 5G remains expensive, so Ealey said that's not currently recommended for a small community because the chipsets in the radio are driving up prices.
The businesses had asked Rodgers and her staff about communities experiencing broadband challenges they could display the set-up to, and the Congresswoman's staff recommended the notoriously slow-speeds fairgrounds. The claim is that all Eastern Washington could be built out in four to five months.
The reach of the towers is generally in the three-to-four-mile range depending on which technology is selected, Ealey said. To reach people living miles away from their nearest neighbors, he said one radio tower covers up to 1,500 to 2,000 people and connect to live antennae on top of user's homes.
Ealey said governments have shown interest in the technology, as have people interested in building a private connection.
"Whether it's a municipality, a government, an ISP, a regional carrier, those are examples of people that this would fit," Ealey said.
The technology would likely be more inclined toward the rural farmers and people living outside the cities in Lincoln County, as the county is currently working on the second of two grants to fund a fiber plan connecting the county's urban municipalities.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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