Local company to help boost satellite Internet technology

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

In early 2005, about 600,000 Americans in small towns and rural areas will be able to connect to the Internet at speeds that people in metropolitan areas and those fortunate enough to live in small towns like Nevada or Sheldon (where wireless Internet service is already available) do everyday.

InSite Support Services will play a key role in this project by providing technical support for the subscribers to WildBlue which will distribute broadband Internet service directly to subscribers by satellite through the country's rural electric and telephone cooperatives.

"We have the contract to provide technical support for the company. That is one of the reasons for opening a center here," Michael Hunter, InSite president, said.

Hunter said that the InSite will need to hire between 60 and 90 more people in the next one or two years to handle the expected work load from this contract. The company currently has 32 employees who work two shifts, seven days per week with six more employees expected to be hired on July 26.

If all goes well tonight a rocket will roar into space from the European Spaceport in French Guiana, South America carrying a satellite that will be used to bring WildBlue broadband Internet service to all of the United States.

The launch of this satellite has been postponed twice this week by technical difficulties and it is currently scheduled to launch tonight. "This satellite will allow anyone in rural America to get broadband Internet service," Hunter said.

It will take about 90 days to position and testing of the system will begin in the fourth quarter, with some limited customers coming on-line in December, he said.

The formal rollout of the service is expected to begin in January 2005.

WildBlue is having a second satellite built so they can add another 400,000 customers when the first reaches its capacity.

According to the National Rural Telecommunication Cooperative's Web site, WildBlue has attracted a number of "strategic investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, EchoStar, Liberty Media, Gemstar-TV Guide, Telesat, TRW, Intelsat, and NRTC."

Hunter said that Nevada Regional Technical Center is one of InSite's board members.