Roadstar Internet - Algerian Delegration Learns Key to Roadstar's 'Secret Sauce'

Algerian Delegation Learns Key to Roadstar’s ‘Secret Sauce’
News Story

LEESBURG, VA (June 14, 2007) – Roadstar Internet Chief Executive Officer Marty Dougherty told a Telecommunications delegation from Algeria that the “secret sauce” that has led to the success of his wireless broadband company is simple. “Use lots of small cells–not one big cell–so you can use the same frequencies over and over. This allows you to give high speed over a much greater area and also allows you to mix and match frequencies based on the needs of a particular location,” he said.

Doughtery said a classic error made by those going into the wireless broadband business today is to try using single antennas or an antenna array to serve a large area. When that happens, all users end up talking to a single point and when that site becomes saturate with more than 50 or so users, it essentially becomes usable.

This was the second foreign delegation in as many months to tour the Roadstar facilities in Leesburg and see one of the company’s key sites located about 10 minutes from Leesburg. The Algerian delegation was part of a business development trip put together by the U.S. Department of Commerce Commercial Law Development program. Joe Sandillo, an international program specialist with the agency, said the Roadstar trip was part of the second phase of the event that began in Algeria in April entitled “ Telecommunications : Universal Service in the Telecommunications Sector: The Algerian Context and International Experiences (Middle East and Maghreb)”.

Taking part in the Roadstar tour were Khelil Chikhoune, central director of Algerie Telecom, Mohamed Kaddour, the deputy director for governmental and regulatory affairs, Karim Brahiti, director general of Digitladevils, an Algerian telecom corporation,Yamina Medani, president of Women in Communications and Dr. Ali Kahlane, president of Satlinker, another Algerian telecom company. During the tour of company headquarters Doughtery showed the delegation maps of Roadstar’s wireless “ring” of sites that relay backbone bandwidth from national providers in Ashburn such as Equinix and Savvis. That transmitted bandwidth serves scores of neighborhood sites throughout Loudoun County. These local sites serve a small area, allowing users consistency in speed and connect ability. Also important, he told the Algerian delegation is to pick the most efficient frequency for the geographic need. If an area is free of trees or other obstructions then higher frequency licensed or unlicensed frequencies can be utilized to provide higher speeds and service more users.

Dougherty also said it was very important to not only use small cells, but also different channels when you locate sites near each other.

The event was part of the Department of Commerce program of assistance to modernize Algeria’s business environment in the context of Algeria's World Trade Organization accession. The agency conducted a workshop in Algiers, Algeria on Universal Services in the Telecommunications Sector, in conjunction with the Autorite de Regulation de la Poste et des Telecommunications (ARPT). Because of the workshop, mid-to-high level Algerian officials and private sector participants understand the core concepts surrounding the implementation of Algeria's legal framework for universal services, in light of best practices from other countries.

During the tour of company headquarters Doughtery showed the delegation maps of Roadstar’s wireless “ring” of sites that relay backbone bandwidth from national providers in Ashburn such as Equinix and Savvis. That transmitted bandwidth serves scores of neighborhood sites throughout Loudoun County. These local sites serve a small area, allowing users consistency in speed and connect ability. Also important, he told the Algerian delegation is to pick the most efficient frequency for the geographic need. If an area is free of trees or other obstructions then higher frequency licensed or unlicensed frequencies can be utilized to provide higher speeds and service more users.

Dougherty also said it was very important to not only use small cells, but also different channels when you locate sites near each other.

While several of the group spoke some English, the Department of Commerce provided French-speaking interpreters for questions. The Algerians were especially impressed with the distances Dougherty was able to use the equipment. Where he said seven to ten miles was about average for some cells, several delegation members said they were fortunate to get several hundred meters with the same type of transmitters. They told Dougherty that the prime method of wireless data delivery depended on cell phone frequencies in Algeria, but they found this method was not very fast and extremely expensive to expand to serve larger areas. A key difference between Algeria and the United States is here many companies such as Roadstar are able to serve by utilizing unlicensed frequencies. Algeria requires government licenses to use frequencies. One member said it was just a few hundred dollars per channel and Doughtery said that here, it took millions of dollars to buy bandwidth during government auctions and small businesses could not afford those costs.

The panel interrupted from time-to-time with questions about equipment size and cost, including how many towers are needed, and what frequencies work best. Dougherty said that equipment size and cost keeps coming down and that as Roadstar beings newer technology online, the former equipment used for such things as backbone transmission in the past sees utilization down the line to increase efficiencies of the entire network.

He said that towers are not always needed and pointed to the fact that while Roadstar uses some a few of them, many of the company’s radios are mounted on high rooftops such as the new Lerner building on Rt. 28 and 7, silos, barns, etc–wherever it is feasible to serve customers.

The Roadstar CEO also explained that different frequencies perform better when trying to serve problem areas such as forested subdivisions. He also said that if the FCC releases some of the frequencies now utilized by broadcast television when that service goes completely digital in a couple of years wireless broadband could be distributed more widely and at less cost to consumers.

Dougherty then passed around examples of the equipment in use by Roadstar including antennas and radios. He emphasized that today’s equipment usually has the radio electronics built into the antenna and it is just a matter of attaching category 5 or 6 Ethernet cabling to the antenna and then into a user’s computer system. He also touched on new technologies such as “GigE” which allows wireless broadband to offer speeds rivaling fiber optic cable. He said a new service now testing could offer 1,000 megabits of service to businesses if they need it.

As part of the tour, he took the delegation to a multi-use former AT&T tower just outside Leesburg. The tower was festooned with huge cellular telephone antennae from several companies. During the trip, technicians from Nextel were climbing the tower installing new equipment.

He pointed to several small antennas on the side of the tower about the size of an encyclopedia as well as a small round antenna that is part of Roadstar’s backbone. The Algerian delegation members said the antennas were almost invisible. Later, he took the members inside a large building that once housed AT&T’s long-distance radio equipment. He indicated two small cabinets that housed Roadstar’s equipment, saying that was all the space he needed.

Roadstar has also been visited by delegations from French telecom agencies in 2005, Greek telecom regulators in 2006 and a group from Armenia last month .The company also made headlines when then Chairman of the FCC, Michael Powell and a group visited the company in 2003. Powell praised Roadstar at that time and said that it could serve as an entrepreneurial blueprint for others who might be considering providing wireless broadband.

Dougherty said he is pleased the FCC continues to send delegations to Loudoun and Roadstar because it provides an opportunity for exposure to the county’s vitality and possibility for locating business from their respective nations here.

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