Featured in Telephony Magazine

by Ed Gubbins

Broadband in a Box is the name of a company with a novel new approach to rural broadband service that combines satellite and dial-up connectivity.

The company wholesales satellite capacity to broadband providers, along with dishes deployed at the customer premises, and uses terrestrial dial-up connections to overcome one of the historical limitations of satellite broadband: the upstream path.

For the estimated 10 million to 15 million U.S. homes outside the reach of terrestrial broadband, Broadband in a Box offers downstream speeds ranging from 256 kb/s to 1.5 Mb/s (though 512 kb/s is the most popular, the company said) and dial-up speeds (typically 20 kb/s to 50kb/s) for the much-less-used upstream path. That dial-up link also ensures that customers won’t lose service entirely if weather interrupts the satellite link, the company added.

In April, Broadband in a Box said 50 incumbent telcos and a handful of CLECs were in various stages of deploying the system, which as of this writing was still awaiting inclusion in the federal Rural Utilities Service’s loan program.

The first customer, Sytek Communications - a small telco in rural Upsala, Minn. - began its Broadband in a Box deployment late last year as a way to keep its dial-up customers from churning. The company acquired dial-up ISPs throughout the state to get its current base of about 4500 customers, and because many of them are remote and the copper plant is old, Sytek can only offer terrestrial broadband to about 800 of them. Meanwhile, those who can get higher speeds from a competitor are disappearing at the rate of 200 to 300 a month.

“We want to retain the customers we have rather than lose them; we paid for them through the companies we bought,” said Scott Taylor, Sytek’s plant superintendant. “We just bought another company.”

Sytek is offering 256 kb/s download (dial-up upload) for $39 per month, 512 kb/s for $49 or 1.5 Mb/s for $80.

Some assembly is required of the dish that receives the signal, hence the name “Broadband in a Box.” Customers have the option of installing it themselves or hiring someone - which costs about $150, Taylor said, adding that Sytek offers to install the dishes for customers that live within an hour of one of its exchanges. Broadband in a Box says installation should take less than an hour, though Taylor had trouble meeting that goal - maybe partly because the snow common in central Minnesota in winter, when Sytek started deploying the dishes, makes roof mounting a little more precarious. “And sometimes it’s tricky finding the satellite,” Taylor said, adding that he’s happy with the service overall.

“We’ve got 2000 or 3000 customers that this would fit because they’re rural and don’t have [broadband] where they’re at,” he said.

Another benefit of Broadband in a Box’s wholesale approach is that it doesn’t compete with its telco partners. Sytek chose Broadband in a Box after rejecting another satellite provider that wanted ownership of the end user account after five years.