High-speed Internet key for foothill businesses

By Joel Metzger | Posted: Friday, March 15, 2013 11:55 am

Access to high-speed Internet is hard to come by in many  foothill communities, but with fiber lines now running through  Calaveras  County and innovative entrepreneurs  expanding their businesses, both large and small businesses are sure to get a  boost.

One such business, which upgraded to high-speed Internet  about 10 months ago, has already seen a huge increase in  sales.

Charlie Anderson, owner of Anderson Tree Farm in Murphys,  grows Christmas trees and builds handcrafted live-edge wood furniture. He used  to have DSL , “but there was a lot of stuff  that wouldn’t work. We were just a little too far  out.”

 With high-speed Internet, I could do more online,”   Anderson said. “It opened up my  ability to work from home. I registered my business on Google Maps, so when  people search for Christmas trees, my farm shows  up.”

That decision alone prompted customers from  Stockton and  Modesto to visit  Anderson ’s farm who “never knew I  existed before.”

“What ended up happening was I sold out my 200-tree quota  for a year much faster than normal,” he said. “Usually I sell until Christmas  Eve but last year I was sold out by Dec. 9.”

Not only is high-speed Internet a boon to business, it’s  key to the decision-making process of families looking to relocate to the  foothills.

“I’ve lost sales because the property didn’t have access  to high-speed Internet,” said Bill Schmiett, owner of Mountain Ranch Realty.  “That’s how important it is. It’s like power and  water.”

He said the majority of people looking to buy property in  Calaveras come from a place where high-speed Internet is ubiquitous, adding  “it’s an expectation.”

High-speed Internet is provided to Schmiett’s business by  Ron Mobley, owner of REM Net Communications, who uses a microwave link from the  Valley and distributes the signal to customers throughout the Mountain Ranch  area.

“Everyone realizes Internet connectivity is not the fax  machine of the 21st century,” Mobley said. “It’s the electricity of the 21st  century. Because if you don’t have an Internet connection, you’re not in  business, or you shouldn’t be in business.”

Schmiett agrees, “I would be out of business if I didn’t  have high-speed Internet.”

The definition of what high-speed Internet actually is  has changed over the years, according to Darrell Slocum, representative for  Central Sierra Connect, which is a grant-funded program working to expand  broadband connectivity in the Mother Lode.

“The definition of high-speed is being able to use the  Internet the way people commonly use the Internet,” Slocum said, adding people’s  eyes tend to glaze over when specific numbers are  used.

The program’s long-term goal is to make broadband  available to all rural communities in the  foothills.

Slocum began working for  CSC in February and is focusing on informing  and educating the community on existing broadband infrastructure and  access.

“It wasn’t long ago when I wouldn’t even think about  streaming a video or downloading a video online,” he said. “Now people are doing  that on a routine basis. How do you keep up with that  demand?”

Though it’s challenging to meet the needs of an evolving  Internet user, those needs are key.

“Broadband availability is absolutely necessary to have a  successful economic program. Without it your community will be left behind,”  according to Larry Cope, Tuolumne  County economic development  director.

One Calaveras-based company working hard to provide  high-speed Internet to those who are off the main grid is Hstar Technology  Group, owned by Tim Hildebrandt.

Brandon Towne, lead technician for HTG, said the company  is now serving clients from Angels Camp to Avery.

“We have more than 100 customers and about 20 sub-towers  across the county,” he said. “We take Internet from a commercial backhaul  (intermediate link between a core network and smaller sub networks) and send it  out through radios over the air. Speeds vary, but it’s better than satellite and  dialup and we don’t have caps for how much customers can  download.”

Towne said the business is “exploding” as more and more  people are signing up for high-speed Internet in remote locations. Since the  signal is transmitted wirelessly, customers living in remote locations can be  served as long as their property is within range of a  sub-tower.

“A lot of people want to move up to an area like this,  but they didn’t before because they thought they couldn’t run their business off  of dialup,” he said.

Last year, fiber cable was laid throughout  Calaveras  County , which will hook up schools  and libraries to extremely high-speed Internet.

“The fiber is the fastest Internet in the world,” he  said. “For something like that to come through our county is incredible. Before  the end of this year, we should be able to tap into that. The fact that it’s  coming through here, shows we are ready for the modern world and we’re not just  some small community.

“I like the saying, ‘Think globally, act locally,’” he  continued. “Having fiber through the county will allow us to do  that.”

Contact Mobley at ron_mobley@yahoo.com or call 754-3514.  Contact Hstar Technology Group at info@hstar.net or by calling 728-1691 or  770-6920.

Take a regional broadband survey by visiting  tceda.net/2012-2013-regional-broadband-survey.

http://www.calaverasenterprise.com/business/article_2f85d428-8da0-11e2-9270-001a4bcf887a.html