The Manchester Enterprise
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Internet test program on track
Wireless Washtenaw selects 30 residents to participate in evaluation of rural Web access
By Edward Freundl, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: January 18, 2007
An experiment to test the feasibility of wireless Internet access in the Manchester area is running smoothly after its first month of operation, encountering only minor glitches.
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Wireless Washtenaw is the name given to the county-sponsored initiative to deliver Internet accessibility particularly to rural residents who may have few, if any, options to go online.
Internet service provider 20/20 Communications of Ann Arbor began a pilot program Dec. 8 in the Manchester area, and it seems to be working as planned so far.
"The feedback I've had has been pretty positive," said Ray Berg, community liaison for Wireless Washtenaw.
Berg said the 30 people in Manchester's pilot program are a representative sample of residential and commercial users.
Many people wanted to be pilot participants, but selection depended on certain criteria being met.
"We had to have people within line of sight of the transmitter on top of the water tower, and we wanted a mix of users and a mix of residents," Berg said.
Stephanie Beuerle, one of the pilot participants, chosen because she is the owner of DVD Revolution, 109 E. Main St., said the system is delivering almost everything it promised.
"I've got it at the DVD store in town, but not at home," she said. "Being a pilot there are little things they're working on, but otherwise it works just fine."
Beuerle said she uses it to order products for her store online and check her e-mail, and is impressed with its speed and ease of use.
By coincidence, she also is able to keep track of another pilot participant.
"They hooked it up at my mother- and father-in-law's house. They had dialup and, oh my Lord, it's so much better."
The wireless Internet service actually uses century-old technology to deliver the very newest in technology.
"Wireless" was the term originally used in the early 1900s when Marconi discovered radio waves. Those same electromagnetic waves, albeit at frequencies Marconi scarcely could have conceived, carry the Internet signal to homes equipped with receivers tuned to pick them up — exactly the same principle used in radios.
It also suffers from the same drawback: line-of-sight transmission.
Several antennas are perched atop Manchester's water tower on Ann Arbor Street, and one of the most daunting challenges faced by Wireless Washtenaw and 20/20 technicians and engineers was how to maintain an adequate, reliable signal that people would be willing to pay for.
The purpose of the pilot program is to determine the placement and number of additional antennas needed to reach that goal, Berg said.
"The pilot will be running through the end of February — or as soon as the technicians say it works, depending on testing and acceptance standards being met to Wireless Washtenaw's satisfaction," Berg said. "We've had people offering their private property for broadcast spots on silos, grain elevators and so on."
Because urbanized areas such as Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti have so many more options for Internet access, a rural area like Manchester is seen as the perfect test bed for the wireless technology.
It also provides the added bonus of bragging rights.
"They are committed to rolling out this thing from the rural areas inward toward Ann Arbor," Berg said. "It's rare that we have something before Ann Arbor does."
Wireless Washtenaw has developed a number of ways to keep residents informed of the project's progress. Weekly updates are available from 20/20 Communications at www.2020comm.com or 1-734-973-2020.
In addition, a community forum will take place at the Manchester High School auditorium in the near future to provide details on the results of the pilot program and to answer questions.
Edward Freundl is a reporter for Heritage Newspapers. He can be reached at 428-8173 or efreundl@heritage.com.
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