First Person Product Report

Mike Walker

I have never met Smarter Broadband’s founder, Adam Brodel.  From speaking with him on the phone, I’d imagine he might be English, but he certainly qualifies as what George Gilder calls “a cowboy” …see, - Gilder Technology Report,  “Wireless Shootout: Suits Vs. Cowboys”  

At Sunset Travel, we’ve hoed the long row from using old AT&T data lines to having the county’s’s first operating DSL account. We’ve tried relying on Verizon’s PCMCIA AirCard for web access, and even had NCCN’s staff all over my roof (in August!) trying to align a receiver with their short lived antenna experiment on Wolf Mountain.

But home and residence offices are in Hidden Valley, two miles south of the Fairgrounds- in the middle of nowhere as far as the phone and cable companies are concerned. The closest I was to getting broadband was having had Cat 5 cable installed while remodeling. How I’d actually, eventually hook-up was anybody’s guess. Satellite doesn’t work very well with the maximum-security systems of the travel industry. Internet over power lines, maybe?

About two weeks ago, I was amazed to see a “Smarter Broadband” sign on Hidden Valley Road at Old Auburn. I called and Adam Brodel explained the basics, that wireless broadband was up and running in the Sherwood Forest area two miles away. I checked him out with a couple of buddies who always seem to be in the know about ISP’s in Nevada County and he had good references, very good!

I ordered the service on a Tuesday and it was installed on Thursday. The installer, Matt, was a young man I remembered from NCCN, someone who had helped me with various computer problems over the years. (NCCN’s most lasting contribution to Nevada County will certainly be the crop of youngsters who interned there and worked customer service; Matt Jenkins, Dylan Patterson, Shawn McCloud and others.)

The installation was done quickly, carefully and professionally. If I had asked for wireless, Matt would have had all the necessary components.  What more could I want?

Using http://www.speedtest.net/, I’m getting 845 kb/s down and 295 kb/s up (I bought the 512/256 package). This is with two very active computers on line. We had a brief problem sending e-mail, but that was resolved quickly.

This is what I’ve been waiting for since I read Gilder’s “Telecosm”.; see    Then, last Sunday, I saw the great Gilder himself on TV talking about the importance of seeking technology opportunities, rather than getting sucked into and stuck in the low pay-off mindset of solving tech problems; i.e., “Nobody could fix the post office until some genius invented Federal Express.” There’s something to be learned there by “Broadband of Brothers”, which, just included a wireless category in its list of “Categories”.

You can reach me at Sunset Travel, 272-6089 if you have any questions. Right now I have to cancel some old dial-up lines and a Verizon AirCard account.

Comments

[Douglas Keachie]

I am in North san Juan, on thew western edge overlooking the Middle Fork of the Yuba.

I have a couple of high points on the property. I am willing to give a free 5 year lease for a WISP tower, if Smarter Broadband or another group is interested. Those looking into WildBlue should check out WildBlue Uncensored to see what the reality is like. You can learn a lot of neat technical things there too.

I am interested in networking with anyone to get better service via any means out here.

Doug Keachie

[Shawn Covington]

It's great to see reviews like this that praise local broadband internet companies.
I live out here in Big Oak Valley, CA (Which used to be called Smartville... it's around Lake Engelbrite and Mooney Flat road.) and it's great to see services like this expanding around in Northern CA. I just hope SmarterBroadband expands their service more to the west of Penn Valley/Lake Wildwood so I can ditch dial-up internet for good. I realize it's probably expensive to install equipment like that, especially in scattered rural areas with lots of hills and trees. But I still have my hopes up :)

BTW, nice blog, I'm going to keep it bookmarked.

[Kathi Daugherty]

I'm off of Mooney Flat, too, up by the Driftwood. I have Wildblue now, but it's certainly lacking. I use internet daily, working from home and I'm WAITING (not so patiently) for something better. Do you think we can get a bunch of people together on Mooney Flat to get Smarter Broadband out here? Only drawback I see was the leased equipment (with Wildblue I purchased and can at least resell to recoup some of the initial installation costs.) If anyone would like to contact me, please do: kathi.daugherty@gmail.com.