Al Gore Invents the Fixed Wireless Market

Given southeast Iowa's substandard telecom capabilities, telephone lines would already be over-loaded with voice and data calls before reporters could return to their hotel rooms to cover daily election events. Attempting to obtain a local, long-distance or standard modem connection would have been futile until the very early hours of the morning.

InterLink provided its @anywhere wireless connectivity for campaign and news personnel from networks including ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN, Time-Warner, the Washington Post, New York Times, among others—free of charge.

[You might want to make a mental note of this, or at least consider looking for news coverage opportunities such as this for your fixed wireless marketing plans. Be prepared to move in a moments notice to seize upon an incredible publicity event like this and reap the rewards of news marketing.]

Circumstance prevailed, and InterLink's @anywhere service did what no other provider could do—with only three day’s advance notice. There is no telecom company in the world that could have built or added facilities as quickly as InterLink did to to handle this national election event in such a short of a time period. But InterLink knew that a fixed wireless system could readily handle the communication needs of the Gore press corps and transport the data to the world.

[When you are marketing your ISPs fixed wireless services, you have to look for advantages—marketing edges that make your service unique—in order to realize business advantages over competing products or services.]

As a part of the success of Al Gore's visit to Keokuk, InterLink has been acknowledged by the Iowa Department of Economic Development and received the state's Smart Innovator Award. As a result of InterLink's contribution to the area, Iowa's governor and officials from other countries have been studying the company as a case model—how to successfully deploy broadband service in rural America.

Shared secrets of success
InterLink's Walden talked about some the the things that make marketing fixed wireless services different than selling standard modem connections. So I asked him how InterLink determined its marketing budget?

"It’s an evolving situation with the sales staff being our primary sales generation force. It’s not a percentage of sales we look for, but rather each new market area we move into has a competitive service evaluation done," Walden explained. "That's when we decide what speed we want to roll out as part of the marketing plan. Depending on the area, radio and television gets the word out the fastest, so we try to secure press coverage."

Naturally, I asked Walden what had been InterLink's most cost-effective marketing strategy to date? Walden said that this varies greatly, from market to market.

"In a central-city Nebraska town we did not do any TV, radio or newspaper," he said. "Instead, we hired the Boy Scouts to put flyers in certain sections in town that were more affluent, hoping to convert dialup users to wireless prospects."

InterLink also does press releases, uses radio advertising to build brand awareness, and patented their "@anywhere" brand name. The combination of all of these strategies and activities created its total marketing synergy.

A couple of things have happened since InterLink started offering its fixed wireless High-speed services. For one, the company has increased its average ticket price, so I asked Walden how they did it?

"We do pull-through marketing," he said. "When we have a business client inquiring about wireless, we offer our network consulting and customer premise equipment to create a more complete solution, while increasing their average ticket size."

As far as sales channels, Walden said InterLink's core business structure is being an ISP offering traditional dialup, legacy leased line and fixed wireless broadband access, and network consulting services. Walden said InterLink is often contracted by local businesses to build private fixed wireless networks.

I asked Walden what marketing promotions worked best for InterLink when the company entered a new market?

"We run a a special residential discount for $150 off the installation price," Walden said. "But we don’t normally discount business setups. Sometime, we allow business clients to get a installation discount if they sign up for a three-year term of service."

Finally, I asked Walden about the future of InterLink's fixed wireless business, what does it hold?

Walden predicts that fixed wireless access is the hottest thing going for ISPs seeking to expand their markets through high-speed service offerings.

"We're seeing heavy competition entering the market with at least a dozen ISPs attempting to do the same thing we are," Walden said. "Rivals that that once bashed us for trying to do wireless early on, are now in a race to catch up to us."

To Your Fixed Wireless ISP Marketing Success!
—Christopher M. Knight

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