WISPAPALOOZA Show Daily - Day 1

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Martin Frey, chairman of ReadyNet
and a Guinness world record holder
for completing the seven summits
(including Everest, Denali and more), and sailing
the seven seas, has gained nationwide attention
for his accomplishments in the adventure realm.
“Is this the world’s most adventurous man?”
asked CNN.
Frey will be the keynote speaker during lunch
on Thursday, from 1:30-2:30. His talk will meld
his experience climbing mountains and crossing
oceans with his passion for theWISP industry to
motivate and inspire attendees.
“I really want to capture these guys’
imagination and show them that they can
take on and conquer big challenges,” Frey said.
“They’re building businesses and facing daunting
challenges like cellular carriers moving into their
space—here, WISPs are the underdogs. They are
facing the storms and riding out the challenges in
order to climb their mountains—and this relates a
lot to some of my adventures.”
In the mid-2000s, Frey stepped from the
business limelight (though he still remains an
active angel investor) to pursue his passions for
mountaineering and sailing with a singular goal
of accomplishing something that had never been
done before. It was his late climbing partner and
friend, Steve Gasser, who first suggested he climb
all Seven Summits – the highest peaks on each
continent – while the two were climbing Denali.
Frey was inspired to complete their mission after
Steve’s untimely death a fewmonths later. In
December 2012, Frey summited his final peak –
Mount Vinson in Antarctica.
With the Seven Summits completed, the ocean
began calling. He and his wife Kym had wanted
to find something they could do as a family with
their severely disabled daughter Lily. The Freys
purchased a sailing yacht, which they named
AMARA, and set off together to sail halfway
around the world.
Frey then completed his sailing
circumnavigation in January 2015 and joined
the EUROPA and Aventura III expeditions
to cross the Southern and Arctic Oceans,
respectively. To complete sailing all of the
Seven Seas, Frey then participated in raced
across the North Pacific as part of the Clipper
Round the World Yacht Race.
“The challenges of sailing 6,000 miles across
the north Pacific in 120MPH winds and 40-foot
sea swells and getting bashed around is an
endurance challenge and yet you ride it out,”he
said. “WISPs building their businesses relates to
this. Climbing Mount Everest is relevant too—you
have to face the grind and keep going. It’s about
taking risks and making decisions and problem-
solving—all of the challenges that WISPs are
taking on a daily basis.”
Frey said he will take the audience through
some of his grandest adventures, including sailing
around Madagascar in a storm, with lightning
bolts striking all around him, and being on Everest
when five people died. A woman died on one of
the race boats on the Pacific as well.
“The big lesson is this: There will be storms
but our attitude is more important than anything
else when it comes to succeeding,”he said. “Take
the lesson of Everest – I sawMarine tough guys
crumble on the mountain because they weren’t
ready mentally and didn’t have a process for
renewing themselves on a daily basis. It’s a 51-day
adventure to climb Everest, and it’s is a mental
game as well as a physical game.” o
Brand-new for WISPAPALOOZA 2016, WISPA
sponsored a quantified study on the nature
of theWISP industry. The report is being
announced at the show, with Jimmy Schaeffler,
chairman and chief service officer of Carmel
Group, making data available to members
Tuesday evening during the Annual Awards
Reception and Keynote (7:15 p.m. – 9:15 p.m.).
The report outlines, with hard data, whyWISP
businesses are successful, why people should
invest in them, and why banks should offer credit
and other resources to allowWISPA members to
grow. Members can take this information to a
bank or an investor as part of their business plan.
In a series of two-hour long surveys, the group
asked respondents about the core elements of
theWISP business—such as, what is the demand
for broadband?What is a competitive provider?
What spectrum bands are the most attractive?
The responses were used to compile industry
statistics on size, competition, which vendors/
manufacturers are used and the regulatory
environment. The study also used 10 case studies
(five from vendors and five from operators).
“Competition is the No. 1 challenge,” said
Schaeffer. “There’s intra-industry competition and
also enormous external competition. But when
that external competition invests in and does R&D
in your core industry, that’s pretty encouraging.
We found that cable and telco and fiber
companies are all turning to wireless, including
AT&T, Google and Comcast.”
Digging trenches for fiber and other ground-
based wireline infrastructure is of course
expensive, as is launching a fleet of satellites.
“But putting up a few towers and installing a
few routers and consumer premise equipment
packages is relatively inexpensive,”Schaeffer noted.
“So as the tech improves so that more andmore
bits can be carried down that pipe wirelessly and
it becomes more competitive with fiber, WISP
technology will become an obvious answer.”
Concerns in the industry include a lack of
support by government and the FCC, tech
concerns about how quickly operators can ramp
up the throughput, and whether the cost of the
equipment can be brought down even further.
WISPs also struggle with the size of the
industry—compared to the other cable,
telephone and fiber/satellite competitors.
“Education is critical, for consumers, policy-
makers and investors,” Schaeffer said.
As far as external drivers guidingWISP
businesses, the growth in the business of
technology overall—computers, hardware and
software—is a core element at the heart of the
WISP arena’s expansion. That in turn has been
followed by an increase in broadband demand
and traffic, especially coming frommobile and
other devices. And, there’s been an increase in the
demand for video.
“As video morphs into 4K and beyond, and we
see more virtual reality and augmented reality,
and super-fast two-way gaming, that video
growth and the need for more bits going to grow
more,” Schaeffer said.
4 WISPAPALOOZA 2016 • OCTOBER 11-13, 2016
DAY1
Keynote Explores the Lessons of the 7 Summits and the 7 Seas
Awards Keynote Showcases ExclusiveWISP Industry Research
By Tara Seals
By Tara Seals
See AWARDS KEYNOTE, page 6