WISPAPALOOZA Show Daily Day 1

2 2 WISPA PALOOZA SHOW I OCTOBER 8 - 12, 2018 www.bekabusinessmedia.com DAY 1 L Z OO 2018 THE PAC MAN PLAYOFFS! Do you have what it takes to compete against others in the retro game? Play To Win At Booth #612 Top score each day wins $100 cash! Contact us at (512) 342-2226 x104 or email sales@amcomsolutions.com Services, Solutions, Simplified. AMCOM SOLUTIONS Your Go-To Partner for your telecom bandwidth needs. WISPs Are Big Winners in FCC’s Rural Subsidy Auction S ixteen members of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA) were among the recent winners of funding under the Federal Communications Commission’s Connect America Fund Phase II (CAF II) auction. The CAF II program will provide nearly $1.5 billion during the next decade to expand fixed, high-speed internet service in unserved rural areas. Fixed wireless ISPs collectively won about half of the total funding, which will boost our industry by more than $700 million. Eight of the top 10 winners will be deploying fixed wireless technology to meet their obligations. Among the winners, announced on August 29, are the following WISPA members: • AirLink Rural Broadband of Salisbury, Missouri; • Broadband Corp. of Hutchison, Minnesota; • Casair (Crystal Automation Systems) of Stanton, Michigan; • ClearSKY Systems of Verona, Illinois; • GeoLinks (California Internet) of Camarillo, California; • Intermax Networks of Coeur D’Alene, Idaho; • Midco (Midcontinent Communications) of Sioux Falls, South Dakota; • Mid-State Services of Trenton, Missouri; • Mountain West Technologies of Casper, Wyoming; • Plains Internet of Amarillo, Texas; • RTC Communications of Rochester, Indiana; • Shawnee Communications of Lovington, Illinois; • Total Highspeed in Nixa, Missouri; • Vistabeam (Inventive Wireless) of Gering, Nebraska; • Wisper ISP of Mascoutah, Illinois; and • WPS of Ada, Oklahoma. “The strong performance of so many WISPA members in the CAF II auction is further evidence that fixed wireless ISPs are among the most cost-effective broadband providers in the nation,” said WISPA President and CEO Claude Aiken. “We congratulate our members on their success.” “With the completion of this auction, the focus now shifts to effective implementation and oversight of these rural service deploy- ments,” said Aiken. “Just as important, the policy debate must now to shift to spectrum policy, which is equally important to the future of rural broadband,” Aiken added. “Specifically, the commission’s upcoming decisions in the CBRS spectrum band and C Band may be just as consequential for the future of broadband service in rural America.” WISPA has been working to discourage the FCC from adopting changes in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band that would block many small ISPs from using those airwaves to serve rural areas. Visit www.wispa. org/Advocacy/CBRS_ SPECTRUM for complete details on that issue. m