There’s nothing unusual about achieving great insight while hoisting a pint or two with friends. But

A) having those insights still seem like good ideas in the morning, and

B) actually following through and doing something – those are rare things.

Yet that is the sequence of events that gave birth to BI Wireless, a company that offers internet access to the Eagle Harbor area from an antenna perched high atop the Harbour Public House, where the concept was brewed.

“We decided no more ‘somebody should’ ideas,” said David Canning. “There is no reason not to jump when you have an idea.”

The three friends and partners – Canning, Brad Thornton and Chris McKinlay – all spend time in the harbor area, where Thornton has a boat. From their own experience and from talking to others, they realized that plenty of people want to surf the net while afloat, but had few options.

“We realized the market for internet (access) was not being served by the telephone companies,” Thornton said. “We started researching the market and the equipment we would need in the fall, then put up the antenna.”

The hardware is simple – a leased high-capacity line and an antenna atop the Pub, which gets internet service out of the deal.

End users need only a wireless antenna-modem, a compact chip that is built into many newer laptops and is readily available for older computers.

“The technology has been around a few years, and there are not many bugs. The price is very cheap,” said McKinlay.

Speed and quality, they say, is comparable to the DSL service available in parts of the island, or to the cable access briefly offered through the old Northland franchise.

“We don’t depend on the quality of the wire,” Thornton said. “We’re using air.”

The harbor was an ideal market, because both vessels in the marinas and at anchor, and many of the surrounding residences, have the direct line-of-sight to the antenna necessary to make the system function.

“People who live on boats are more adventurous,” he said. “They are willing to accept the idea of wireless internet service.”

Reception – in several senses – has been favorable, they say.

“Our first handful of customers helped us test the service, and told us what was acceptable and what was not,” McKinlay said. “They became our primary marketing tool.”

The service area has proved larger than original expectations, Canning said.

“We thought reception would only be available at the marinas in this immediate area, but we have been able to serve the marinas on the other side of Eagle Harbor and many of the surrounding homes and condos,” he said.

Prices, which depend upon the number of customers per antenna, compare favorably to wired internet service.

Even with only a score of customers in Eagle Harbor – although Canning and McKinlay were receiving email queries at the rate of one per pint on a recent evening at “headquarters” – the break-even point is low, and service can be offered in the range of $30 per month.

Tech veterans

The three are all high-tech professionals. Thornton, an Ohio native, and McKinlay, originally from Eastern Washington, are both network engineers who found themselves working for the same Seattle company at one point. Canning, originally from New England, was trained as an optical engineer, but then became a nuclear engineer in the Navy, which brought him to Bainbridge. He finishes his service hitch this week.

Canning and Thornton collaborated on a previous business venture, a rigid plastic carrying case for the fragile memory cards that go into “palm” computers.

“They break easily,” Canning said, “and when I see a problem, I can’t avoid trying to come up with a techy solution. We dreamed up the carrying case, and the next day, Brad filed for a limited liability company. We market these gadgets on the internet and ship them all over the world.”

The wireless internet business offers interesting possibilities because of the economics. Considerable “back room” work was required to produce the software necessary to set up the system. But ongoing operational costs are modest, meaning only a few subscribers are required to support each antenna.

That fact makes wireless technology one possible approach to the so-called “last mile” problem of connecting individual homes to a high-capacity service provider.

“Wireless is one possible ‘last-mile’ approach,” Canning said, adding that it is common in cities like Bangkok, Thailand, where there is demand for internet but little hard-wired infrastructure.

What is required, and sometimes hard to find on Bainbridge, is line-of-sight access unencumbered by trees.

“Take Manzanita, for example,” Canning said. “Four to five people within wireless range of each other could contact us, we can look at the costs and tell them that each would have to pay maybe $75 or $150 each month, then put the antenna on the tallest house.”

BI Wireless is actively looking to expand into other areas. The fiber-optic backbone to be installed by the Kitsap County Public Utilities District on Bainbridge opens up a lot of possibilities, Canning said.

“We haven’t talked to KPUD yet,” he said, “but we are looking at possibly becoming an aggressive last-mile provider in the county or on Bainbridge Island.”

The limiting factor, they say, is BI Wireless’ ability to support the service.

“With a few people, we can do it ourselves, but if we needed to hire four support people, that could cost a quarter million dollars, and that kind of money is hard to find,” Canning said.

Whatever they do, they want to make sure it’s done right.

“The telephone companies don’t have to treat people well, but we don’t have that luxury,” Thornton said.

Added McKinlay: “And we don’t want people coming up to us in the Pub and saying their internet isn’t working.”

——

BI Wireless can be reached by email at www.biwireless.net or by phone at (206) 866-1222.