Almost a year has past since the Lincoln County Fiscal Court unanimously approved Hometown Wireless’s plan to provide all of the residents of Lincoln County with true wireless broadband service. In our plan we proved to the court that we could provide coverage to the entire county by using existing towers located in and around the county. I have attached to this letter, a propagation study conducted by a certified RF engineer that confirms the feasibility of the plan. While the Fiscal Court granted Hometown Wireless permission to collocate on several water tanks as it turned out they did not have the right to do so. However, this did not affect Hometown’s plan to provide coverage to all residents in Lincoln County, only temporarily prolonging the start of our build out plan. After revising our build out plan, Hometown has begun to do exactly what we said we would do, which is to provide all of Lincoln County with true wireless broadband service.
Currently Hometown provides coverage to one third of the county. Our existing coverage area includes Stanford, Crab Orchard, Broughtontown and parts of Waynesburg and Kings Mountain. We also serve over 70 customers in Lincoln County with true high-speed wireless broadband service and will extend our coverage farther into Waynesburg, Kings Mountain, McKinney and Hustonville by the end of January 2010.
At present, Hometown has also submitted an application for grants through the Dept. of Agriculture in order acquire additional funding to expand our coverage into Lincoln, Garred and Casey counties.
In so doing, Hometown has followed all of the rules and regulations in order to conduct business in Lincoln County. We have received no special treatment from any Government entity in Lincoln County and would expect the same for our competition. Therefore Hometown would like to ask the Fiscal Court why they are considering changing the rules and regulations for Wimax Express? Wimax Express has not displayed any interest in providing coverage to all residents of Lincoln County. Wimax has never submitted any plan showing how they wish to cover the entire county with broadband service. But what Wimax has done is shown no regard for the rules and regulation of the County by building towers without approval or permits.
Wimax requested that Fiscal Court wave the permitting fee but was denied by a vote of ALL the Magistrates. Permitting fees are an associated cost of doing business and therefore should be paid. If Wimax knowingly cannot afford the permitting fees why are they in business? Why did they build a tower knowing that they were breaking the rules and regulations? Why should Wimax be treated any differently from other broadband providers that serve Lincoln County? Broadband providers such as AT&T, Sprint or T Mobile have not built towers in Lincoln County; “build to suit” tower companies, who paid the same fees that Wimax refuses to pay, built all of the towers in Lincoln County for “collocation”. These tower companies do not build towers to provide any kind of telecommunication or broadband services; they only build towers in order to lease space to companies wishing to provide telecommunication and broadband services.
If you change the rules for one company who will be next? Both P&Z and the Fiscal Court could set a precedent that could decrease property values in Lincoln County by allowing towers to be built in places that could be served by existing towers. The Kentucky Public Service Commission drafted the existing ordinance that Lincoln County has adopted and the rules were created to prevent proliferation of commercial towers, and to preserve the property values of residents that live adjacent to towers that transmit signals for commercial use. Wimax and Hometown are no different from any other broadband company wishing to do business in Lincoln County, including AT&T. Hometown sees no reason why Wimax cannot collocate on existing towers in Lincoln County. Hometown feels that P&Z should request an RF propagation study from Wimax showing why they cannot provide coverage utilizing existing towers in Waynesburg, to serve the existing 30 customers they claim they will loose. Why should the Fiscal Court and P&Z base their decision to change the rules because one man, who’s credibility is in question, says that he cannot provide service to the folks in Waynesburg using existing towers? P&Z should request proof. The reason why I question Mr. Housner credibility is because in his letter to P&Z he states that I am from Nashville Tennessee, when in fact I was raised in Waynesburg Kentucky. My grandfather was the late Clarence Barnett who served his community his entire life with Barnett and Demrow Funeral Home. I’m a graduate and was all state in football from Lincoln County High School. My family’s service to this county would seem to overshadow any efforts Mr. Housner might ever accomplish.
I left Lincoln County 20 years ago to pursue a career in the telecommunications industry. For the past 19 years I have provided consulting services to the worlds largest communication companies including AT&T, Sprint and T Mobile. Mr. Housner provides no solution to the problem but in contrast creates more problems for both the Fiscal Court and P&Z and has proven his lack of credibility in his attempt to defame me along with the Fiscal Court members who voted to approve Hometown Wireless’s plan, to cover the entire county with broadband coverage. Mr. Housner was quoted in the IJ saying that County attorney Daryl Day was my cousin; this not even being close to true proves, once again, Mr. Housner will say anything to distract people from the truth.
As I’ve said previously, the Fiscal Court unanimously approved our plan to provide broadband coverage to the residents of Lincoln County and we will do just that. My word remains my bond. We would request that the Lincoln County Fiscal Court honor the agreement they made with Hometown Wireless by simply enforcing the rules that are already in place. As far our part, Hometown Wireless will build out its network to cover the entire county because we follow through on our word.
Thank you for your consideration,
Jim Duff
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