An Interview With Doug Keeney, CEO U.S. Wireless Online

by Scanlon Putegnat

WDN: What's your company's mission?

Keeney: To be a dominant player in fixed wireless transport; a fixed wireless ISP - we provide bandwidth and connectivity over the 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz bands.

WDN: How would you explain your business to a layman?

Keeney: We provide last mile connectivity to the internet for small/medium sized businesses - quickly, seamlessly, at speeds up to 10Mbits/sec.

WDN: Who do you view as your competitors?

Keeney: The people providing the same or similar services as us in the unlicensed spectrum would be Airband, Air2lan, Fusion, and Broadlink. The opportunity is really defined by the DSL market. That's really who we compete with. Further, you could add MCI, Sprint, WorldCom, AT&T in the licensed spectrum.

WDN: What makes your product/service unique?

Keeney: It's affordable, synchronous, high-speed connectivity, which is scalable at the touch of a mouse. When you need additional bandwidth for things like teleconferencing, large file transfer, etc. we can temporarily give you the bandwidth you need without having to pay the high cost of a full-time larger bandwidth pipe. Further, most of the DSL services are asynchronous and are fairly inexpensive. However, business users who must have synchronous DSL have to pay much higher costs. We provide a much less expensive wireless alternative. In addition we are the first company who has really moved the marker for connection distances from 1200 feet to 30 miles.

WDN: Do you have customers? How would they say your product/service has impacted their business?

Keeney: Yes. We focus everything on the utility side of the fence - what benefit our service provides our client. We focus on high-bandwidth users - image, video, film graphics, architectural engineering, etc. We are a fraction of the cost of the local phone company.

The biggest impact has been a much lower cost than a fixed-wire solution, Increased productivity because of the on-demand bandwidth increase and generally faster access to internet content.

WDN: What's it take to win in this market?

Keeney: Customer service. You can have all the technology in the world and if you stumble on the basics like installation and maintenance, you will fail.

First to market is key - but that's really a defensive strategy. Land grabbing has put some big carriers/providers close to the edge of bankruptcy. First to market that meets consumer expectations is key. That's where we focus.

There are provisions that provide us some protection as first to market provider in this space, but that doesn't make up for the need to provide exceptional customer service.

WDN: How has the current state of the economy affected your company's 2001 business strategy?

Keeney: No. Not at all. Actually equipment financing is getting a little better.

WDN: How do you think other wireless data technologies like Bluetooth will affect your opportunities?

Answer: The beauty of the different wireless technologies is that they are being designed so that they each serve special purposes and can interoperate together very well. 802.11 provides for 3 separate channels that can be used in conjunction with other wireless services and if you have interference on one channel from your Bluetooth device you can switch over to another channel and clear up that interference.

WDN: Tell me a little bit about how you see the developer community really being able to take advantage of your services to develop new software solutions.

Keeney: Since the 802.11 wireless technology is built with two very well understood and standardized protocols (Ethernet and Radio Frequency), developers don't have to learn any new technologies.

WDN: Any concerns about the future of the frequency spectrum in which you provide your services?

Keeney: We're of two mind sets here - we're moderately pro-regulation since the spectrum in which we operate is becoming more and more congested. Plus, as regulation comes about, we think it keeps out the "weaker players." On the other hand, the FCC has caused the owners of a given spectrum to buy out the other player's interests in that area - so regulation can make things very costly.

WDN: What are some of the big hurdles you're going to be facing?

Keeney: Installation, customer service, etc.- execution, execution, execution- the technology is not the issue.

WDN: How's your funding?

Answer: We've got excellent cash reserves. We're in good shape. You'll probably hear about a significant round of funding within the next 5-6 months - just like all the other guys in this space.

WDN: How can you guys offer your services so cheaply and still make money?

Keeney: Fixed wireless on unlicensed spectrum is so much cheaper than the licensed arena. Technology manufacturers are in full production. Our variable costs to connect a new customer is only around 12%. Accordingly, we can pass on our low cost of doing business to our customers.

WDN: What's in the plans for the near future? Any big announcements we should be looking out for? What about new service offerings?

Keeney: We've got a new product being developed in FL and Kentucky. We're not pushing VOIP at the moment. We're focusing more on the applications side of the house where wireless connectivity provides the ultimate convenience.

WDN: Care to go out on a limb and provide me with any forward looking statements or projections?

Keeney: We'll be 1000+ subscribers (10,000+ desks) by end of 2001.