Fauquier residents depend on the broadband whisperer

Paul Conlin, the proprietor of Blaze Broadband, is not a typicaltelecom executive. He drives a red pickup and climbs roofs. Whencustomers call tech support, he is the one who answers.

Conlin delivers broadband to Fauquier County homes bypassed byComcast and Verizon, bouncing wireless signals from antennae onbarns, silos, water towers and cellphone poles.

By some measures, he is a local hero.

"I don't know how Paul does it," said John Chierichella, aDistrict lawyer who struggled for years without reliable broadband."I don't really care. All I know is I get service now."

County officials estimate that 60 percent of Fauquier's residentshave been bypassed by big telecoms because they don't live inpopulous clusters that make building broadband infrastructure cost-effective. Although the Obama administration has plans to close thedigital divide for the 10 percent of the U.S. population withoutbroadband access, many living within that gap in Fauquier think theproblem will be theirs to solve.

"The big guys are just not going to come out here and serve allof us," said Peter Schwartz, a county supervisor who places one handon his refrigerator to get a stable cellphone signal in his home."We are going to have to solve this problem creatively ourselves."

Fauquier might be 45 miles from the White House, but manyresidents can't look at whitehouse.gov in their homes. So officials,fearful that the county won't qualify for broadband infrastructuregrants because of its high median income, are pushing to expandhomegrown services such as Conlin's. "This is one of the ways that asmall entrepreneur can do what the big boys are unwilling to do,"said Paul McCulla, the county administrator. "That's the reality ofthe situation we face here."

A former automotive engineer, Conlin became interested in canopywireless Internet service out of frustration that he couldn't getbroadband at home. The costs to bring the bandwidth to his housewere high, so he connected his neighbors' homes and had them sharethe costs.

Knowing others would be jealous, Conlin tried to keep the setupquiet. But it's hard to keep the Internet locked in a box. Soon,people across the county heard he had broadband, and they began towhisper in his ear when they saw him: "Can you get me the Internet?"

Sensing an opportunity, Conlin started Blaze Broadband in 2006and became one of nearly 3,000 wireless Internet service providers,or WISPs, across the country. WISPs provide broadband Internetservice to more than 2 million homes, often in rural towns orcounties. The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association listseight operators in Virginia and four in Maryland.

Using equipment made by Motorola and regulated by the FederalCommunications Commission, WISPs buy broadband capacity fromproviders in nearby jurisdictions with widespread high-speedinfrastructures. They connect the signal to microwave antennae inhigh spots and then beam to small antennae on home rooftops.

Conlin's job is part geographer, part roof climber, partengineer, part tech support and part community organizer. If a houseis blocked from his signal, he reaches out to neighbors to becomeconduits for his signal, offers them discounts for their own serviceand gets everyone hooked up. He is rarely turned down.

"People want to help each other out," Conlin said. "We are all apart of this community, and we want the Internet."

Take the experience of Ellie Spencer. She had no idea her house,high on a ridge in Fauquier County, was digitally advantageous untila neighbor phoned one afternoon with a peculiar request. Would shetake a call, the neighbor wondered, from her friend Conlin, a localfellow who needed her roof?

Spencer, who needed reliable broadband Internet service herself,took the call. What Conlin wanted: to beam an Internet signal to herroof, then redirect it to a house below hers in the rolling hillsjust outside Warrenton.

And that's how the Chierichella family got the Internet. "Ishould send her a Christmas card," Shannon Chierichella said in herback yard, looking up at Spencer's home. "This really has changedour lives."

The Chierichellas went through several unreliable satelliteservices before Spencer, high up the ridge, came to the rescue. Backin their satellite provider days, John Chierichella often would tryto work at home, but the service would crash, so he'd get in his carand head east.

Having reliable high-speed Internet service has allowed him towork from home a couple of days a week instead of sitting inInterstate 66 traffic for hours that seem like days. "I don't havethat anxiety anymore of waking up and wondering if the Internet isgoing to work," John Chierichella said.

Conlin, 42, rides around Fauquier in his big red pickup, and hehas made it his business to know the location of most of itstowering trees; they can block his signal. "They are beautiful and Ilove them, but they cause me a lot of headaches," he said one recentday, winding along the county's bumpy roads.

Blaze Broadband download speeds can hit 10 megabits per second,which is on par with or slower than traditional telecoms, dependingon signal strength and plan. Monthly service is about $89, and thereis a one-time $329 installation fee. Conlin has pre-qualified homesfor real estate agents who worry houses won't sell when buyers checkto see whether Comcast or Verizon service is available.

"The Internet I get from him is the fastest I have had anywhere,"said Suzanne Corbett. "I would have been miserable had I not foundhis service. And if there's a problem, you leave a message and heactually calls you back."

Conlin has closely studied where every house in Fauquier is andwhich broadband services are available. Out of the 25,000 structuresin the county, Conlin calculates that about half are without digitalsubscriber line or cable Internet service. Conlin currently servesabout 300 of them and is working with county officials to expandfaster.

For those who aren't served by Conlin's company or can't affordthe fees, there are other options, some more palatable than others.Those who have good cellphone signals - a rarity - can buy wirelessbroadband cards, an option Verizon often offers in lieu of expandingDSL service, but there are expensive overage charges. (The Obamaadministration is also pushing the high-speed cellular route.)

Many residents camp out in downtown Warrenton at Panera Bread orBorders Books to surf the Internet, post Facebook updates or orderpresents on Amazon. Library officials, who found in a recent surveyof 692 people that roughly half didn't have traditional broadbandaccess, have reported a surge in people using computers at theirfacilities.

"Some people go out for ice cream," said Margaret Seaman, who wasrecently filing her taxes using Panera's wi-fi. "We go out to usethe Internet."

The other day, Ed Randolph, who has only dial-up access at home,was using Mapquest on one of the six computer terminals at theWarrenton library. He needed to find a courthouse in Fairfax to paya traffic ticket.

"Usually you have to wait in line to use one of these computers,"said Randolph, 65. "They are in high demand."

Nearby, 27-year-old Sarah Hunt updated her Facebook page. Askedwhat she would do without high-speed access at the library, shesaid, "I would go crazy." She did not seem to be joking.