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It doesn't take a lot of equipment to create a high-speed, wireless Internet service for rural customers. That happy by-product of new technology has allowed Breiland to not only start a business inexpensively, but also expand it quickly.
When the phone calls of people wanting to be his customers began to flow in, he was able to quickly meet the demand as Ridge-Runner Wireless Internet Services.
In September, when he first put up a 160-foot-tall tower on his six-acre, ridge-top hobby farm on Gilmore Valley Road, Breiland was thinking he would only provide high-speed Internet service to nearby family and neighbors. He purchased Internet access through a T-1 phone line from Enventis Telecom then provided the equipment to allowed access to others.
"It worked so well that two months after the tower was up, people started calling saying, ‘Can we get it?' Since then demand has been really high," he said. "Once we realized the demand, we decided to expand to surrounding areas."
While most of his customers live in residences, Ridge-Runner Wireless also serves three businesses in the area. The only limitation on access is line-of-site requirements to his tower and repeaters. People living in rural valleys may not have access.
One of Breiland's goals was to make his service affordable for families. At $29.95 per month he is much lower than the alternatives, such as satellite Internet access going for around $70 per month. Ridge-Runner Internet also offers family-friendly features such as integrated anti-virus scanning and a spam stopper.
Breiland is not a newbie when it comes to computer technology. He has been Fastenal's network administrator and more recently the information services manager for Winona Clinic. He is also on the technical advisory committee of Minnesota State College-Southeast Technical.
Dealing with high speed Internet access at work spoiled him. At home, he could only access the Internet using a slow dial-up modem and a phone line. The typical access speed for dial-up is 26K per second. His new wireless service offers speeds up to 1400K and he guarantees at least 384K at all times.
It turned out that what frustrated him also frustrated many other rural residents who use the Internet.
One of Ridge-Runner's first customers was Ken Hunze who lives about two miles down the road.
"The only thing that was available was dial-up and it was slower than molasses," Hunze said. But once he was connected to the wireless service, "it was an eye opener," he said, "just as fast or faster than what we have (at work)."
"Our kids go to Cotter. It's impossible for them to do their homework on dial-up," said Marcia Breiland, Derek's wife and a part-time nurse in the behavioral medicine unit of Community Memorial Hospital. She has turned into a bookkeeper and public relations person for the new business.
When she comes home from work, Derek is usually out installing "outdoor Ethernet bridges" for new customers, and there are messages on the answering machine from potential clients for her to handle.
With 40 customers on board, the husband and wife entrepreneurs have begun expanding. Two weeks ago, they activated a repeater location in Witoka that can reach ridge land customers as far as 15 miles away. In about 90 days, they plan to activate similar repeater stations in Fremont and the Utica/Altura areas.
"We would like to get 30-to-40 customers from each repeater," Marcia said."
Derek adds, "Within three months we'd like to have 100 and 200 within six months. Eventually we want to be a total solution, one-stop shop offering computer sales and repair services."
While many people will be recovering from New Year's Eve revels today, Breiland will be hooking up two more customers.
"He works a lot," Marcia said.
One of the customers who is impressed with the service Breiland provides is John Vitek. "We were nervous because he's not a big provider. But we haven't had any junk mail since we were connected in October. And not a single spam in three months."
With his initial fears dissipated, Vitek calls Derek Breiland "intrepid" and a "visionary."
"It is quite a terrific thing for folks like us in a rural area. This is amazing. You click and it's there," Vitek said.
Contact reporter David Krotz at dkrotz@winonadailynews.com or call (507) 453-3524.
