June 28, 1999 An Important Newsletter; This newsletter follows up on some of the items addressed in our February newsletter, as well as some other good things. A huge amount of accomplishments have happened since February. A few changes have taken place as well. Read carefully. We have continued our goal of providing the best Internet service in the Midcoast area. To meet that goal we have added more 56K modems, increased the usage hours on our dialup plans, extended our office hours and reorganized our on-line help pages. Contents: 0) More Lines 1) New Office and New Hours 2) More Free Hours of Access 3) Asking for Help 4) Wireless Network Expansion 5) Planet Direct 6) Classes 0) More Lines (really really good news) Last time we wrote a newsletter, we were waiting for mysterious Bell Atlantic and Northland people to get their job done. It's done (for now)... We have added 280 lines of V90 56k gear wherever we could in our Bell Atlantic and Tidewater territories and about 26 additional lines of 33.6 in the Northland territory. That's about 300 lines in just a couple of months! Along with the new phone lines, we spent about $80,000 on equipment to make it all work and answer modem calls reliably. I really blew the budget, but it was for a good cause. Much of this is a replacement/upgrade for older services, such as the new Union number, or the new Rockland numbers. It also represents a major expansion which brings more lines to lots of people. It also brings V90 service to Belfast, Damariscotta, Union, and Wiscasset, where it was not available before the upgrade. It also brings V90 to the most popular pool of modem lines, as most new computer use V90. Since V90 is so new, you MUST keep your 56k modem up to date. If it's more than a month old or has been sitting in a warehouse someplace, it's likely to be lacking. Things change fast in the computer business. It can be freely upgraded though, and we encourage it. Additional information about getting the most out of 56k V90 modem is at: http://www.midcoast.com/help/modems/ A complete list of access numbers and their capabilities is at the following address: http://www.midcoast.com/mis/numbers.html This is really exciting to have this huge upgrade all up and going. It saves MIS staff a great deal of trouble, and I sleep much better at night knowing the job is done. Utility company delays are no longer (inaccurately) reflecting poorly on my ability to run a business. In the future, a major upgrade is in the works for Liberty (589). We have additional un-utilized facilities elsewhere that would permit us to add about 100 Bell Atlantic lines within a matter of hours, should growth warrant it anytime soon. 1) New Office and New Hours Our Rockland Office is at 25 Oak Street now. This is about 1/4 mile from where we were before. This offers about three times the space of the old office and permitted us to become more efficient and organized. It also has permitted us to add additional staff. We have employed Ron Goff full time in our technical support and CD-production. Ron also tinkers with webpages. Jacob Post is here for the summer from RIT and is helping with administration, wireless, and technical support, while Carmen is on a much deserved sabattical. Jim Thompson and Jason Simonds carry on her tasks. Charles Jones is also employed here for the summer and fall while taking a break from SMTC. He provides wireless hookups, site surveys, and is involved with many aspects of our growing wireless internet program. Kim Slawson is also here for the summer doing some web/database projects. In the Damariscotta office, Mitchell Wellman is employed full time providing customer service and technical support. Mike Genova has recently graduated high school and is working for the summer at the Damariscotta office. This isn't everybody; a full list is at: http://www.midcoast.com/mis/staff.html We have increased our hours of operation as well. Our office at 25 Oak Street (594-8277) is now open for more hours. M-W 8 AM to 6 PM Th 8 AM to 9 PM F 8 AM to 5 PM The move to the new office was quite sucessful and no internet services were interupted during the move. 2) More Free Hours of Access For the period of use starting 5/17/99 we have increased the hours available on the dialup plans. $20/month service plan is now 60 hours $30/month service plan is now 160 hours As before, the daily hours from midnight to 10 AM are free hours. We have two goals here: (1) Provide as many hours to customers as possible so as to meet their needs comfortably for internet usage. (2) Prevent overloading of the modem pools, which are limited resources. These plans provide a good balance and keep these two goals in check. "Unlimited" service, which we don't really offer, ignores the second goal. Severly metered services such as your cellphone go to the other extreme and hinder the first goal. We aim to provide a happy medium where everybody gets what they need. The free usage between midnight and 10am also beneficial to both goals. These plans DO permit multiple concurrent dialups, which is unique to MIS. Many other companies discourage it. If you need 24x7 access, we recommend our wireless internet service, or dedicated dialup. 3) Asking for Help Asking for assistance with internet related issues is something everyone needs to do from time to time. If after doing things like "reading instructions" and "doing research" you have an internet connection problem which is particularly vexing, do ask for help. We have people at both of our offices to help you. But you do have to ask. You can write to help@midcoast.com or support@lincoln.midcoast.com for technical assistance. You can write to accounts@midcoast.com for MIS billing/book-keeping matters. We have also updated the HELP homepage at MIS. This is created and maintained specifically for our customers. We have created webpages which answer common questions and assist in certain tasks. http://www.midcoast.com/help/ You can call the nearest MIS office for a live human being. The Rockland office is 594-8277 and the Damariscotta office is 563-8653. We have plenty of people on staff who can answer questions. MIS has grown intensely over the last 4 years. As a result the time demands on mangement and techincal staffs have increased tremendously. While jp@midcoast.com and jjs@midcoast.com appreciate email correspondence, help questions to them may not get an immediate answer. For the very quickest email responses, send message to the addresses outlined above. If it is something they can not respond to properly, the person doing the help email will contact the proper expert. 4) Wireless Network Expansion During the last newsletter, we were working on a repeater site on Ragged Mountain in Camden, as well as downtown locations in Camden. We were working on a repeater site on Benner Hill in Rockland as well. These are working! Ragged Mountain is servicing a 4-mile radius which covers parts of Hope, Union, Camden, Warren, Rockport, and West Rockport. The Rockport town office was the first to get hooked up from this repeater site. They can now access Email and Web without tying up phone-lines or paying any utilities. It's a 21st century speed and style which is not going to be outdated anytime soon. Other customers have been hooked up as well. Two planned repeater sites are running in downtown Camden as well. The first is atop the building where Maine Coast Photo is. This has customers hooked up and working nicely as well. We've also got a repeater site across the harbor at Wayfarer Marine. These should serve the needs of downtown Camden very well. Benner Hill sits up high behind Rockland. This provides excellent coverage to Rockland, and parts of Owls Head, Thomaston, Warren, South Thomaston, and acts as a repeater to other areas we want to expand to. We also have a site up and running at the old church building on Pascals avenue in Rockport. We will put up an omnidirectional antenna as soon as people need it, or as soon as they get a new steeple, whichever comes first. We're excited to have these places working, and they represent very good news for people in those areas who want 24x7 internet access and extremely good network performance. Wireless projects we're working on still include: Washington/Liberty, The Islands, St. George peninsula, Damariscotta area, and Wiscasset/Bath area. MIS owners have recently bought a very large 300' multipurpose communications tower 4 miles east of Bath. This is on Westport Island. This will be used for wireless at some point, but is also available for other communications needs if you or someone you know needs to colocate communications services at a tower site in that area. Our Benner Hill tower is also available for smaller colocation needs. We are not willing to offer colocation at our Owls Head tower. Charles Jones, a new employee, is facilitating wireless installs and site surveyes for customers. This makes it easy and quick to get on the internet this way. Information about this very fast (and affordable) service is at http://www.midcoast.com/mis/wireless/ Phone bills rising a little too quickly for you? Wireless internet might be a solution. Our wireless internet service is primarily a means of having high speed internet access without phone lines. We can also provide remote off-site backup services to businesses, as well as virtual-private-networking to businesses as well. I (Jason Philbrook) went to a special by-invitation-only Breezecom meeting of ISPs in Las Vegas. Customer antenna prices have dropped slightly (not too much though) due to our greater purchasing, and the increased purchasing of antennas by a small group of other ISPs. Wireless Internet services like we provide are starting to develop in half a dozen market areas nationwide, as well as Mexico and Brazil. We learned that wireless is in great demand in Brazil due to the fact that it can take a year to get a phone line there in some cases. Really backwards country. Sounds a lot like our ordeal a few months ago? :-) Some other enterprising ISPs in attendance are using Breezecom equipment just like we are to provide service in places like Florida, Los Angeles CA, certain Texas cities, Las Vegas NV, San Jose CA, certain places in Oregon, and Detriot MI. 1999 is the year that Wireless data service will be a big buzzword in the computer industry press. In the future we will be testing some of the new products which include units with built in phone jacks, as well as ethernet. You'll be able to hook up a telephone or fax machine and do Voice-over-IP calls via our internet. The equipment we've been hooking up will not be outdated either according to Breezecom. The speed is so much more than needed. Breezecom will also be working with national publications to provide more consumer information and education about wireless networking. 5) Planet Direct We mentioned it before in the February newsletter. There is a new icon on our homepage. It's something for most everyone, and it's done at no charge, thanks to Planet Direct. There are a few ads on it, but they pay for Planet Directs constant updating and work. We don't benefit from them - We worked with Planet Direct to make this a nice free website for our customers and friends. This personalized Web service -- produced by Planet Direct -- tailors your Web experience to your interests and local community. It's been created to help you make the most of your time by delivering the best of the Internet in a way that is useful and relevant to you. Experience your personalized Web Service immediately, by going to http://midcoast.planetdirect.com. Midcoast's new service provides you with: * Easy customization of your own personalized Web service. Instant access to e-mail, your favorite Web sites, and information you need daily, such as breaking news, local and national weather forecasts, real-time stock quotes or maps and driving directions. * Highly personalized tools, such as the ability to view your e-mail from any computer in the world through a unique e-mail center, set up a stock portfolio, create a virtual address book and a personal reminders calendar, plus so much more. * Ability to "Surf and Search" the Internet. * A robust community atmosphere with opportunities to express yourself through chat rooms, discussion groups, opinion polls, and instant messaging with other members. * Local information for 380 communities across 15 broad-interest topics and 90 subtopics such as Movies&TV, Home&Auto, and others. The service is FREE to you and available immediately (without disks or downloads) at http://midcoast.planetdirect.com. 6) Classes at the Midcoast Computer Training Center Our training center is now a collaborative venture between Midcoast Community Education, Midcoast Internet Solutions and Rockbound Computer. We don't make a dime on this venture though. This is something we do to enhance the computer skills of the people in our community. While MIS and Rockbound Computer own the training center in Rockland where we have classes, we have transferred the scheduling and coordination of classes to SAD5 Adult Ed, known as Midcoast Community Education. Their phone number is 596-2018. We think summer is a great time for this transition to take place because we offer fewer classes during the summer. MCE has vast experience in offering quality classes and is very excited to use our small, private, modern, computer laboratory. Expect and look forward to a healthy array of classes when school starts again in September. Businesses that want uniquely scheduled or uniquely designed classes can have them any time of the year and should contact Midcoast Community Education at 596-2018.