Foothills Connections and Other Reasons Why I Can’t Write Fiction
By Tim Will

In 2005, the e-NC Authority and the Rutherford County Commission pooled their money to create the Foothills Connect Business and Technology Center, whose mission was to create economic opportunity and foster entrepreneurship through technology.  A Board of Directors was appointed, a staff hired and the heavy lifting began.

It is generally recognized that the provision of broadband services (in most cases read that “the Internet”) is directly related to economic development: obviously, there can be no Internet economy without high speed access.  In retrospect, it strains credulity that after waiting so long, 100 miles of fiber optic cable was strung within Rutherford County in less than two years.  Waiting almost 18 months more for a wireless Internet operator to step forward, the Board of Directors of Foothills Connect instructed its staff to make it happen.  Forging a public/private partnership with an Asheville based, very innovative wireless Internet operator, Skyrunner, and borrowing against a recent $50,000 technology award from Hewlett Packard, Foothills Connection Broadband was created. 

I can remember sweating through chilly December nights wondering how, as the man in whose driveway the buck parks its car, I would ever find a person to manage and construct the needed wireless Internet infrastructure of the Foothills Connection with just a borrowed $25,000.   At 62, I was not going to go scampering up water towers and antennas to install radio transmitters myself and the last thing that I wanted to receive was a cell phone call from a young geek perched on a silo’s roof asking me how to attach wire nuts to radios.  Then it dawned on me:  what I needed was a veteran Army Communications Specialist who’d been shot at while dangling from a phone pole in a combat zone – someone who’s only thought was how quickly could he connect the circuit and get the hell down from that pole.

I began to sleep better and, was able to focus on our other big project, recruiting farmers to grow specialty crops to sell to Charlotte consumers over the Internet, www.farmersfreshmarket.org . I needed the concentration because a large group of Hmong farmers out of Burke County wanted to crack the quickly growing Asian market in Charlotte with Asian rice and vegetables but the language barrier was stifling their marketing efforts.  So, while the staff was sifting through these prickly and tedious cultural and language issues, I received an unsolicited phone call from a gentleman that told me that he had just retired from the Navy after 20 years of service as a Communications Chief Petty Officer.  He had heard about our wireless Internet efforts and he wanted to be a part of it. With quivering lips I asked if he’d ever been shot at while dangling from a phone pole and he answers “Sure. A lot.   I was stationed for three years with the Navy Seabees’.  

You can’t make this stuff up.  But it actually gets better. 

I interview the guy and he checks out.   I hire him, his name is Savang Moua.  I ask, “Savang, are you a Filipino?”  He replies, “No, I’m a Hmong” My Father fought with the Americans in Vietnam and we had to leave when they did.   I grew up here 20 years ago.    The next time we met with the Burke County Hmong farmers, a member of the Foothills Connect staff, to their great surprise, spoke to them in their native Hmong language.
 Like I said, if you read this in a book it would’ve been labeled fiction.

Savang Moua, our improbable new Foothills Connection Broadband Project Manger has, for the past 90 days, been busily engaged negotiating with municipalities for the right to put his point to multi-point transmitters on water towers, mountain ridges, fire towers and every sort of high ground.   He’s even advised two home owners how to erect strategically placed private antennas for their use and that of their neighbors.   One home owner called me to say that Savang had even offered to dig the foundation for his antenna. 

Now Savang (828 288 1650) has a growing list of these strategically placed antennas pictured below, and he’s installing broadband receivers on the houses of dozens of Internet subscribers. He has already installed them for several happy campers in the Lake Lure area and right now, if a house has an unobstructed line of sight of Tryon Mountain, Young’s, Yellow top or  Little Pisgah Mountains, Savang can quickly configure that household some dedicated bandwidth consisting of 6 Mbs/s download and 2 Mbs/s upload for $60.00 per month.  $10.00 of the figure will be deposited monthly in a scholarship fund to pay the Internet of low income students.  Slower speeds are available, but, realistically, the $60 package is twice the advertised broadband speeds of AT&T’s offering for approximately the same price.

THE RED CIRCLES REPRESENT THE LOCATIONS OF SAVANG’S CURRENT RADIO TRANSMITTERS

Savang can configure up to a 100Mbt/s dedicated Internet circuit.  He’s always installing new transmitters in his flexible, Navy Seabee inspired system.  Soon, when the Federal Communications Commission finishes procrastinating, he’ll be able to snap on an additional radio that will transmit similar Internet bandwidth over the ground-hugging and foliage-penetrating “white space” spectrum that were abandoned by the public TV channels after they turned all-digital last year.   Then, the Foothills Connection will have two ways to get its customers some high speed broadband.

Give Savang a call if you’d like high speed broadband.  Be patient: he’s working like a madman but already has a waiting list of over 100 names.