Telecom Ramblings

Yonder Media and SureWest Communications (SURW: chart, news) announced today that Yonder has acquired the fixed wireless customer base of SureWest.  SureWest has been selling off all the bits and pieces of its wireless business over the last few years, preferring to focus on its wired efforts.  One has to wonder though about the press releases.  At 3:53pm they ‘entered into an agreement‘ and at 5:52pm they had ‘completed the sale‘.  Two hours?  You can’t even close on a house in two hours most of the time, nor can most companies write a PR that fast.  Not that it matters, a deal is a deal.

Now, this is not a big deal, it affects only a thousand customers or so near Sacramento.  The revenue involved is negligible for SureWest, as is the sale price.  But lately I’ve been on the lookout for wireless efforts beyond the major cities.  Fiber to the home won’t get us broadband everywhere, so everyone knows that wireless must play a role in rural areas.  Yet finding those trying to actually do this can be quite a task.  They tend to have a local focus, and a low national profile. 

So who is Yonder Media?  They were just started in 2006, are based in Reno, and were called Pearl Networks until a few days ago.  That’s all I know so far, we will have to see if they have put together a business model for rural fixed wireless that can get us somewhere.  I wonder if they are looking for stimulus funds…