Preseem’s Wireless ISP Texas Road Trip
In early March 2020, Preseem’s CEO, Gerrit Nagelhout, and Director of Marketing, Harneet Singh, headed to Dallas, Texas to prepare for the annual WISPAMERICA Conference. Arriving a week before the event start date, the pair visited a number of WISPs throughout the state that use Preseem in their network.
So began Preseem’s 2020 Texas Road Trip, which took our team from the Texas Panhandle to the outer reaches of the Texas Triangle. The team visited five unique wireless ISPs that serve rural Texas and beyond. Take a look at their journey below.
Days 1 and 2: Visiting AW Broadband and Resound Networks
The first stop on the road trip took the Preseem team from Dallas to Amarillo. In Amarillo, they met with Adair Winter, co-owner and VP of Network Operations at AW Broadband. They provide high speed wireless and fiber internet to homes and business across the Texas Panhandle.
With 45 employees and a fast-growing customer base, minimizing costs while maintaining a high quality of experience (QoE) is no small feat. Adair explained the value of having Preseem in his network came from its ability to provide timely, accurate information.
“Ultimately, we feel like Preseem has helped us to drive our support costs down,” he said. “We don’t feel like we have to have as many support people to support our customer base because we are more accurately capable of getting to the information we need to see and figuring out where that problem in the network exists. It makes our life from a support and management perspective a lot easier, and so our day-to-day operations wouldn’t be what they are without the team at Preseem.”
Thanks again to Adair, Matthew Carpenter, and the rest of the AW Broadband team for hosting us! See what the Preseem team got up to in Amarillo by watching the video below.
On the second day of the trip, our team headed north to the city of Pampa. There, they met with the senior leadership and networking team at Resound Networks. This included CEO Bryan Waldrip and Chadd Giles, their Chief Operating Officer.
Resound is a locally owned and operated WISP, serving the area in and around Pampa, Lubbock, and Hobbs. Our team welcomed the opportunity to visit Resound’s Pampa headquarters and learn more about how Preseem helps their business.
Day 3: Visiting Rock Solid Internet and Telephone
The Preseem team spent the third day of our road trip in the city of San Antonio. This city is not only home to landmarks such as the historic Alamo and the renowned King William Historic District, but also the offices of Rock Solid Internet and Telephone.
It was here that the Preseem team met with Rock Solid’s Customer Relations Manager, Lori Andrade. Lori shared Resound’s experience with Preseem, saying that Preseem “increases first-call resolution to where a customer is calling in, getting addressed, getting on the schedule, or at least getting educated as to what they can do to fix their home environment.” To hear more from Lori, and get an inside look at Rock Solid, check out the video below.
It was great to hear from Lori about how Preseem has helped the support staff at Rock Solid. Likewise, our team is glad to have met other members of Rock Solid such as Gary Burress and Sebastian Ivanisky!
With the third day of their travels complete, Gerrit and Harneet journeyed north for the next portion of their trip.
Day 4 and 5: Visiting Cirra Wireless and TekWav
The team’s next stop was the city of Fort Worth. There, they met up with Richard Strittmatter, CTO of Cirra Wireless. Serving over 4,000 square miles, Cirra is one of the largest wireless ISPs in North Texas. Our team was delighted to see Cirra’s operation, and for the opportunity to hear about how Preseem supports Cirra’s business.
After visiting Cirra Wireless, the Preseem team headed to Sherman, the final destination of the wireless ISP road trip. The last leg of their journey had the team meeting up with JJ McGrath, CEO of TekWav. A homegrown fixed wireless ISP, Tekwav serves Grayson County.
Thanks to an extensive facility tour by JJ, we got to see areas such as TekWav’s equipment testing room and data center. Watch the full facility tour in the video below!
Bonus Video: Meet TekWav
Watch as JJ shares some insights about his WISP operations, including an ingenious way that he markets his business!
Though the global spread of COVID-19 meant the cancellation of this year’s WISPAMERICA, we were happy to have made the trip to Texas. We hope these videos give you a glimpse into the state’s thriving fixed wireless industry, and the wireless ISPs behind it.
Thank you once again to all the ISPs that opened their doors to the Preseem team and showed us around their operations. The feedback from this road trip reaffirmed the value that Preseem provides network owners, operators, support staff, and subscribers. Of course, the Preseem team looks forward to seeing many more WISPs at events to come!
Want to see more videos from Preseem? Then be sure to check out our YouTube channel!
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