September 7, 2016 at 2:57 p.m.
After nearly a year, Minocqua has a new broadband agreement
New 10-year leases with SonicNet approved last week
After nearly a year, Minocqua has a new broadband agreement
The leases, for three different towers the town owns, are for 10 years, as opposed to the initial five-year term the town had with the company which expired in November of last year.
The most recent in a series of extensions approved by the town board since that time was set to expire on Aug. 31.
The agreement was reached and the leases signed by the company's owners Aug. 22.
Following a brief closed session meeting last Tuesday with Pete Otis, who serves as the town's broadband and business development committee chairman, the town board approved the leases and town chairman Mark Hartzheim signed them as well.
The town owns three 180-foot towers, on the south side of town off of Gun Club Road, at the old Mercer Lake Road dump site off State Highway 70 west of town and just off Bo Di Lac Road, also west of town.
Under terms of the original five-year lease, the town charged $1 per subscriber per month.
Otis told The Lakeland Times Thursday if the company had no subscribers, SonicNet didn't pay the town anything.
"We've had three interim leases," he said.
Under terms of the first 90-day lease extension, the amount the company paid was increased to $150 per tower.
"Then, we found out they overloaded the towers by quite a bit," Otis said. "Like, by twice as much as they can handle."
He said that's why the new leases have a provision which has the company building the town three new towers.
"What we did was we said in lieu of increasing the rent immediately to $375 for two towers and $750 for one, since they have so much equipment on these towers, we said, 'You build us three new towers.'"
Otis said the original towers would remain where they are but then SonicNet would have to, at its own expense, move its equipment to the new towers and also at their expense, build three new towers. "So, we left the rent at $150 per tower for five years," he said.
On Nov. 1, 2021, the tower rent increases to the $375 per tower per month for the Bo Di Lac Road and Mercer Lake Road towers and $750 per month for the Gun Club Road tower.
Otis, also on the Oneida County broadband committee, said the Minocqua broadband and business development committee's work isn't finished.
"We're not sure what we're going to do yet other than keep the committee intact," he said.
Otis said Oneida County just received a grant for Northwoods Connect, another wireless broadband provider.
That business, he said, is actually going to bring long term evolution, or LTE, broadband to the Minocqua area.
"They're on the radio station tower south of town, across from Timber Ridge," Otis said.
He said Northwoods Connect also has equipment on a Wisconsin Department of Transportation tower by Squirrel Lake and a county tower near the Willow Flowage.
"So, they're going to upgrade to LTE in the Minocqua area and quite a few other ones," Otis said.
As for the new leases between the town and SonicNet, he said everyone is happy.
"We actually kind of helped SonicNet get into business," Otis said. "They were a very young company and we gave them a pretty sweetheart deal there in the beginning. A buck per subscriber, we built the towers and all they had to do was put their equipment on. Even if they didn't have a customer, they didn't owe us anything. So, they ended up, after five years, having 300 customers and that provided them with pretty good cash flow and everything."
He said there's other competition coming with Northwoods Connect "and who knows who else."
"We want them to succeed and it's good that people in Minocqua are getting broadband," Otis said.
Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.