Man delivers broadband to rural Va.: ; Entrepreneur built transmission tower and designed system that allows remote controls

APPOMATTOX, Va. - Just like many rural West Virginians, someresidents outside this Civil War-era community are desperate foraccess to high-speed Internet.

Enter Dennis Hunt, a feisty 60-something ("I'm too old to careabout the something") with a relentless entrepreneurial spirit.

"Back in the yonder, Digital Bridge (a multi-state provider ofInternet services) was talking about putting broadband in ruralareas," Hunt said. "I thought, 'That's great. We were on dial-up andlooking for something faster. I said, 'You're right here inAppomattox - when are you going to come to rural areas?' The personI talked to basically said they weren't because they couldn't getenough revenue from that.

"I said, 'We have a right to have Internet as much as the peoplein town. They already have cable.' I started thinking, 'Maybe that'ssomething I ought to do.'"

Hunt's wife, Nancy, was skeptical.

"She said, 'You don't know anything about doing it. You've neverrun an Internet service provider.' I said somebody's gotta do it. SoI did. And she did because she's married to me."

For more than two years Hunt regularly hauled gasoline 1 1/2miles "whether the sun was shining or rain was falling or there wassnow on the ground" to feed an electric generator that powered atransmission tower he had built on a steep hillside.

Hunt designed and installed a system that now allows him toremotely control the tower. He swapped out the electric generatorfor a propane generator with a bigger fuel tank. Two weeks ago hebuilt a solar array and filled a shed on the hillside with carbatteries to store electricity for use on cloudy days.

But he still has to cross a creek and drive up and down a steephillside to get to his tower site.

And whenever maintenance requires it, Hunt climbs the spindly,190-foot tower by himself.

Professionals charge $1,000 to climb a tower, Hunt said. "I can'tafford that. I never climbed towers before. Now I have to."

When Hunt is performing such dangerous work, he calls Nancy everyhour. They have an agreement: If he doesn't check in, she will call911.

"I think there are two kinds of people - those who say, 'It can'tbe done,' and those who say, 'I will find a way to do it,' " Huntsaid during a recent tour of his network. "I've always been one ofthose who is determined to find a way."

Of course Hunt hopes to make a fortune with his built-from-scratch network. But these days, when he's not figuring out how tosling a Wi-Fi signal around a hill, he has some explaining to do toNancy. She keeps the books for their two-person company, GNSNetworks, and she asks about the money Hunt spends on equipment.

None of it is cheap. Each simple-looking yagi antenna Huntinstalls for a customer costs $300. Most of the other gear costs alot more.

Four years ago, when Hunt established the company, he chargedcustomers $195 up front to get on his network. "I was going $100 inthe hole every time I signed up a new customer," he said.

Hunt's father, a retired candy salesman, knows a lot about sales."He told me I couldn't go on doing that," Hunt said. "I've learned alot from him."

Hunt has raised the new-customer fee to $295. That still justcovers his costs. Hunt hopes the $39.95 monthly fee he charges willeventually result in some profit.

Hunt now has about 100 customers along the back roads betweenAppomattox and Concord. He's constantly thinking about how to expandhis network and scouting for locations that hold the most promise ofbringing in new customers.

He knows the service he provides is needed and some folks arewilling to pay for it. He competes with AT&T and U.S. Cellular. Aconsumer can plug a so-called "air card" into a computer and accessthe Internet over a cellular network.

"AT&T customers are paying $69.95 a month," he said.

Rural customers also have the option of signing on withHughesNet, which provides Internet service via satellite. ButHughesNet customers must limit their use so all customers haveaccess to the satellite.

GNS Networks does not have a monthly use limit.

"One of my customers is a medical transcriptionist," Hunt said."Another is a nurse who was hurt at work. She's in a wheelchair. Sheuses three to five gigs a day because she watches movies overNetflix."

One gigabyte is equal to about an hour of video.

"A fellow called me who said he wanted Internet service so hisdaughter could communicate with her momma, who is in Korea. Theyvisit using Skype," a software application that allows users to makefree voice calls over the Internet.

"Everybody has their reason."

Hunt claims his company provides better service than hiscompetitors. "If you have a problem, I am local - you can drive tomy house," he said. "You can't contact the guy who runs AT&T. Youdon't even know where he lives."

Hunt's network runs off two towers - the one he built and oneerected by the Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative, also known asMBC.

A nonprofit, MBC was established in 2003 to promote economicdevelopment in rural southern Virginia by deploying a world-classfiber-optic backbone network. In addition to providing Hunt andothers with space on its tower, MBC hauls the Internet to a nearbysite. Hunt's company is a member of the cooperative.

Tad Deriso, MBC's president and chief executive officer, said ina recent interview that before the cooperative came to the area,there was no way to get broadband Internet from the closest bigcity, Lynchburg, to Appomattox - a distance of almost 23 miles -other than to pay big money for a so-called T-1 line.

MBC laid a fiber optic cable to Appomattox. The cooperativewholesales Internet access to any of its members, like Hunt, whowant to build a last-mile network.

Deriso said Hunt is doing exactly what MBC always envisioned thecooperative would help make happen: The deployment of high-speedInternet to rural Virginia.

GEORGE HOHMANN/DAILY MAIL Dennis Hunt points to the solar panelshe installed two weeks ago that help provide power to a tower site.The shed contains car batteries that store power for use on cloudydays and a lawn chair, where he can relax when hes not tinkeringwith his wireless broadband Internet network.

Contact writer George Hohmann at business@dailymail.com or 304-348-4836.