Q. What is La Cañada Wireless Association (LCWA)?
We are a non-profit cooperative located in the Santa Fe, New Mexico area that is dedicated to providing low-cost, high-speed internet access to rural areas near Santa Fe. Currently we are focused on the South 285 corridor (El Dorado, Lamy, and more), the South NM 14 corridor (including Cerrillos and Madrid), the hills above Old Las Vegas Highway (southeast of Santa Fe), as well as other nearby under-served areas. See this link for a map of our current access points. We are modeled on the community network model, which promotes cooperative sharing of bandwidth and access. We also believe that bandwidth and access should be free of corporate control, governed and owned by the users.
Q. What does the service cost?
Our fees for service are determined by our members at regular meetings. Please see our Services & Rates page for more information.
Q. Why is the service so cheap?
No large salaries, low overhead, no capital intensive infrastructure. Most labor to design, build, and support the network is performed by volunteers, and we use standard off-the-shelf components and/or low cost equipment.
Q. How do you justify your access cost?
We pool the buying power of our membership households to buy bulk internet access, which we then distribute to members. We also use much or our working capital to help build, support, and upgrade the network infrastructure.
Q. Where does the extra money go?
There are maintenance and overhead costs, but remember: this is a non-profit cooperative. The members decide about the disposition of any extra money. There’s no reason extra money, after expenses, couldn’t be rebated to the members. As a community resource, the money could be used to provide access to needy households. We often support local community events that require internet access.
Q. What does it cost to get started?
There is equipment required at your house to reach our wireless access points. This includes a wireless bridge, a POE device, a router, and associated cabling and mounting. Depending how adept one is with electronics and mechanics, the cost can range from $100 to $400 for this equipment. The association can’t afford to front you the cost of this equipment like for-profit companies do – that’s part of keeping our monthly costs as low as possible. So, you’ll have to front that money yourself.
Q. Isn’t that a lot of money to get started?
With for-profit high-speed network providers, you will most likely pay that much, and maybe more. The difference is that with for-profits, you amortize the cost of your hardware over the duration of your service contract. In addition, there’s usually other overt and/or covert charges like “installation cost”, “programming fee”, and such. In some cases, you don’t even get to keep the hardware.
Q. What radio should I order?
LCWA will recommend the radio and supply it with the installation.
Q. What router should I order?
LCWA recommends the airCube ISP router due to its low cost, reliability, 2.4 GHz radio, and the ability for remote diagnosis. We will supply an airCube with the installation. Other router models will work as well, but you must turn off all but the 2.4 GHz radios, and that can be difficult to do. We do not recommend expensive “high-speed” routers because their radios often interfere with our rooftop radio.
Q. Is any other equipment needed?
We provide everything for one Wi-Fi access point in your home. If you need extenders or mesh systems, those are up to you.
Q. How do you determine your service area?
LCWA is committed to providing high-speed internet access to underserved areas. We select coverage areas based on the lack of alternatives presented by for-profit providers that either can’t afford to invest in remote areas, or won’t make any profit doing so. As we grow, we hope to help others that believe in the community model to create their own wireless communities or “clouds” that can interconnect to ours.
Q. Who installs and maintains the network?
A group of volunteers and some staff members, with well over a century of relevant experience in computer programming, networking, field installations, computing support, mechanical engineering/fabrication, architecture, marketing, technical writing, finance, and more. Rather than go into detail here, it’s better to meet the people if you have interest. Or better yet, join us and help.
Q. Who maintains my Home Installation?
Once the system is installed we ask that you, as a member/volunteer, maintain your installation. You own the equipment and are responsible for it. We have articles about maintenance here, and here, and we can get you in touch with paid technicians you can hire to help. Send an email to support@lcwireless.net to get contact information for those technicians.
Q. What about web hosting?
LCWA does not provide web hosting. There are a number of providers that provide this service. We are not interested in incurring the overhead and potential liability of running web hosting with the attendant backups, etc.
Q. How reliable is it?
We’re constantly improving our network reliability while we expand. Just like for-profit organizations, we offer no guarantees for up time, but network outages are very infrequent and normally localized to small segments of the network.
Q. How do I get connected?
There are a few steps to get connected. If you are not yet a member, please go to our new member form. We encourage all members to volunteer. For more information, please review our Get Involved with LCWA page to familiarize yourself with the opportunities.
Q. I have DIRECTV or DISH. Will it be better with LCWA?
DIRECTV, DISH, and other satellite based TV systems, were designed from the ground up to support continuous streaming of data to many thousands of subscribers simultaneously. So we recommend using them for watching movies in your home, and using LCWA for other normal internet uses. LCWA will work with limited streaming, but it won’t be your best choice. Why? LCWA uses technology built on a “packet switched” architecture, designed to move millions of packets reliably between computers. The streaming design doesn’t care about a few lost bits here and there, since the image is refreshed 30 times a second anyway, but is sensitive to delays on delivery of data – which can cause image jitter and degradation. The “packet switched” architecture doesn’t care about a few delays here and there, so long as the packets arrive reliably and intact. The architectural goals of the two systems are fundamentally different. The result is that streaming video will look better on a system designed from the ground up to support image quality and stability, and transmission of email messages and bank balances will work better on a system designed to deliver data reliably.