Further Reach

The Internet should have no data caps, no throttling, no spying, no censorship. Comcast's appalling behavior is yet another example of why corporate utilities have such bad reputations. https://arstechnica.com//comcasts-data-cap-finally-goes-n/

6 years ago today, we connected the Point-Arena cove.... Time flies...

Kyle, Krispin, and T.J. had a long day in the field installing a new relay in Gualala. This is part of our push to expand deeper into tough to reach areas on the Gualala ridge and support CalNeva subscribers who are about to lose their Internet lifeline. Our network team will work through the night time hours to configure and test all the devices. We expect it to start serving traffic tomorrow for a handful of new subscribers. Big thanks to our new relay hosts.

Not a great day for solar-powered sites. We placed generators at all our solar sites, and are doing regular refueling runs to ensure our batteries remain charged. It appears the smoke attenuates far more light than the worst winter’s day or the foggiest day - we rarely ever needed generators at solar sites before -- this smoke is a new deal.

CalNeva Subscribers, We were distressed to learn about the decision of CalNeva to suspend services. The timing of their announcement leaves little room for an organized approach to maintaining your connectivity. We can only imagine how difficult this is during COVID and the start of the school year. We are in touch with their owner and employees and are working hard to find a way to maintain connectivity over the existing infrastructure. Failing that we can still provide ser...vice to 100% of CalNeva subscribers. However, we have not received customer lists so we do not know who you are. What would help us the most is for those of you who are interested in our service to indicate that by signing up at www.furtherreach.net/signup.html There is no commitment until an installation date is set. Please direct any questions to [email protected] In the meantime, you are welcome to use our free public WIFI hotspots - https://bit.ly/339wPBk Best Wishes, Further Reach

(POSSIBLY) THE WORLDS HIGHEST CAPACITY SOLAR POWERED WIRELESS RELAY SITE Our infrastructure team remains busy across our service area. Last week was a milestone as we completed long planned and very complex upgrade to a core relay site. With these upgrades, this site is likely the worlds highest capacity rural wireless relay site. It is almost certainly the highest capacity site that is not grid powered - this site is entirely solar and wind powered.... For the technically inclined and interested: - This site has about 25 Gbps of wireless links capacity (see photos' captions for more details). - The new radios are extremely directional and require special scope to aim - Large solar arrays are needed to power such sites reliably throughout the winter. - Wind turbines help for cloudy days...

Congratulations PAHS students. We were glad to support distance learning during COVID and graduation festivities with a new WIFI hotspot at the school. Thank you Paul Andersen for sharing this photo!

This picture was taken at 9:13 last night just after AT&T restored connectivity at the fiber repair site near Manchester. We identified this site much earlier in the day but it took some convincing to get AT&T’s attention. The cut was caused by the construction activities of another division of AT&T. -- Losing a fiber link is a DEFCON 1, absolute, worst-case scenario for an Internet Service Provider. Fortunately, our backup links were automatically engaged to bypass the... outage and reroute traffic to another fiber link which has very high capacity, easily enough to serve all traffic on our network. We are thrilled to see our emergency plans perform without a hitch - something that cannot easily be tested except in a complete outage like this one. Without this second high capacity link and systems that automatically reroute traffic, we would have been offline. Every AT&T customer south of Manchester was offline - we offered free internet to businesses (including competitors) that were offline due to the outage. There is room for improvement as well. A few backup links in the Gualala area became congested during peak evening hours. We are investigating ways we might improve these links in case of future outages. -- It is frustrating that our stretch of the coast is not taken seriously by the large utilities. We should expect AT&T to exercise a higher degree of professionalism in how they maintain fiber that runs from Manchester to Gualala. But Gualala is the end of the line - the fiber does not cross the Gualala River. AT&T certainly can make more money elsewhere and unless the government uses carrots or sticks to change their behavior, we cannot expect improvements. This is why we believe Internet connectivity should be classified as a utility. Stay tuned for a forthcoming update about preparations for fire season and PSPS events.

Further Reach Shelter In Place Discount In an effort to support connectivity for those facing financial uncertainty during the shelter in place order, Further Reach is offering a discount of 50% off the installation and the first three months of service. Signup at http://www.furtherreach.net/signup.html and indicate financial hardship. If you have already signed up and have not been scheduled for an install, please email [email protected] and indicate that you are in ...need of the discount. Installations will be 50% off the regular fee, not including the cost of tree climbers, if needed. Only available for the Essential service plan. This is a limited quantity offer on a first come first serve basis. Reserved for new subscribers who express financial hardship. If you don’t need this please don’t ask for it. Stay home, stay connected, and be well.

2020-03-15 COVID-19 Update All, Further Reach operations have been mostly unaffected by the COVID-19 situation. We have taken a few steps that will remain in effect for at least the next 30 days. FREE INTERNET... We are offering Free Public Wifi Hotspots at numerous locations along the coast: + Gualala Point Park - visitor center + Gualala Point Park Campground + Gualala Arts Center - campus-wide (indoors and outdoors) + Hotel Breakers + Sea Cliff Motel + JR Home and Auto Care + Main Street Point Arena + Point Arena Library + Point Arena Elementary School + Point Arena Pier + Point Arena High School (being repaired) + Manchester State Campground + Manchester Grange Hall + Elk Community Center + Elk Museum + Elk Greenwood School + Albion Fire (being repaired) + We will continue to provide free internet to numerous local community organizations. INCREASED CAPACITY We have seen a marked increase in traffic and have increased link capacities where needed. NO SUSPENSIONS We will not suspend customers for non-payment if customers contact us to let us know they are unable to pay their bill. PUBLIC HEALTH MEASURES + We have employed extra cleaning protocols at our storage facility and office. + Though everyone is presently well, our team is encouraged to stay at home if they are unwell. + We have a plan to limit financial harm to team members that miss work due to COVID-19. + We will be employing social distancing measures, so please do not be offended if we offer an elbow instead of a hand-shake. + If you are caring for someone that is ill with flu-like symptoms, please let us know. We will endeavor to make repairs from outside your home. If you have questions please email us as [email protected] . Be well, Further Reach

PGE Power Shutoff Warning - 20 Nov 2019 - Message 1 All, While, as of 8 pm tonight, the Further Reach service area is not expected to be affected by a power shutoff, we have been preparing for the worst. Should an outage occur, we have a plan to maintain select relay sites, have purchased and filled new fuel containers, have deployed our larger generators in key locations, and are ready to enable public WIFI hotspots in key locations. If a power shutoff occurs:... + If you have a backup power source, be sure to plug in your Further Reach Access Point/Router. + You will find public WIFI hotspots in Point Arena (Main St.) and Gualala (Breakers-Inn, JR’s Baker-Town, Gualala Point Park - Visitors Center - you will need a facebook login to access these). Unfortunately, the improvements planned after the last power shutoff are still months away from completion. We are researching a range of improvements, including the list below. Please note that this list is ambitious, as is our intention, but until more research is complete, we cannot commit to specifics. We will ask for feedback before we finalize plans. + Repairing damage from the last outage - many batteries were likely damaged. + Increasing our ability to keep relays charged: bigger batteries, better power management tools, and charging capacity. + Sharing the level of coverage you can expect during an outage. + Making it easier for subscribers to power their relays. + Enabling public WIFI hotspots in more key locations for those that do not have connectivity otherwise. + Helping neighbors organize to maintain power for gear that we cannot. There is power in community. If you are having any difficulties, please reach out to [email protected] or in case of a complete outage by SMS to 707-278-8899. Best, Tamir

PGE Outage - Oct 2019 - Update 2: Power Outage and Impacts on the Further Reach network. 1. Further Reach's fiber links and core relays remain fully operational. Speeds are good and there are no capacity issues. We have our team fully mobilized to maintain power at these core sites indefinitely. 2. Farther off the core network, there are many smaller relays. All but the smallest sites have 24-48 hours of backup power. At this point, many have lost charge. Our team has been... able to recharge some of these sites and will continue to maintain them as possible. We are sorry that we are not able to keep all of these relays charged. It is possible you will experience intermittent connectivity. 3. A truckload of generators and fuel has just arrived at the coast, along with additional field technicians. We hope this will allow us to significantly increase our charging capacity. 4. If you host a relay on your property, small or big, and you find a way to power your home, kindly don’t forget to power also our relay, so that the batteries would get charged and service to yourself and your neighbors is restored. Please email or text if you need assistance connecting your relay to your generator. [email protected] / +1 707-278-8899 5. For those that have lost connectivity, we are maintaining public hotspots at a few locations for your use: Downtown Point Arena, Bakertown and Breakers. We will also be installing a powerful hotspot at the Point Arena High gym early tomorrow (Wednesday). Be safe, Tamir

PGE Outage - 27 Oct 2019 - Update 1: Power Outage and Impacts on the Further Reach network. Following is an update about the PGE outage and its impact on the Further Reach network: + At this time, all core relays of Further-Reach are operational and have not lost service since the outage began. Speeds are good and there are no capacity issues or delays. This is thanks to the hard work of the field-team who are maintaining generators and batteries at core sites. ... + We had a short outage that affected some subscribers in the Gualala area shortly after the power outage last evening, for about 30 minutes, due to human error (a critical device that was not powered by a backed-up source). + We also have Non-Core relay sites - these are smaller, highly localized, relays to serve up to a dozen subscribers, but most of the time serve less than a handful. These small relays also have batteries, yet smaller batteries. Many are still operational at this time, but we don’t expect them to survive the day. We decided to conserve our human resources and NOT attempt to reach each most of these small relay sites to charge their batteries. + If you have backup power to your home, yet are being fed from one of these small relay sites, we apologize dearly, but the service would not be restored before power is restored. + On that front, we are quite surprised by the high level of preparedness of the community - we see about 450 subscribers that have power to their homes or business and are happily connected to the Further-Reach network. + If you host a relay on your property, small or big, and you find a way to power your home, kindly don’t forget to power also our relay, so that the batteries would get charged and service to yourself and your neighbors is restored. + Please note that it appears cell coverage is down across our service area. We also believe that gas stations are no open. Be safe, Tamir

Thank you Further Reach for sustaining internet service despite the power outage; cell service is down. You’re the best!

Great day for tower maintenance.