As things now stand, at least some neighborhoods (mine, for one) in Gaithersburg offer at least four options for broadband Internet: Verizon DSL, Covad DSL, Comcast and RCN (formerly StarPower). In reading the agenda for Thursday’s Board of Appeals meeting, I noticed the following two items, under the “Special Exceptions” heading:
A-477(A) – Adam Knubel for Clearwire US, LLC
The application requests a special exception to permit a telecommunications facility for four (4) panel antennas and associated equipment on the rooftop of 415 Russell Avenue, Asbury, Gaithersburg, Maryland. The property is located in the R-90 (Medium Density Residential) Zone and the special exception is allowed by Section 24-29(5) in compliance with Section 24-167A(D)1.&2. of the City of Gaithersburg Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 24 of the City Code).
Background Material (13M pdf file)
A-509(A) – Adam Knubel for Clearwire US, LLC
The application requests a special exception to permit a telecommunications facility for four (4) panel antennas and four (4) dish antennas on an existing PEPCO transmission tower, 84N, and associated ground equipment at the PEPCO transmission line east of Professional Drive, Gaithersburg, Maryland. The property is located in the R-A (Low Density Residential) Zone and the special exception is allowed by Section 24-25(11) in compliance with Section 24-167A(D)1.&2. of the City of Gaithersburg Zoning Ordinance (Chapter 24 of the City Code).
Background Material (12M pdf file)
Not recognizing the name “Clearwire”, which in any event wasn’t Sprint, Verizon or any of the other usual antenna-building suspects, I looked a little deeper. It turns out that Clearwire is a wireless broadband Internet Service Provider, and, according to the background materials, they are moving into Gaithersburg. Currently, Clearwire services several cities in the West (in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Nevada, as well as Hawaii and Alaska) in the Mid- and Southwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin and Texas), and in the East (North Carolina and Florida, with Richmond, VA coming soon). On their website, you can’t look up service offerings or prices unless you give them an address in one of their service areas, so I made up an address in Winston-Salem, and checked the offerings for there. It appears that their consumer offerings there include:
- 768Kbps down/256Kbps up, with three email addresses for about $30/month plus modem rental (~ $5/month) or purchase (~ $100)
- 1.5Mbps down/256Kbps up, with five email addresses, and a 10MB website for about $37/month plus modem
- 1.5Mbps down/256Kbps up, with eight email addresses, 25MB of web space and a single static IP address, for about $50/month plus modem
Note that, with this provider, the signal would be delivered to your home wirelessly — you would not need to have a cable brought to your home. I imagine that this would be especially attractive to apartment and condo dwellers, who may be limited in their broadband choices by what the building owner/condo association has approved. In the background materials, Clearwire has provided theoretical coverage maps with and without the antennas they are asking for permission to install. Below, I’ve included the coverage map from the application for the Asbury antenna, showing the coverage assuming that antenna is installed.
