 Welcome to the RF film is unlicensed podcast. I'm Caleb now or and this is Tossos Alex you what's going on Tossos What's going on Caleb? How are you? Good good man. Just uh here do another podcast and live into life. So yeah, definitely. I'm excited I'm definitely excited for today. We finally have our first Wisp guest on the show. So that's gonna be awesome. I'm excited too, man So let's go ahead and get to it So today we will be talking with Spencer pose at SJP network solutions. So let's go ahead and hop to it Yeah, definitely. Let's let's rock and roll All right now Spencer pose from SJP network solutions. What's going on Spencer? We really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy busy day and having a conversation with us. Absolutely Caleb I I'm glad to be here So Spencer we've known Spencer for a long time long time customer a long time industry member I mean, he's he's been around for a while and those of you that are active in the various whips talk lists and other Facebook groups and things like that, you know, you've seen Spencer around So thought we do today is have his conversation if you can kind of give us a History of how you got started in the industry how your business operates now the couple of different sort of big branches that you Do some interesting things that folks might not understand about your business and you know anything else of interest I mean the the forum is definitely yours. Okay, absolutely Caleb so Years ago back in like 2006 2007 I worked for a whist back in Texas And It was a summer high school job not not didn't think much of it later on I got into IT support So about 10 years ago. I started a managed service provider IT support business back then it was just a break fix it we try to have a shop and You know people wearing their computers over but at that point the market was quickly moving to Managed services So we quickly migrated our our business to manage services Then about seven years ago. We picked up a warehouse with office space and We're looking at the cost of internet for businesses and it was like astronomical. So We found a tower in the middle of town that was foreclosed by a bank And we got a hold of the bank and we ended up connecting my parents house My house in the business by a cable connection through the tower And since I had started a wisp or worked for a wisp back in the day We said hey, let's start making money for out of this and it was actually very helpful with our MSP because when we were going against contracts with other customer with other Businesses we were able to leverage free backup internet from our infrastructure And that's actually how we ended up growing out our IT services and the wisp kind of the same time Oh, that's that's a cool cool sort of plan So who are you competing with in the local area for these businesses your traditional like cable operators or DSL or? cable operators DSL and then IT companies that are aggregates as well Okay, okay, so sorry way laid you there for a second. So you can get back to it I was I got tripped up by the the foreclosed tower by the bank I'm like, you know, I've never heard of that before so that's actually a pretty pretty cool Stumble across there for sure about four years then we moved towers and then I got like two years later I got a call from the president of the bank who was like, hey Do you want that tower and we ended up getting down years later? And and taking it back to our warehouse. So yeah, it's funny It's definitely a new kind of a new spin on kind of how you got into the wireless business Which everybody has their own unique story, but it always ends it always starts with you know Hey, there was no internet provider in our towns and I was the tech guy So I said, hey, why not like try this out? But definitely like hey, it was a tower for sale and I need an internet and let's just hop on there and see what happens That's that's different the the realtor was confused. He had no idea what Like he was like, I've never had this request before But but we worked out a deal And so that's that's what started our internet service blue broadband And it still took a few years for us to build enough customers to kind of for it to be its own thing For years our IT support business covered the bills for the wisp As many many businesses and in the actually since COVID started They've kind of leveled out and our the wisp is about to start making more money than the IT support side nice So yeah, yeah, and that's definitely where we're wanting to take the direction is to be more internet centric then support centric But we still you know IT support is a very lucrative business as well Very cool. So what area do you guys serve? Because you're down in the panhandles that panhandle of Florida generally We're the Florida panhandle and so we have two different kind of coverage areas our IT support coverage area covers like six counties and You know, we've got customers hours away as far as our ISP goes We're a lot more concentrated in a small area of Fort Walton Beach and Chalamar mostly Oakland County Okay. Yeah, I've been down there some yeah. Yeah, and then the vacation area Oakland Island for instance is one of them the bar Parkway and these areas we do MDU Internet to the condominiums So the MDU stuff is really interesting. You know, there's a lot of conversation about that Especially in these touristy areas or high density areas. We see a lot of whist operators around big colleges and stuff like that so the And what's so where we're unique is in our market condominiums have it in their bylaws that the condominium has to be the utility So it's it's a great opportunity and a difficult opportunity because We we get the opportunity to get a contract and a condominium once like once every five years And and depending on if they're unhappy with the other provider that they have So we you know, it's hit or miss trying to find out when these condominium contracts are up But when they are up and you get the opportunity to come in you get a hundred percent take rate of the building Absolutely that allows you to bring fiber in We do fiber and wireless kind of a hybrid mix that way we can offer them a redundancy. We also do I Believe we're the only provider in the area that does uptime guarantees Cool. So we give them an opportunity once a year to get out of their contract if we go below 99% uptime Yeah, the the MDU model is something that has always fascinated me and I'm still kind of quite honestly, you know Interested in it when when I kind of first came into the industry, you know The MDU market was really like what I was looking to do To kind of start a wisp, right? So I started out wanting to be a wisp and you know My business model that I had created was based on going into all these apartments and the use and and I actually at the time This is 2004 like the goal was to create the triple play right back then was the internet TV and For and phone right so at that time VoIP was just becoming a thing, you know, there was you know packet 8 there was Vonage and all these other kind of you know new new types of services for home service and stuff like that and You know, unfortunately for me I didn't have the money really to to make it happen Which is what kind of drove me to you know, not where I am today But the path that I ended up taking was because equipment was so expensive back then that was my biggest thing was just like Well, you know, I can't do it because of the cost involved to provision, you know the whole complex, right? So I started looking at well, you know, how can I make this or how can I get this equipment cheaper and stuff? And that's kind of how I ended up going into product distribution later by doing all this research into who the vendors are Where the product comes from and stuff. So it's it's really cool that you're actually doing, you know Kind of you know, one of the things that I really wanted to do that's that's awesome. And that's cool stuff You know, it's We have a lot of challenges and that most these buildings are 1970s So you have old cat 3 No cat 5 wiring We typically one of the ways we win contracts is by offering all of the installation We'll wire up the whole building ourselves. Wow We have a you know, we have the equipment and the manpower to do that Very cool. So are you are you doing all the low voltage stuff yourself or do you sub that out? We do it. Okay. A lot of concrete and and that sort of construction So I speak to it because of experience doing some of these on coastal areas, right? So you would have you would have a neighborhood that would have two buildings and one would be built in the 70s One would be built in the you know the mid 2000s and you know, they both are up to code but in the 70s the way they did it was it was super Concrete rebar. So, you know concrete floors concrete walls everywhere and then their sister place next door was traditional So the the structure cabling pulls and stuff like that were a lot easier in the new ones So that definitely presents some challenges. I'm sure we we especially have challenges due to hurricane rebuilds So in 2004 Ivan took out like wiped out of Gloucester Island Wow, and so all the first floor units filled up with sand the The refrigerators ended up in the on the on the road Well, and so they came in with back-o's and just tore out all the first floor units and then rebuilt them So we were we were restructuring the cable in one building We get to the first floor and none of the conduit met up and we ended up having to go into the feeling Cut down the old conduit and make a new path So there's a lot of unknowns. We don't really know until we start the project and then it's like I Wish I would have charged them more That sounds like fun site survey a little bit more detail. So they're like, hey, we put your conduit here You're like, well didn't really tell the whole story. So yeah Now are you doing cable runs to like each unit individually, you know dropping off a cat five or a five report or what does that look like? Yeah, so we go to to the cat five we go cat five into the unit typically and So we'll find a chase in the building There's some things I'm gonna keep a little secret, but Common chase in the building and we have a particular two different types that we look for that Generally will then go all the way down the stack and we'll start on For us on Oakwoods Island It's the seventh floor and we'll start on the seventh floor and just drill straight down room to room to room you know floor to floor to floor to floor and then Go down to the first floor and connect everything through there. Wow Now, are you doing are you doing some of the triple play stuff? Are you mainly focusing on internet and just you know putting a router or access point or something each unit Play in fact, it was very challenging in that like like the the kind of contracts that we have to do the whole building and that the fact that the Association company has to be the utility They came to us a couple years ago and told us that if we couldn't bid all services Basically, we couldn't do a triple play don't even put bids in anymore. Right. So it's kind of forced us to the triple play model And so we we work with various different TV platforms from direct TV to IP TV Depending on the complex needs Some of them want a lot more sports that we can't do over IP TV. Some of them don't want the sports and want more media channels It could actually get very ugly watching owners fight over what channels they want What's it like to to manage, you know, both kinds of businesses, right? Because again, one of the reasons why I had looked at the MDU thing was because you had that captive market You had a high subscription rate in a small place and you didn't have to travel everywhere So I mean, do you have a single employee base that does both your kind of residential business outdoor Wisp business and then the one that does MDU or do you have a two separate kind of, you know employee Types or something like that to manage and operate both sides of that For us, it's it's it's mixed. It's we do everybody does each one We kind of we try to do our MDU is very much like the home They get the same router that the home gets saying typical type of configuration The equipment room may be different, but that'd be more like tier three anyway. So I'd end up But as far as to the unit it's For our guys, it's built exactly like a residential install because they've got a they got a wire coming in a router They have to set up TV boxes Ata for phone So it's pretty standard. Yeah, so from from the wall plug into the house It's the same no matter which business it is from the wall plug to the outside of the house It's different whether it's blue broadband or, you know, as SJP services or whatever exactly exactly cool So, you know, you're you're doing some residential. You're doing the MDU is I'm sure you're doing some business stuff So, I mean, you know, what's that business spread across in terms of you know percentages or just rough idea and are you thinking, you know As you go in the next year you focus on more on one versus the other to see and where things pop up So we're we're primarily about 40 50% business And and that that's our our start has always been our focus has always been enterprise So I don't I don't think we're ever gonna move away from the enterprise services We'd like to move a little bit away from like help desk services and focus more on You know things as a service so whether that be cyber security as a service back up as a service we want to focus more on the cloud infrastructure for the business then Being the one on site plugging everything Plugging everything in and so that's kind of where we're moving towards in the next few years Yeah, that that boots on the ground. I've got some MSP experience as well and that's that can be painful and tedious for sure Yeah, yeah, and as the whist grows we need we need more attention to it You know, it's no longer set and forget on the network somebody needs to be watching it 24-7 we have so many different components now from You know difference different networks different speeds different, you know wireless whether it's fiber that it's become a full-time job versus When IT support was a full-time job and we could really just kind of the whist ran on autopilot So like going a step further from that. I mean that's yet another thing So I was kind of curious how you manage the two types of businesses But I would imagine just like you said the managing management and provisioning of the customers in different services is It's quite unique and different across both as well So how do you how do you manage that? I mean, you know, do you have to monitor your your VoIP? You know diff with a different application than your IPTV service different than you know, the the internet service and stuff I mean, do you do you have like an all-in-one monitoring solution for that something proprietary using different packages? How do you how do you manage that stuff? So yeah, it's all we used to have something different for every service And as we decided that we're trying to conglomerate the two, you know, try to move IT and internet together under one family We're trying to bring all that into one like status page for instance Right, so we do have our VoIP our internet and our cloud services under one status page That we just finished like two months ago So that's really something we're just now working towards but It's integrated with multiple ping monitors and MMS is That are just kind of pinging everything and trying to automate the notification of different kind of clients But yeah, it's difficult. We have three different ticket systems, right, right Different documentation systems But the key to it being successful just like anything is documenting everything Somebody can go behind me on an IT site look at the documentation and know exactly what they need to do to solve a problem That we've already solved So as long as you're documenting everything it really Things end up being you know, you think it's all over the place, but it's a lot more simplified than you think cool Definitely a death by dashboard at times So you're like how many of those so yeah, I'm sure pulling those together helps and you know I'm thinking about support because of the you know, how much they're all tied into each other But also like each leg is different whether it's to Resi versus the MDU and stuff I mean, that's obviously got to present some challenges for support So I'm imagining, you know, you guys probably in-house everything um, I would imagine right so you would think so but we've actually had great success outsourcing different things so You know our IT help desk is outsourced Partially tier one and two is outsourced and It's outsourced to a specialized company just for help desk services then our ISP support is actually with a virtual assistant service and They really help us out on more than just taking those support calls on IT support But we give all of our clients a manager router We monitor our network Darnier 24-7. I mean I probably sleep four hours a night So we're always monitoring the network and we know problems as they appear. So our support calls are probably We get maybe five six internet support calls a week. Oh, well, that's pretty good Yeah, no, I mean our volume is low So you're you're saying five five or six that can't be handled by the tier one tier two So filter down to physically to you or or direct That's on for internet on our internet side. That's in general. Oh, okay as far as support Even better Very low support numbers But we you know, we have a quality of experience, you know qoe service on our network It's you know, we've invested a lot of money in making sure that we don't have problems That requires support calls if we have a lot of calls, we have an outing somewhere That's pretty much what it comes down to right on Cool cool So, you know these the with the enterprise businesses where you're providing internet service or you know the fiber to the knock Or excuse me fiber to the mbu's and stuff like how do you guys aggregate all this stuff together? You know, are you are you bringing in your own transport or you know, how does that work? We're nowhere near a data center the closest data center is Two hours in mobile and you know, then you've got to pay out of state fees So we have kind of built our own mini data center in our in our warehouse offices And so we have di a coming in there and then all of our customers all our mbu's fibers transport to us That way we're going to be getting a second carrier coming in soon Um, and then that will allow us to aggregate Issues if one goes down versus one of the other Um, we also have businesses enterprise businesses that come into our data center That get transport from us and then we share The di a out to all the customers That's cool. Yeah, so it's a really nice approach That way you can sort of slim it down or pump it up where you need to and you know You're controlling the narrative there for sure. Absolutely. Absolutely. So we haven't quite gotten into the fiber game yet But at no point does a customer come to me and say they want fiber. Do I have to say no, we don't do that So we you know, that's where we can get the transport into our network into our data center And then to the customer we're pumping them our internet. So it's blue broadband service Whether it's over Someone else's transparent Um connection right and that hybrid approach You know may work out for you best in the long run because you don't want to own all that plant when uh, one of the storms comes through Possibly some some to consider you're like my insurance payments are gonna be awfully high for this Yeah, yeah But actually it kind of brings up a point So you know when we're talking to folks one of the things I like to think about are sort of the challenges That might be unique to a given customer or a given area So you're probably not spending a lot of your time sweating about uh, ice storms and things like that But the flip side of that is you're you're definitely in hurricane alley there So, you know, what do you the the challenges that you guys, you know face there? I mean you mentioned it, you know with hey the condos got wiped out on the first floor and you know those sort of challenges But you know besides the obvious sort of thing, you know, how does that play into the challenges you face? What's it mean for when you know when you're trying to rely on some of this infrastructure? For the transport and stuff because there's a lot of areas where it's just so it gets wiped out so easily Yeah, yeah, so That that that is a big challenge and that's one that we're still working on and um, you know Like I mentioned bringing in a redundant path. That's going to be helpful Uh, our current path goes west So we're going to bring in another path that goes east that way Um, you know When a hurricane hits Louisiana, Mississippi, it doesn't it doesn't have the opportunity of affecting our other path Um, you know, and then that's why one of our recipes at mdu's is always bringing wireless in as well Because just in case that fiber infrastructure goes down because of a storm We can get a dish back up, you know in in no time compared to What the fiber companies are going to be when they have 300 customers down Right and you know in their perspective, you're just another one of those customers too. Yeah, yeah Bootstrap your own recovery is is definitely a helpful thing to be able to do and that's where it gives your business a leg up Versus a competition Yeah, so how much time how much time do you spend, you know? Preparing I mean, obviously hurricane season comes at the roughly the same time every year, right? So what what's it kind of look like for you as far as preparing for that stuff every year? so it's We try to you know, we Come spring we start powering up all the generators and getting that making sure that they're running and stuff You know getting getting some kind of supplies in um, but there's At least for me. We've had so many false alarms that you could go broke preparing for nothing So it's a gamble It really is a gamble now once you've been doing it for you know, I've been in this area for 10 years now So once you get experienced for it, it's a little bit more helpful um, because I you know now I know Uh, it's about four days before the storm that we have an idea that it's really going to hit And that's when you start getting, you know containers of gas and storing them places moving vehicles and other You know other things for us. We have boats getting the boats out of the water Um start going to condominiums and putting more bricks on there on their mounts Uh, and and start talking to upstream providers and making a plan um, but there's you know There's only so much preparing you can do we try to keep We try to you know, keep all our dishes tight try to keep everything to where If there is a storm There there there's not a problem. So it's it's a little bit of hurry up and wait and then see What you know what you need afterwards It's more about the response Than the preparation for me right right after the storm how What you do is more important than what you do kind of preparing for the storm So there's definitely a lot more to it than just put your data center on the second floor, right? Yeah, oh, absolutely Yeah, you gotta buy all the bread and water from the store. So, you know, that's all we know how to do up here So yeah, yeah, and I mean obviously you've got you know, you there's more prep on a personal level Before a storm And that's you know, that's getting food getting you know, making sure everything's gassed up Making sure you have flashlights and and lighting and and everything Yeah, we know you've been active, you know helping other whiffs and stuff with recovery efforts You know where you can and I think a lot of that comes from you know, you've been through enough You kind of understand, you know, what it takes So, you know, what do you think helping these other folks out? You want to think some of the bigger lessons that you've learned and you can reach out and tell folks Hey, you know, you guys that are potentially running into this, you know, you need to look at this What what advice would you throw out to those guys? That's a good question. So Yeah, over the last two years, I probably I probably responded to I think seven hurricanes and Yeah, it's it's been a very active two years on the coast here um You know, the big thing is and and I can't stress this enough for florida is Be friendly with your neighbors You're all in this together um So that that's my biggest advice is the people I know have recovered Would have you know, they were dependent on the people that came in and helped and it was neighbors. It was Wisps and the In the other county coming in and helping them fix the tower and them going and helping fix the entire and it's it's really about uh Who you know who you're Who you have as a resource so, you know All the way all of our all our whist need to come together as a resource is what i'm trying to say Definitely, we're definitely stronger together, right? And it's It's been and it's been a huge shift in the industry too, right where you know, it didn't matter if you were One county over or you know halfway or all the way across, you know the country You know wisps at one point saw every other wisp as a you know potential competitor, right? And now we're seeing kind of this, you know coming together and wisps wanting to help each other and talk to each other And they know that you know, there's you know, there's definitely some strengthening numbers And there's a lot of uh stuff that you can learn from you know your you know competitor You know what I mean? So I think the industry as a whole has stopped looking at The fellow wisp as the true competitor or issue and and have really looked Upstreamed to you know the bigger providers that are out there as as more of you know Who who we really are fighting in this in this game of fixed, you know, uh wireless internet access, you know Yeah, so I mean what what I would say to people that do get it get affected by disasters is don't be afraid to ask uh That's I think that's the biggest thing is that you know We've built a network of People that want to help each other because We aren't afraid to ask And it's built partnerships And I can say that these partnerships have extended past the hurricanes and are still active today helping each other Without disasters, you know and and are quite lucrative as well. So yeah, that's definitely something I think you know, especially for somebody new in this industry to to really consider Is what those relationships bring like you like you said it's more than just helping It's helping you grow and and it's it's opening up other opportunities for you know Yourself uh in the future and stuff like that and that's really cool. That's really cool Well, cool. Cool. Spencer. So again, you know, we really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day Talk to us and share your experience is a lot of really cool stuff that you know operators run into They see different things in different ways and you know, everyone's got their own different way to approach stuff So in closing here anything else you want to share promote you got any new movies coming out or uh projects that you Want to kick off and promote as you're as you're on the red carpet here Maybe you have a book that you want to sell or something like that, you know Um, no, I'll just say, you know, I'm I'm on facebook Most people have seen me or heard from me on facebook and um, if you ever want to talk about any of these things mentioned or Uh, once some advice or help, uh, you know reach out to me send me a direct message I'm available As much as I can for the industry Awesome, that's great. And the industry appreciates you and we appreciate you. So You know anyone out there, uh, again, you know, we're looking for more guests and stuff. You want to share your story? Please reach out. We're super easy to find as well. We're on various facebook whist groups We have our own rf elements page rf english asia africa Uh, you can find us really easily tiesos at rf elements dot com kaleb at rf elements dot com We're there. So if you want to talk just reach out to us Anything in closing here? No sounds great, man. Thanks again, uh, spencer for joining us. It was great I've been looking forward to, you know, having wisps on here to kind of broaden the discussion And to bring some outside perspective, you know to this podcast and spice it up a little bit So it's been great, man. Thanks for joining us and I guess until next time stay horny everybody All right, stay horny y'all