Frequently Asked Questions

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 the South 285 Corridor and other nearbly underserved areas. 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. Our current fees can be found here . Our objective is to provide 3+ Mbps symmetric access for appoximlately $30 per month. Our prices go down ( and/or bandwidth goes up ) as the number of members go up because we split the fixed cost of the internet connection.

Q. Why is the service so cheap?

No salaries, low overhead, no capital intensive infrastructure. All 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. What does symmetric access mean?

That means that the data rate is the same whether the data is coming to or leaving your house. Typically, cable and DSL are asymmetric, with a downstream (coming) data rate of 256 kilobits to 3 megabits (or more) and an upstream (going) data rate of 128 kilobits to 384 kilobits.

Q. Why would I want symmetric access?

Although it may not make a significant difference for web browsing, its very useful if you send large files, use video conferencing, VPN, or use the internet in any way that benefits from (or requires) a low latency high speed back-channel.

Q. How do you justify your access cost?

Pool the buying power of 40 households. A T-1 line will cost in the neighborhood of $800 per month. So $800/40 is about $20 per month per house. We typically inventory a small amount of working capital to help support and build the network infrastructure.

Q. Where does the extra money go?

There will be maintenance and overhead costs, but remember: this is a non-profit cooperative. The members decide about the disposition of extra money. There's no reason extra money, after expenses, couldn't be rebated to the members. Or as a community resource, the money could be used to provide access to needy households. Or the money could be used to provide access to the public library. With enough people, it looks like the cost could go even lower.

Q. Why stop at $30?

It could go lower, but the more people sharing bandwidth, the more the performance of the network will suffer. Forty households on a 1.5 megabit line will likely not impact each others' performance. As a point of comparision, for-profit ISP's often put 60 or more houses on a single T1 line ( hence the profit ), causing network speed to drop significantly during peak hours.

The more members, the more bandwidth that could be purchased. One could envision having 10+ megabit upstream connections in the future with redundant backups, but you have to consider additional infrastructure costs to support more members.

Q. What does it cost to get started?

There is equipment required at your house to reach our wireless access points. This includes something called a wireless bridge, an antenna, mounting hardware and cabling. Depending how adept one is with electronics and mechanics, the cost can range from $100 to $400 for this equipment. The assocation 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 kind of equipment to I need?

We use standard off-the-shelf hardware that you generally find at commercial electronics outlets and online stores. This keeps the cost low, and gives you the ability to actually use the equipment for other uses if you decide to not use our network anymore. In fact, some members pefer to buy their equipment locally so that it can be returned in case it fails during the warranty period.

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 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. What about email service?

LCWA provides outgoing email service to its members via SMTP. This is accessible from anywhere on the Internet and will be secure (encrypted) and authenticated to prevent spamming. For email inboxes, there are a number of providers that provide low-cost, even free, services. You can find our favorites here. We are not interested in incurring the overhead and potential liability of running inbound email services with the attendant backups, etc.

Q. What about web hosting?

LCWA will not provide web hosting at this time. 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 guarantes for uptime, but network outages are very infrequent.

Q. Is it always on?

Yes. From your computer's point of view, we are your local area network, or LAN. Connectionwise, We operate much like DSL or Satellite where network devices are connected into your 10/100 network card on your PC. Unlike those services, however, we operate behind a firewall, greatly minimizing attacks on your computer from the outside world.

Q. How do I get connected?

There are a few steps to get connected. Please review our Getting Started page to familiarize yourself with the procedure.