Cord cutting has taken a bite out of the number of pay-TV subscribers for cable and telecommunications companies. But it hasn't significantly reduced high-speed internet subscriptions — in part because there aren't many alternatives for over-the-top streamers.
Webpass, now owned by Google, wants to be that alternative — even though today it's a niche internet service provider with a small footprint that is limited to apartments, condos and a handful of commercial buildings.
The San Francisco company is trying to elbow its way into the broadband business where others — including Google Fiber and Verizon FiOS — have had mixed results luring away customers from established cable and telephone company providers.
But unlike these wireline, fiber optic deployments, Webpass delivers broadband wirelessly.
Founded in 2003, the company uses a daisy chain of point-to-point wireless radios on the rooftops of apartment and condo buildings to serve up bandwidth.
It also can tap into fiber optic lines coming into the building from the street.
From there, Webpass taps copper ethernet cabling behind the walls to deliver speeds ranging from 100 megabits per second to a 1 gigabit per second to customers.
The cost is $60 a month.
"Regardless of what speeds you're getting, it is the same price because we are giving you the fastest speeds your building will accommodate," said Charles Barr, founder and president of Webpass.
Webpass operates in more than 800 multitenant buildings in San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., Miami, Denver, Boston, Chicago and San Diego. It serves even more buildings nationwide.
Webpass eventually wants to expand its service not only to additional cities but also to single-family homes, Barr said.
But regulations need to change and technology needs to advance before that will be possible.
"I would love to serve single-family homes," he said. "It's a matter of technology and business processes that have to come together for us to be able to do it. But we are very focused on it."
