The Ground Floor: Casting a wide net

Owner: Amos Petersen

Company: Eccocast

Address: Based in Iowa City and Mediapolis

Phone: 800-985-2589

Website: www.eccocast.com

As an economics student in 2010, fresh out of the street side crepe business, Amos Petersen developed a passion for fighting monopolies.

“I became an advocate for free-market forces,” said the 33-year-old Iowa City entrepreneur.

About that time, Petersen discovered an opportunity to put his passion into practice in his home town of Mediapolis, north of Burlington in rural Iowa.  His parents, who still live there, were struggling to get reliable Internet access from the local telephone company, and whatever service they could get was costing more than they could afford, Petersen said.

“They couldn't pay it and they were behind on bills,” he said. “It became so burdensome that they were considering dropping it all together.”

Petersen decided his parents – and everyone else – deserved a low-income internet alternative that could be reliable even in the most rural spots. So he bought a nearby abandoned grain elevator and installed some wireless communications equipment.

“My parents were my first customers,” Petersen said.

But now they're  part of his growing clientele. Since Petersen launched his business – called Eccocast – in November 2011, he has been scouring the state's under-served areas for abandoned structures ripe for hosting wireless equipment.

Eccocast's broadband stretch now reaches about 400 square miles of customers, and Petersen said he's expanding his company's vision by providing options for both urban and suburban areas. His newest projects include Burlington, West Burlington, West Des Moines County, and the Iowa City and rural Johnson County area.

In the long view, Petersen said, he wants to expand outside Iowa.

“There is no limit,” he said. “I'm willing to go as far as I can.”

Eccocast customers currently have to pay about $29 a month for the service – far cheaper than the average cable company, Petersen said. Eventually, he hopes to offer free and subsidized internet access by returning to the network model.

“If you can't afford it, you can still get it just by allowing your interactions on the internet to be anonymously logged and data to be used by persons looking to market things specifically designed to you,” Petersen said.

It's that data-mining potential that Petersen thinks will help his business become profitable. So far, Petersen said, most of the cash for his venture has come out of his savings and stock market investments.

But money isn't his only driving force.

“The internet has a democratizing influence on society,” he said. “If you're not computer literate, it's almost as if you weren't literate 150 years ago.”

Petersen said people who don't use the internet or don't have reliable service are kept out of many important facets of life.

“We make better decisions when we have access to information – it's how we select our politicians,” he said. “If you don't have access to good information and information from all sides, you're not going to make a wise decision in your selecting the persons who lead this country.”

“That has ramifications nationally for everyone."

Petersen said he believes the internet in America has become a quality of life issue.

“I'm kind of an evangelist that way,” he said.