• Building a Last Mile broadband network without a diverse and robust Middle Mile to support it will be a waste of grant dollars. Wireless backhaul solutions such as licensed microwave and gigabit Ethernet solutions provide very cost effective alternatives to expensive fiber optic cabling (and trenching).
• Wireless backhaul solutions are just as reliable as fiber optic cable
• Wireless backhaul networks can be planned in a matter of days as opposed to years for fiber optic cabling
• Wireless Middle Mile infrastructure may be an important priority for the BTOP
  

• BTOP grant applicants
• Public sector IT directors
• Incumbent telecom operators
• WiMAX solution providers
• Vendors for WiMAX and/or the enterprise industries
• Enterprise personnel responsible for computing and communications
• Investors in the WiMAX space and/or enterprise automation

Frank Ohrtman has almost 20 years experience in VoIP and wireless applications. He is the president of WMX Systems, LLC, a Denver, Colorado-based consulting and systems integration firm. Mr. Ohrtman learned to perform in-depth research and write succinct analyses during his years as a Navy Intelligence Officer (1981-1991) during which he specialized in electronic intelligence and electronic warfare. He is a veteran of U.S. Navy actions in Lebanon (awarded Navy Expeditionary Medal), Grenada, Libya (awarded Joint Service Commendation Medal), and the Gulf War (awarded National Defense Service Medal).

His telecommunications career began with selling VoIP gateway switches for Netrix Corporation to long distance bypass carriers. He went on to promote softswitch solutions for Lucent Technologies (Qwest Account Manager) and Vsys (Western Region Sales Manager). His consulting clients include national governments and tier one telephone companies.

Mr. Ohrtman is a Gerson Lehrman Group Scholar (http://www.glgcouncils.com) and serves as Dean of WiMAX for Applied Learning Solutions (http://www.e-als.com). He is a regular blogger and contributor to WiMAX.com (http://www.wimax.com) and annual presenter at WiMAX World (http://www.wimaxworld.com) as well as local Cisco Users Groups. Mr. Ohrtman serves as an advisor to Bush Telecommunications Pty Ltd and the Rural Broadband Consortium of Australia.

Mr. Ohrtman holds a Master of Science degree in Telecommunications from Colorado University College of Engineering (master's thesis: "Softswitch As Class 4 Replacement-A Disruptive Technology"), a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, from University of Iowa

Frank may be reached at Frank@MindCommerce.com