Local Company Brings Broadband Internet to Bakersville and Surrounding Area

Bakersville, NC, Feb. 6, 2003 – InterCom Design announced today the immediate availability of satellite-based, broadband internet access to all residents of Bakersville and the greater Western NC area. InterCom Design, founded in 1997, has been selected as the end-fulfillment contractor by DirecWay, a partnership between DirecTV and Hughes Network Systems Inc., for 22 counties in Western NC including Mitchell, Yancey, Avery and McDowell. InterCom Design is the first and only regional business authorized to sell, service and install these state-of-the-art, digital satellite systems, from its retail location at 5817-B Hwy 226 South next to Yellow Bird Realtors in Ledger.

DirecWay broadband by satellite has been available to parts of the United States for over a year now, but has only recently become available in this area. Over the past few years there have been many rumors focusing on the unavailability of DSL service in Bakersville and the surrounding area. "DirecWay service is here and available right now for residents of Bakersville, Spruce Pine and all other areas of Western North Carolina. All the customer needs is a clear view of the southern sky," stated Dan Bailey, President of InterCom Design. Mr. Bailey went on to add, "The issue of whether or not broadband service by another means will become available in Bakersville and the surrounding community is doubtful considering the small population density of this area. They would have a hard time turning a profit considering their investment in the necessary infrastructure to provide broadband data services for such a small customer base."

DirecWay systems let you surf the Internet at speeds comparable to and exceeding DSL or about 25 times faster than 56K dial-up service. "I expect that businesses and people who work from their homes will be the first to want these systems. Since having my dish installed, my productivity as a webmaster has increased 2 fold by simply not having to wait on the Internet anymore. For example, I can now download a 30 MB software program in 5 to 6 minutes instead of 2 to 2 1/2 hours over a 56K dial-up connection. Since no phone line is required for DirecWay service, I was able to shed over $70.00 in monthly expenses by dropping my second phone line and dial-up account,” added Mr. Bailey.

Retail prices on equipment, installation and service is now within the budget of the average consumer. The monthly access fee is only $59.99 and InterCom Design can install and set-up your service and equipment for a $99.99 down payment and a monthly payment of $40.00 for 12 months. Options include the ability to receive DirecTV programming through the same satellite dish. DirecWay broadband can also be networked into multiple PC’s without multiple access charges. “The ability to have one broadband access account that can be networked into many computers will be a major blessing and cost savings for local businesses,” stated Mr. Bailey.

InterCom Design has provided Internet and computer services to the local area since 1997 and has designed websites for over 30 local businesses, more than 10 out-of-state companies and is currently under subcontract by J&J Advertising, Inc., www.b2bvendor.com, located just outside of Las Vegas in Henderson, NV, as the e-commerce development arm for the companies they manage. J&J Advertising, Inc. specializes in business to business marketing. InterCom Design named their largest customer to be Horizon Meat & Seafood, Inc., www.horizonfoods.com, located in Long Island, NY with 25 offices coast to coast and gross national sales in excess of $200 million per year. InterCom Design specializes in E-commerce Website design, web hosting, domain registrations, Internet access and computer repair services.

"My first love has always been working with computers and my second is sales. My first experience in programming was back in high school from 1976 to 1980 when floppy discs had not yet been invented and the computers I worked with had 8K of memory. At that time, programs were stored on cassette tapes or punch cards and the Internet, or ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency) as it was known at that time, was a government project linking Stanford to 6 other colleges. UCLA was the first to receive a transmission and the system crashed after receiving only a few letters of text. Fast-forward to today and the number of US households with broadband access has become a significant portion of the Internet audience. Webmasters such as myself are starting to put more and more content on their websites that is available only to broadband users such as streaming audio and video. Without a broadband Internet connection, you are now missing half of what the web has to offer and the amount of broadband specific content will only increase as time goes on," Mr. Bailey commented.

InterCom Design invites the public to its satellite showroom to take their DirecWay system on a test-drive and experience what broadband Internet access can provide. Consumers can also call 688-1900 between the hours of 9:30 am and 6:00 pm or visit www.intercomdesign.com on the web for more information about DirecWay broadband and the other services they offer.

Sources:
InterCom Design - Dan Bailey (828) 688-1900
DirecWay Fulfillment Contracts (Perfect-10 Distributing) - Laura Wilson (866) 813-1511 x4241
J&J Advertising - J.R. Davidson (702) 256-8855
Horizon Meat & Seafood, Inc. - Mike D'Agostino - (516) 937-1550
History of the ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency) - http://www.dei.isep.ipp.pt/docs/arpa.html