Royston Needs More Time on Internet Request

The City of Royston says it needs more time to consider a request by Royston Computer Company Pure Web to install antennas on top its downtown water tower.
At their City Council meeting this week, the council and Mayor David Jordan heard from Pure Web owner Stephen Fortman.
Fortman, who moved to Royston this past year from Atlanta, said because there is no true high-speed Internet service in the area, he has had to move his servers off site.
He said citizens in Royston have no high-speed Internet availability and after doing a market research study said he received a tremendous response.
“We started working on this idea of let’s do this feasibility study over Facebook and on the internet if we started our Royston based, high speed internet company. It’s not hundreds, it is literally thousands of people in this region are begging us for internet.”

Fortman said he has already begun buying the equipment needed to provide true high-speed Internet service to both homes and businesses.
“6 months ago we put in our order, and ours went live about 3 weeks ago. From that point what we have done is put a tower up on the back of our building. What we want to do is put a dish on that tower and point it to the water tower, and use the water tower’s railing that goes around the actually tank to mount the antennae.”
The antennas weigh 6lbs each and are 5.8GHZ.
Fortman said the antennas would go all around the tank ‘s rail for a 360-degree circle.
Subscribers would then receive a small radio dish receiver that would be installed either inside or on the exterior of their home.
Total cost for a residential subscriber would be about $39 a month.
Verizon already leases space on top of the water tank for their microwave antennas and after hearing form Fortman, City Manager Ed Andrews said he had concerns.
“I want to clarified in my mind to be sure that we are not encroaching on any rights or violating our lease agreement with them. The only thing that we wanted to make sure and clarify is that we would not encroach on any data base that they already have up, or interfere with the data that is being processed with their wireless capabilities there.”
Fortman pointed out that because his equipment would not be on top of the water tank but hanging from railings below, and because it would be on a different radio frequency, it would not be an infringement.
However, the City Council agreed with Andrews that Verizon needed to be made aware first of Fortman and sign off on the plan before the City would allow him to move forward.
The Council agreed to discuss the matter again at their meeting next month.