As it currently exists was formally brought into existence on July 23rd 2019 with Mike Cope as Chief Executive Officer, James Coffelt as President and Larry Bertolino as Chief Technology Officer with the intention of providing a bridge over the broadband access gap in very rural Appalachian areas and beyond that have been left behind by the current large broadband players.
Company History: The original notion on solving the Broadband Access Gap took place while Larry Bertolino was deployed with the United States Navy.
Mr. Bertolino came from a very rural area in S.E Ohio where Dial-Up Internet Access was the norm.
Knowing that a career in the military was not in his future, Mr. Bertolino knew that he would likely be going back to his hometown once he left the military and needed to find a solution to a problem that everyone had to provide
employment for himself as well as contribute to his community.
When Mr. Bertolino returned to Harrison County, OH. In 2008 he created a business called “ myLocalPCpro “ with the intention of providing computer services for the area with the secondary vision of creating broadband internet
access where there was not. Numerous ideas were attempted but at the time the technology available was not sufficient to provide the coverage needed, nor was the funding, so the idea was shelved.
However, that did not mean that the idea was forgotten or neglected.
On April 14th 2018 Mr. Bertolino met the Acquaintance of James Coffelt during a routine service call. During this visit, a discussion was had about how the satellite internet service of both was both expensive and unusable.
As Mr. Bertolino had continued to follow the technological advances and methods of the time and continued to experiment on his own theories in his off-time, he brought up the idea and theory behind providing the solution that they, and thousands of others were looking for.
After the encouragement of his wife Katherine Bertolino, who felt that a business could be born of the idea as well as provide a solution to the community, an idea was presented that was to be the birth of the future Imperial Networks.
Mr. Coffelt expressed interest in funding a partnership to bring these theories to reality.
While having a theory, the knowledge and the funding to create a solution was there, what was missing was the professional working knowledge of turning an idea into a solution and a business.
It was at this point that Mike Cope was brought into the folds of Imperial Networks. With his immeasurable knowledge and guidance, the idea of Imperial Networks turned into a serious endeavor to truly connect the rest of us.
It was the combination of Larry Bertolino his wife Katherine, James Coffelt and Mike Cope that has created what Imperial Networks LLC. is today and what it has already accomplished when others said it could not be done, or have ever attempted.
Process & Technology:
By utilizing custom tailored hardware and aerial’s in the TV White Space arena, Imperial Networks LLC. has been connecting households within it’s first primary broadcast location in Tappan Lake Ohio. Achieving results that were once unimaginable and connecting homes that were left behind by major telecom players.
By using a full duplex system to ensure we reach and surpass the current “25 Down, 5 Up “measure of broadband access, we have been able to achieve a stable range of 25\10, 25\25, 40\40 and even a 60\60 at our current test sites that we arranged based on terrain, size of household, potential obstacles and distance.
With these test sites Imperial continues to refine and expand the stability and speed of its potential service. Between all sites the average ping between broadcast location and customer premise, lies between 14 and 19 respectively with a jitter range of 1 to 15.
With all tests weather has not seen to play a factor in performance of the service. We have monitored and had our tests sites report quality of service in heavy rain squalls, aggressive lightning, and now snow showers. Again all without any change to performance of service. Rain\Snow fade has to this point remained a non-factor.
Imperial Networks is currently utilizing two log antenna design to ensure full duplex connectivity between test sites and broadcast location.