In 2007, AccessParks developed and operated the first consumer broadband Wi-Fi service to cover hundreds of military bases worldwide, including the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army, and U.S. Air Force, with no up-front cost to the facility, according to the company. Today, the company spans the nation with offices in Jacksonville, Fla., and San Diego, Calif., to serve parks and campgrounds on both the east and west coasts.
With systems designed to support 100,000 troops streaming video for briefings all in real-time, AccessParks prides itself in robust services for today’s largest or smallest campgrounds.
“Most RV parks don’t have Wi-Fi that allows every guest to stream video at peak times,” said Tim Rout, CEO of the firm. “Whether it’s one mile or 100 miles away, our enterprise-grade equipment ensures every site is connected to fiber, serving gigabyte speeds where and when guests need it. If you already have fiber access, that’s great, but 80% of our broadband solution is inside the park.
“We serve the biggest national parks in the system,” added Rout. “This includes Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Glacier, Death Valley, and Lake Mead. We also serve hundreds of private campgrounds coast-to-coast.”
He stated that the key difference between AccessParks and other providers is its guaranteed broadband speeds per multiple guest devices, 24/7, in its contract. AccessParks has a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that it claims is offered by no other provider with fiber-optic speeds to any park, no matter how remote across North America.
Its use of enterprise-grade 5G technology to deliver high-speed into RVs has no up-front cost for installation but is rather billed on a monthly recurring charge basis, noted Rout.
AccessParks is a company that believes in continuous improvement.
“We are rolling out the latest 5G technologies and infrastructure for every RV park,” he shared. “5G is not something that’s coming to rural RV parks. It is something that only has a range of a couple of hundred meters and is only for large metro areas. What we’re doing is we are bringing all of that carrier-grade 5G technology to an RV park to make sure that we can guarantee broadband speeds inside each RV.”
He explained that the Federal Communications Commission defines broadband as 25 Mb per second or more for download speeds and three megabytes on the upload side.
“That’s what we’ve been doing for 14 years is guaranteeing broadband inside an RV,” said Rout. “And the way we do that today is through these 5G technologies.”
Other AccessPark platform improvements for 2021 include technology to seamlessly connect Smart TVs, Rokus, and other “headless” devices that can’t use a splash page for login. New broadband routes on the west and east coasts are allowing those who are working/learning from the road to plan their trip using AccessParks’ Broadband locations.
The company is also going to offer a full TV channel lineup delivered over its Wi-Fi network with no coaxial cable required.
“We’re also rolling out new solutions for smart TVs and streaming devices, like Rokus and Amazon Fire Sticks, to make sure that they can connect to our Wi-Fi network,” explained Rout. “No other Wi-Fi operator out there can onboard those kinds of devices because they don’t have a typical web browser to be able to get to the splash page. We’ve got a new solution that’s going to allow onboarding of all those video devices, which is key because 70% of our traffic is video and we’re becoming a video provider. The days of people just browsing websites are kind of over. We consider ourselves more of a streaming TV provider at this point.”
His research shows the demographic in RV parks has changed in the last year and a half.
“We think permanently,” added Tout. “People are working from the road now all day long and their kids are distance learning, and this has caught all the other operators flat-footed. They kind of figured as long as people could go on a web page, they were good to go. We’ve been just slammed with business because people are suddenly realizing those systems don’t work for this new demographic.”
In late February, the company was launching its first system to be corporate-owned by Kampground of America Inc. (KOA).
“KOA is a very important strategic partner of ours,” Rout noted. “They want to roll out what they’re calling KOA broadband. We’re also helping Yogi Bear Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts and others.”
Rout also noted that Access Parks installs speed test probes at every site to ensure that each site is getting the guaranteed speed.
“We operate speed test every hour and it reports back the speed to a graph,” he explained. “We give our customers this URL so they can embed it on their website. When somebody is deciding whether this park can support their work or their distance learning, they can make their decision based on seeing this graph at 8 P.M. last night. Our partner parks typically see a 10% to 20% increase in bookings from this function.”
He said the company prides itself in full, 5G campsite installs typically within eight weeks, with no cash upfront and a recurring monthly charge within a contract.
