ERF Wireless Updates Current WISP Strategies and Recent Achievements
Added 16,000 Square Miles 0f Coverage and Approximately $2.5 Million
in Recurring Annual Revenue
LEAGUE CITY, Texas, Jul 29, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- ERF Wireless (OTCBB:ERFW), a leading provider of enterprise-class
wireless broadband products and services, announced today that the
company's WISP operations are continuing to grow at a significant rate.
New acquisitions during the past seven months have added more than
16,000 square miles of coverage that support the company's Oil & Gas
Services Division, as well as its regional banking networks. Some
$2,500,000 in recurring annual revenues has also been added as a result
of theses recent acquisitions. To date, the WISP subsidiary has acquired
and assimilated a total of 15 WISPs, with coverage that now exceeds
160,000 square miles in Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana, as well as
parts of Oklahoma.
According to Robert McClung, CEO of the Wireless Bundled Services
subsidiary of ERF Wireless, "During the past several months, we've
achieved a number of acquisition and operations objectives that have
allowed us to build a solid foundation for expanding our customer base
and service offerings."
Some of the company's major recent achievements include:
- Recurring Revenue from WISP Operations: With the completion of
the company's most recent acquisitions, the total ERF Wireless
recurring revenue base from WISP operations is slightly less than
$500,000 per month, profitable and growing. Several additional WISP
acquisitions currently being negotiated in the oil and gas production
regions of North America will allow the company to realize in the near
future its previously stated goal of generating $1,000,000 per month
of profitable recurring WISP revenue.
- Commitment to WiMAX Technology: The company obtained a
nationwide license for operation in the 3.65-GHz WiMAX band and is
partnering with entities that will make additional licensed spectrum
available in the 2.5-GHz band. Limited deployment of this new
technology in selected ERF Wireless WISP and oil and gas operations
has been initiated. Once it becomes widely deployed, WiMAX will
increase wireless coverage and enhance service offerings, including
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Internet portability and
broadband mobility nationwide.
- Acquisition of Centramedia: This acquisition added anexisting
customer base of more than 1,700 customers and over $1,200,000 in
profitable recurring annual revenue, including certain wireless
broadband projects for major oil and gas companies in the region. The
transaction included 26 towers with strategically-located access to a
large geographic area that includes multiple counties in the Texas
Panhandle area covering approximately 10,000 square miles of natural
gas production territory.
- Acquisition of Frontier Internet and iTexas.Net: This
acquisition included a combined existing customer base of more than
1,600 customers and over $900,000 in profitable recurring annual
revenue in addition to significant new oil and gas revenue
capabilities. The transaction included 16 towers strategically located
south and southwest of Fort Worth, Texas. These towers provide ERF
Wireless access to a large geographic area that includes counties
within the Barnett Shale area that covers approximately 6,000 square
miles of natural gas and oil production territory.
- Broadband Stimulus Funding: The company has engaged a
consulting firm to assist in the preparation of all applications for
portions of the initial $4 billion broadband stimulus program that is
designed to accelerate broadband deployment in rural America. At least
one major multi-state application will be filed by the August 14,
2009, and additional applications will follow at later dates. The
company is also seeking partnerships with other potential wireless
broadband stimulus applicants that have limited experience in WISP
operations.
- New Galveston Island and Crystal Beach Coverage Areas: ERF
Wirelessconstructed new wireless broadband networks that added
WISP coverage area for the Galveston Island and Crystal Beach resort
areas of the Texas Gulf Coast region that experienced massive
destruction of all telecommunications services during last year's
Hurricane Ike.
- WiFi Hotspot Service: The company has recently made erfSPOT(TM), a
WiFi hotspot service developed by ERF Wireless, available at a growing
number of locations along the Texas Gulf Coast, central Texas, and at
selected oil and gas operations to provide pay-as-you-go Internet
connectivity on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. The company
anticipates its new WiFi hotspot service will be extensively deployed
in public locations throughout the ERF Wireless WISP and oil and gas
network areas.
- New WISP Website: A new website, with regional portals, has
been launched by ERF Wireless to better serve the company's
residential and commercial WISP customers. The site is located at www.erfwireless.net.
Dr. H. Dean Cubley, Chairman and CEO of ERF Wireless, commented, "Under
the leadership of Robert McClung as CEO of our WISP subsidiary and Jay
Bilden, our Senior Vice President - Engineering and Network Operations,
we've enhanced our network design and engineering capabilities and have
improved the operation and maintenance of our entire network. The key to
building a successful WISP network is having experienced and dedicated
management in place early in the process and we have some of the best.
We're now poised to grow at a much more rapid pace than has been
previously possible. With several new acquisition targets on the horizon
and our current efforts to secure a portion of the broadband stimulus
funding moving forward, we anticipate significant growth in our WISP
operations in the very near future."
About ERF Wireless
ERF Wireless Inc. is a fully reporting public corporation located in
League City, Texas, and is the parent company of ERF Oil & Gas Services,
ERF Enterprise Network Services, ERF Bundled Wireless Services, ERF
Wireless Messaging Services and ERF Network Services. The company
specializes in providing wireless and broadband product and service
solutions to enterprise, commercial and residential clients on a
regional, national and international basis. Its principals have been in
the wireless broadband, network integration, triple-play FTTH, IPTV and
content delivery business for more than 40 years. For more information,
please visit our websites at www.erfwireless.com
and www.erfwireless.net
or call 281-538-2101. (ERFWG)
Forward-looking statements in this release regarding ERF Wireless
Inc. are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that
such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties,
including, without limitation, continued acceptance of the company's
products, increased levels of competition, new products and
technological changes, the company's dependence upon third-party
suppliers, intellectual property rights, and other risks detailed from
time to time in the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE: ERF Wireless Inc.
ERF Wireless Inc.
Clareen O'Quinn, 281-538-2101 ext. 113
coquinn@erfwireless.com
or
Rubenstein Investor Relations Inc.
Tim Clemensen, 212-843-9337
tclemensen@rubensteinir.com
Copyright Business Wire 2009