lakes in the county. Wisconsin Rural Internet's churn rate is 6 percent to 8 percent, which is relatively high.
"We lose a lot to people moving," he says. "There's a lot of snowbirds, you know, retired people who spend six to eight months here but winter somewhere else." Gustin says his subscriber base, which is spread over several counties, has never topped 10,000.
Despite the fact that Internet access is the longest-standing online business, it has never seen major consolidation. Counter to predictions, the industry was never trimmed to a handful of major players. Even America Online, with far and away the largest subscriber base - 19 million - is losing market share. According to Boardwatch magazine, which keeps a directory of ISPs in the U.S. and Canada, there was a 36 percent leap in ISPs between last October and July. Gustin says there were roughly 800 ISPs in the country when he launched. There are now more than 7,000.
Most of that number are small ISPs like Wisconsin Rural. There are at least three ISPs with a similar operating model competing with Gustin in his immediate service area alone. There are at least several dozen more that offer service in the local 920 area code. But even with all this competition, there are some corners of the U.S. that simply can't - and likely never will - get local dialup Internet access.
Gustin's biggest headache has been dealing with local phone companies for access lines. "When we first went to the phone companies, nobody had even heard of 56Kbps," he says. "And when we said we'd need hundreds of phone lines, they just laughed. They've only gotten worse with time."
That attitude has been a hindrance, but it's also one reason why national players have ignored markets like Wautoma. "I don't anticipate the big guys moving in here, maybe ever," Gustin says. "It's just not worth their time, especially since they have to go through the boneheads at GTE (GTK) and Ameritech to get access."
Gustin thinks there is still room to expand locally - "We haven't tapped out the market here by any means," he says - but the Internet King of Wautoma is starting to feel a little claustrophobic on his current turf. So Gustin plans to launch a national ISP, available in 500 cities, this month.
It's hard to imagine someone working out of a small house in Wisconsin taking on the world. But Gustin is a study in contrasts. He's wildly ambitious, driven and determined, but he's also committed to the slow pace of life in Wautoma, which calls itself "the Christmas Tree Capital of the World."
Sure, the nightlife is minimal, but Gustin says he enjoys waterskiing, downhill skiing and golf, taking full advantage of what the region has to offer. And his relative isolation has not separated him from trends in the industry. He even jumped on the free-PC bandwagon two months ago, when he heard that national ISPs like Prodigy (PRGY) were giving away free computers to subscribers. He now runs a side business called WI Computers, offering a free PC to anyone who signs up for four years of Internet service.
Gustin says he's learned the importance of customer service. "To be honest, before some other competition came into the local picture, I was very dissatisfied with service," says Linda Richards of Oshkosh, who has subscribed to Wisconsin Rural Internet for three years despite early reservations. "It was very hard to get tech help, feedback or even a phone answer when calling. They were somewhat rude when they first started. In fact, had it not been such a pain to switch, I would have. But competition has made them do a 180-degree turnabout and I find them to be very prompt with their service in all aspects. E-mails and phone [calls] are answered with a courteous reply."
So what makes Gustin think he can take his small-town business national?
