By Britt Combs | The McDowell News

Published: January 2, 2009

Internet customers in Marion now have more options for access with the newly-launched service provided by AND

Installing Equipment

Wireless & Security, Inc. Their service is available to customers in line-of-sight to their tower on Grant’s Mountain, between I-40 and the U.S. 221 Bypass.
That’s the hill south of town known for prominent communications towers. The newest and tallest of these is the AND tower.
The two-year-old company is operated by Alton Kelley, Jr. and his wife April and Chris Lindley and wife Stephanie (”Steph”). The company grew out of Lindley’s Adaptive Network Designs (hence the name “AND”).
Lindley is a busy man and a determined one. Growing up in Old Fort, he was an enthusiastic motorcycle racer – until, in 1988, he broke his back.
He has been “partially paraplegic” ever since, using a wheelchair 80 to 90 percent of the time, he explained.
Educated at AB Tech and N.C. State, Lindley studied engineering, math and physics. His work included teaching and office duty, but, he said, “I wanted to do the work. I didn’t want to just work on paper.
“That led me to electronic repair and design, then into computers, both hardware and software; installations and field work.”
While Lindley was honing his skills working for a variety of clients, including the N.C. Arboretum, Alton Kelley was serving in the U.S. Navy as an electronics technician.
“Computers were always my hobby,” he said. With the experience from the Navy under his belt, Kelley, originally from Marion, enrolled in classes at AB Tech, where he was surprised to have Lindley as a teacher. The two, friends since seventh-grade, naturally began to work together.
“With my background in electronics and engineering and his in IT,” said Kelley, “we leaned on each other a lot.”
One day they were discussing their work at breakfast and were overheard by folks from Gateway Mountain, who asked the friends to provide wireless Internet service to that community.
That venture was successful. They formed AND with their wives. April, from Old Fort, keeps the books and Steph, originally from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, does the secretarial work.
In a little over two years they now have five towers, Grant’s Mountain being the newest. The company also features installation and maintenance of security cameras and monitoring systems. And Chris still runs his Adaptive Network Designs while Alton runs his computer services company in Columbus, serving clients including Xerox.
Chris said the company prides itself on customer service and quick response. If the system has a problem, he said, they are usually on it in a matter of minutes. He said they hoped their Marion tower will give and advantage to small business and growing business.
“It’s a win/win situation,” he said.
The facility already serves the Love’s Truck Stop, and McDowell Early College, helping to solve a growing problem of lack of bandwidth at MTCC.
Lindley said they take great care to leave the hills undisturbed and use “green” technology. Their Hickory Nut Mountain tower is solar-powered.
“I like the mountains the way they are,” he said.
He delights in strapping on his harness and hauling himself up the towers, leaving his wheelchair behind. The Grant’s Mountain Tower is 300 feet tall, with their equipment 220 feet up.
Installation takes about two hours, Kelley said, and includes  a $235 2.4 gig radio. The fee for installation is $59, and 1.5 Mbps/256Kbps service costs $44.95 per month. An upgrade to 2 Mbps upload and 512 Kbps download speed is available for $10 more per month.
“Compared to satellite service,” said Lindley, “there’s no comparison, for cost,  speed or reliability.”

Site surveys and estimates are free of charge. For more information, contact Alton at (828) 899-5114 or e-mail to info@andwireless.net