Steve Schneider and Bug Tussel Wireless are bringing high-speed communications to rural and remote
By Rick Berg, September, 2009
Steve Schneider, president and CEO, Hilbert Communications
On a clear summer morning, Steve Schneider stands atop the Bellin Building in downtown Green Bay and casts his eyes northwest, to the horizon and beyond, to Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. He can’t really see Alaska from here, except maybe in his mind’s eye. Behind him, mounted on a pole, is a satellite dish that can see Alaska, where about 300 people on Adak Island are counting on Schneider, the Bellin Building and Bug Tussel Wireless to provide them with wireless service.
A long-time Cellcom executive until he struck out on his own in 2001, Schneider has never met a communications dead zone he couldn’t bring to life, whether it’s Calumet County or the Aleutian Islands. Filling those gaps in the communications network and bridging the digital divide that separates urban and rural America became Schneider’s reason for being not long after he launched Intelegra, a communications consulting firm, in 2003. Before long, AT&T came calling to fill some of its “white spaces” in Wisconsin. By 2004, Bug Tussel Wireless was born and Schneider was on the fast track to what has quickly become a $20 million-plus company. Continue reading