RPC is a vendor-neutral technology advisory practice based in Door County, Wisconsin. I'm Nate Bell, and I've spent over 25 years in the ISP and telecommunications industry. That background means I've been on the provider side of the table for most of my career, which gives me a different perspective on billing, provisioning, and service delivery than most IT consultants have.
I also serve as Village President of Sister Bay, which gives me firsthand understanding of municipal technology needs, procurement constraints, and governance requirements.
I review ISP, telecom, and IT service bills and contracts to identify overcharges, legacy rates, unnecessary equipment rentals, and mismatched service tiers. I then either negotiate directly with providers on the client's behalf or equip them with the specific information they need to negotiate effectively.
Results to date:
I assess single points of failure in internet connectivity, network infrastructure, and power systems. I design and implement failover solutions: secondary internet connections, backup power systems, and properly configured network equipment. The goal is that when an outage hits, businesses and municipalities can continue operating.
Door County's infrastructure has unique vulnerabilities that most people aren't aware of. Multiple internet and cellular providers share the same physical fiber paths, which means services that appear to be independent backups can all fail simultaneously during a single infrastructure event. My ISP background lets me identify these hidden dependencies and design around them.
I help organizations, particularly municipalities, take back ownership and control of their own technology infrastructure. This includes making sure the organization itself (not just a third-party vendor) has administrative access to critical systems like email, cloud services, routers, and network management platforms.
I document everything I do so that any qualified vendor can pick up where I left off. I don't believe in creating dependency. I believe in creating transparency and control for my clients.
I help clients navigate ISP selection decisions during the current wave of fiber deployments in Door County. I also advise on VoIP migration, cellular plan optimization, and emerging technology opportunities. My role is to provide independent, vendor-neutral guidance so clients can make informed decisions rather than relying solely on sales representatives from providers who have their own incentives.
Door County is in the middle of a major shift in its connectivity landscape. Multiple fiber providers are actively building or expanding, cellular carriers are improving their coverage significantly, and residents and businesses are being presented with more choices than they've had in decades.
This creates real confusion. Providers are competing aggressively, often pushing service tiers that don't match what customers actually need. Legacy rates remain in place for anyone who doesn't know to ask for better pricing. Some fiber projects have stalled, leaving customers uncertain about whether to wait or switch.
At the same time, many organizations are discovering that their technology infrastructure has accumulated problems over the years: opaque billing, limited access to their own systems, inadequate redundancy, and undocumented configurations. Staff turnover means institutional knowledge gets lost, and new vendors may replace working systems with ones they're more familiar with, regardless of whether the replacement is actually an improvement.
There is a clear need for an independent advisor who can help businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities understand what they have, evaluate their options, and make decisions that serve their interests rather than a vendor's.
Pricing: $150/hour. Simple, transparent, no tiered commitments.
Engagement model: Most engagements begin with a bill and service review, which typically identifies savings that far exceed the cost of the consultation. From there, clients may engage me for network design, redundancy planning, vendor transition support, or ongoing monitoring.
Monitoring & documentation: I maintain a monitoring infrastructure that provides visibility into client network health, ISP performance, and device status. All client infrastructure is documented with network diagrams and configuration records, ensuring continuity regardless of who provides support in the future.
Philosophy: I sell advice, not hardware. I don't lock clients into long-term contracts. I document everything so clients are never dependent on me. If I do my job right, my clients understand their own technology better than they did before, and they have the access and documentation to prove it.
I serve businesses, nonprofits, municipalities, and residents throughout Door County, Wisconsin. Door County has a significant nonprofit community, and these organizations face the same technology challenges as any business but often with tighter budgets and less in-house technical knowledge. They're also year-round operations in a seasonal economy, which makes cost optimization and reliable connectivity especially important to them. Current and recent engagements include network builds, VoIP migration, ISP billing optimization, redundancy planning, and technology governance consulting.
As Door County's connectivity landscape continues to evolve, I see growing demand for independent technology advisory services. The fiber buildout will eventually settle, but the need for someone who helps organizations make sense of their technology and maintain control over it is permanent.
I'm also exploring opportunities in IoT-based infrastructure monitoring and AI-enabled workflow automation for local businesses, with the goal of bringing practical, affordable capabilities to organizations that don't have enterprise budgets.
Nate Bell
Resilient Path Consulting
920-839-0910
nate@resilientpathconsulting.net
resilientpathconsulting.net