Negotiations to sell Internet provider Eaglecap.net have fallen apart.

Attorneys had gone so far as to draw up a contract before prospective buyer Ed Millar reconsidered and squashed the deal Dec. 18, said Sam Summers, the operator and part owner of the company.

Millar declined to comment. But Summers isn’t disappointed by the unexpected turn.

“I really wasn’t looking to sell,” he said, adding that Millar initiated negotiations following conversations the two men shared.

The proposed sale coincided with a rash of complaints from wireless clients in the Wallowa and Lostine regions who were losing their Internet service on weekends. The problem, Summers explained, was due to the fact his service piggybacks on the Educational School Districts’ radios.

“Since around Thanksgiving, their radios have been slowly dying,” he said. “A couple of times they died on the weekends, and since they (ESD) don’t work on weekends, Wallowa and Lostine were without Internet. My hands were tied. I had a lot of unhappy customers over that.”

Some of those unhappy customers recently began circulating a petition asking a competitor in La Grande, Eastern Oregon Net, Inc. (EONI), to provide service in Wallowa. Petitioners said they would switch providers if service were available.

Kelly Mutch, co-owner of EONI, said his company’s plans for service in that area are moving forward regardless of the petition, but declined to provide a specific timeframe. He said there are still some contractual issues with a third party which first need to be resolved.

Eaglecap inherited 150 wireless customers in Wallowa and Lostine, along with the previous owner’s equipment, when it bought Wallowa Design in February 2007.

“Right now we’re on a telephone pole that kind of moves around in the wind,” Summers said.

The company’s current plan, he added, will put Eaglecaps’ radios on a new 40-foot tower atop Tick Hill, providing much better coverage.

Summers also announced he’s hired an additional employee to help install new radios, which he now realizes needs to be done every year to keep up with changing technology.

Part of the relay system will involve new radios planned for installation on Sheep Ridge, which will not only help the problem in Wallowa and Lostine but also provide the last link for customers wanting wireless service at the south end of Wallowa Lake.

Currently, residents there can only get Internet service through dialup or satellite providers.

As to the fiber-optic cable between Enterprise and La Grande installed by Verizon this summer to help ease the bottleneck created by Enterprise’s single microwave tower, Summers said Verizon is still waiting on equipment it needs to install before the connection can go live. When that might happen is not clear, he said.

One problem with the wireless technology, Summers said, is the frequencies used by Internet transmitter and receivers are the same as many household wireless devices. He suggests clients make sure they keep cordless phones and any other devices away from their routers and outside transmitter/receivers to avoid interference.