Spokane-based Hughes Computer Services Inc., the parent company of several small information-technology services, says it has seen a sharp rise in revenue during the last year due to the fast growth of its newest subsidiary, Cougar Wireless.

Charles Hughes founded the parent company as a computer-repair service in 2002, and his wife Janet has been running it with him for the last eight years. Hughes Computer Services' other subsidiaries provide data recovery, data backup, and secure electronic file sharing.

Hughes Computer Services launched Cougar Wireless in 2009, with the goal to increase monthly residual income, Hughes says. He declines to disclose specific annual revenues for the parent company.

Cougar Wireless specializes in providing wireless, high-speed Internet service to rural customers who aren't served by hard-wired providers that rely on telephone lines and TV cables.

"We looked for the most stable—not necessarily the most lucrative—service for the IT model," Hughes says, adding that studies show that Internet service is high on the list of budgeted household goods and services.

"Try to go a week without the Internet," Hughes says, "Maybe it's not essential to life, but it's modern-living essential."

The Hugheses weren't strangers to Internet access problems. They lived in Mullen Terrace Mobile Home Park south of Spokane, which had no high-speed Internet service. Other Internet providers said it wasn't feasible to bring service to the park, he says.

"We made a deal with the landlord to provide power, and we would put in the rest of the equipment," Hughes says. "It's going on two years now, and we have 60 percent of that community as customers. Certainly, that's profitable."

Cougar Wireless now serves 400 customers, up 240 percent compared with last year. It is by far the fastest-growing subsidiary of Hughes Computer Services, bringing in 44 percent of its current revenues, he says.

It's not possible to sustain that growth with the geographic limitations the company has set for itself, Hughes says.

"We're close to our infrastructure," he says. "We're trying to remain within 25 miles of our core tower."

Still, that represents a total area of about 2,000 square miles, he says.

Since launching Cougar Wireless, the parent company has added three employees, to bring its total staff to six, including the owners.

It also has upgraded its retail space, having recently leased 2,000 square feet of space in the Southgate Center, at 4526 S. Regal, where it has moved from a 700-square-foot space at 2308 E. 57th. Chris Bell, of NAI Black, handled the Southgate lease.

Rather than invest independently in a network of towers, Hughes says Cougar Wireless works with communities to secure distribution points through which the service is relayed to consumers via its main tower on Tower Mountain, which rises above the Moran Prairie southeast of Spokane.

"The majority of our focus is to find voids—especially in the Palouse—where the rolling hills present line-of-sight issues," he says.

The town of Waverly, for example sits in a topographical bowl about 25 miles southeast of Spokane. "There is no line of site to Tower Mountain," he says.

Cougar Wireless worked with the town to locate a relay tower, in exchange for providing service to Waverly's fire department and City Hall.

To serve the Spangle area, where the Hugheses live now, the company worked with Spokane Seed Co. to install relay equipment on one of its grain elevators about 20 miles south of Spokane.

About 15 miles farther south, Cougar Wireless negotiated with a private landowner to install signal-distribution equipment on his windmill to serve Rosalia-area customers.

The company also worked with the township of Latah to put a publicly accessible wireless hotspot in its city park and provide service to the township office in exchange for the right to install distribution equipment on its water tower, about 35 miles southeast of Spokane.

Cougar Wireless also has customers in the communities of Green Bluff, Chattaroy, and Fairfield, among other rural locations.

Service plans range in price from $10 to $300 a month depending on the customer's desired capacity for high-speed data transfer, and whether the individual customer is part of a cluster—or community—of customers. Cougar Wireless' highest level of service, called Falcon 4, allows download speeds of up to 16 megabits per second.

"That's like having a Comcast connection out in the sticks," Hughes claims.

The 8-megabit level of service, which allows high-quality video streaming, is $39 a month for customers with community connections.

Cougar Wireless' main competitors include Air-Pipe LLC, of Spokane Valley, and Ptera Wireless Inc., of Liberty Lake, both of which also provide wireless Internet service to rural customers.

Hughes entered the IT field after doing a stint in the Marine Corps, followed by security work.

He then worked five years as a juvenile corrections officer during which time he developed a system to consolidate paperwork electronically, reducing some tedious and repetitive tasks.

Though he had compiled a history of "tough-guy" jobs, Hughes says he always was a closet nerd.

"I was always involved in computer-based stuff," he says. "I liked to solve problems and find better ways to do things. It was like a game to me."

On his off time, he studied IT training books and obtained industry certifications. Then he applied for more than 30 IT jobs, sometimes making it through several rounds of interviews, but never landing a job.

"I couldn't get an IT job to save my life," he says. "I decided if I can't get anyone to hire me, I'll hire me."

Six months after that decision, he walked away from his corrections job, making Hughes Computer Services a full-time enterprise.

Janet Hughes came on board 18 months later.

She originally balked when Hughes suggested during an evening walk together that she help run the growing company, he says.

"She was doing well in the optical industry, and she didn't want to leave that career," Hughes says.

A short time later, Hughes Computer Service filed its first 12-month income statement. The income was four times as much as the couple's highest previous joint filing.

"During the next walk, the talk was entirely different," he says.

Their individual skills combine to make the company stronger, Hughes says.

"There are things in the business I'm horrible at," he says. "Janet is very practical. With years of experience in the retail business, her ability for billing and accounting is a big strength."

Hughes Computer Service's farthest-reaching service is CPA Secure, which facilitates the secure transfer of confidential files, mainly between accountants and clients. CPA Secure has close to 20,000 clients in all 50 states and Canada, Hughes says.

Hughes Computer Services' other subsidiaries include Hughes Computer Services Data Recovery, which recovers files lost due to software and hardware malfunctions and malicious acts.

Another subsidiary is ROBAR Technologies, a data backup service. Its customers are mainly those who have used the company's data recovery service, Hughes says.