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Starting an Internet Service Provider

chrishacken.com

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Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#71

Post by nickpsecurity »

froztbyte wrote: post #59
nickpsecurity wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. So, you actually had it easier than Chris since the expectations of service are so low in Africa. You might have had it harder because of all the extra issues you deal with. As I figured, it's not as straight-forward as your original comment implied.

Ah, no no. The expectations are not low. People are paying for a service, and they expect it to work. I once (another country, another ISP) dealt with a query/complaint of "it doesn't work!" which turned out to be due to a snowstorm taking out _the entire area_. Which people knew about! And still complained! The expectation for the service is really much of the same. Almost ironically, the first marker that people ph…

In that case, your comment stands and it seems like a hell of a tough market.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#72

Post by nickpsecurity »

doubleplusgood wrote: post #64
nickpsecurity wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's great info that I'm saving. It's way cheaper than I thought it would be since the cost of everything has gone down much vs back when I started networking. I was also considering possibility of reaching out to people in Shenzhen finding and testing gear from various suppliers to see if that cost could be reduced. Curious if you've considered any kind of mesh networking that relays from one location to another?…

What kind of latency does meshing add? I'd reckon a few more ms per hop?

That's something I'm curious about, too. I haven't done much research on it except to say I've used it a few times with no noticeable impact and some others are doing mesh networks. I was just curious if OP had done any research or analysis of that option.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#73

Post by rayiner »

vflagr wrote: post #10

This was a super interesting read. The one thing I never fail to get over though is how expensive internet is in the states. In the UK you can get 200/20 for about £58 p/m including TV & Phone. I couldn't imagine paying nearly $100 p/m for 100mbps.

Depends where you are. Before Brexit, 58 pounds was about $90. I pay about $110 for 150/150 symmetric fiber + TV + phone in Maryland.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#74

Post by sethhochberg »

tomarr wrote: post #48
chrishacken wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that the bandwidth is expensive; it's the cost to deploy everything. If there was preexisting conduit/fiber in the ground and all we had to do was plug two cables together, I'd be able to charge $25/m too. I've never been to the UK, but I believe your population density is a lot higher than that of the US; which is where all of our costs originate (interconnecting the customer to our network).

It's interesting that this is always the american response whenever the broadband comparisons are made. I don't mean this in a negative way, but it's a very persistent argument and I wonder if there's some external factor that pushes it (telcos/media/other). I think this is definitely a factor - but it's vastly overstated. The USA is more urbanised than many European countries at 80%, so there's definitely quick wins…

We do have some examples of this kind of structure in the US - for example, in Manhattan, NYC, a company called "Empire City Subway" has maintained general telecommunications conduit an a license from the state for over a hundred years. http://www.empirecitysubway.com/

Unfortunately, this kind of thing is rare here.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#76

Post by chrishacken »

chrisper wrote: post #75

I noticed that the "subscribe" button is not leading to an https address. However, the link in the confirmation email does. So I guess, it would be an easy fix for you to just change it to https.

Thanks, fixed. I just got around to setting this up yesterday so the site itself isn't https yet and I just put // instead of the full path for the form POST.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#77

Post by froztbyte »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #71
froztbyte wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, no no. The expectations are not low. People are paying for a service, and they expect it to work. I once (another country, another ISP) dealt with a query/complaint of "it doesn't work!" which turned out to be due to a snowstorm taking out _the entire area_. Which people knew about! And still complained! The expectation for the service is really much of the same. Almost ironically, the first marker that people ph…

In that case, your comment stands and it seems like a hell of a tough market.

Yeah... it's tough..

Still, I'm sticking around. There's potential to do good here.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#78

Post by popey456963 »

trafficlight wrote: post #68
liveify wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could also consider discord. It's popular in the gaming community but is capable of housing large discussions

That would work too.

Would definitely recommend Discord, although it's aimed at gamers, it seems to be an amazing all-round chat service.

Rooms are of an unlimited size and have all the core functionality like file & image sharing, code highlighting, "reactions", which we've come to expect but also focuses more on getting people to speak to each other. It's built on electron and is both really quick & also require almost no resources when running in the background.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#79

Post by mynewtb »

trafficlight wrote: post #35
poorman wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says ura_limit_reached. I'm guessing you don't have enough paid accounts.

I'll look into it. We should have an unlimited account. Edit: it appears there is a 5 guest limit per paid account. Edit 2: I think I'm going to set up a Mattermost server and push people that way.

Consider simply using matrix.org, no need for hosting anything yourself unless you want to

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#80

Post by shambolic »

feld wrote: post #69
chrishacken wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I obviously completely agree; we tried relentlessly to contact our local utilities to gain access to their underground conduit and was never able to get someone on the phone or even much of a response. I eventually got to the point where I was like, "F k it, I'll do it on my own." Now we're looking at microtrenching, which is probably an even larger endeavor, but at least we'll own the conduit.

Find out as much as you can about your city's regulations. In Madison, WI if your conduit is 3" or larger the city can take ownership of it if they want with zero compensation for the cost you spent to build it out. They will reuse it for utilities, traffic lights, etc. You can still use it, but they own it.

Jeez, that's rough. Sounds like a great recipe to drive away investment and for only installing 2" conduit to the detriment of all.
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