Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Starting an Internet Service Provider

chrishacken.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 248 posts

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#91

Post by rayiner »

gigatexal wrote: post #89
shambolic wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problem is: where is the money going to come from? Even if you guarantee a rate of return, somebody still needs to finance the buildout. Second issue is, how will infrastructure that is installed, but not used be paid for? Take rate is rarely 100%, so who is going to pay for that part and how?

Governments would pay for this via taxes. At least that's one way. So in the end all of us would be paying for internet, and I guess if there were a way to get internet at 1gig up/1 gig down with no data caps that was very reliable for under 100 bucks a month I would do it. But the build-out costs a lot as you've stated so the capital would have to come from somewhere and perhaps that'd come from infrastructure spend…

We can't convince voters to raise taxes/utility rates enough to fix crumbling dams, lead water pipes, and overflowing sewers.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#93

Post by Famicoman »

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.

I'd really like to see usage of Matrix/Riot instead. A federated, open network and you can easily bridge your existing slack channels.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#94

Post by nickpsecurity »

froztbyte wrote: post #77
nickpsecurity wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Also interested in you doing a detailed writeup on your tactics, costs, etc as an African ISP.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#95

Post by froztbyte »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #94
froztbyte wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Also interested in you doing a detailed writeup on your tactics, costs, etc as an African ISP.

Depends on many, many things. Most are fairly specific to the region in question (whichever it might be).

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#96

Post by gigatexal »

rayiner wrote: post #91
gigatexal wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Governments would pay for this via taxes. At least that's one way. So in the end all of us would be paying for internet, and I guess if there were a way to get internet at 1gig up/1 gig down with no data caps that was very reliable for under 100 bucks a month I would do it. But the build-out costs a lot as you've stated so the capital would have to come from somewhere and perhaps that'd come from infrastructure spend…

We can't convince voters to raise taxes/utility rates enough to fix crumbling dams, lead water pipes, and overflowing sewers.

Unfortunately I happen to agree. Until a disaster happens that the public can be convinced is linked directly to a lack of infrastructure spending I think nothing will happen.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#97

Post by Wheaties466 »

trafficlight wrote: post #28

Fantastic write up, Chris. Chris has been hanging out with us (Treasure State Internet, our startup ISP in Montana) in a Slack channel called ISP School. If you're interested in any aspect of starting and running an ISP, please join us. http://slack.tsi.io/#ispschool

looks like the channel is full.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#99

Post by rayiner »

ajosh wrote: post #51
martinald wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's the reason really. The main reason I can see is that Comcast (or cable internet) has no real competition. I don't understand why that is. AT&T, Verizon etc seem to have given up on competing. Verizon stopped their rollout of FTTH a while back nearly entirely, though it has restarted very slowly. AT&Ts VDSL based UVerse solution is way too sparse, with very long cable runs. Compare this to BT in t…

One other reason is that counties have the land rights. They negotiate with the big Telco's like Comcast, Verizon, Cox, Charter, etc and then issue a monopoly or duopoly in the county for a fixed period of time - usually 10 years at once. The Telco can offer a few things like fiber connectivity between county buildings, tax payments, etc. By doing that, they secure the rights to the area. Given the federal system of…

> One other reason is that counties have the land rights. They negotiate with the big Telco's like Comcast, Verizon, Cox, Charter, etc and then issue a monopoly or duopoly in the county for a fixed period of time - usually 10 years at once.

They do not do that. It's illegal under federal law. Pole and conduit owners are required to rent out access at non-discriminatory rates: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/224.

The reason companies don't overbuild is because it's expensive and there isn't any return. FiOS came to my building in Baltimore. I was the only person on my floor to switch away from Comcast. Even these days, people choose their broadband provider based primarily on the TV package.

Re: Starting an Internet Service Provider

#100

Post by madsushi »

diegorbaquero wrote: post #92

Great read! I've always wanted to start one too. How did you go about the addressing? Did you purchase IP blocks from Zayo? If you could go technical it would be great.

If he's using Level 3, he would have to have his own PI-IP block. I'd be interested to hear more about IPv4 and IPv6 in the small ISP world. With 50-100 clients, a single /24 block would serve his current client base.
Post reply on HN