Government entities are fine for running utilities based on slow moving technologies (e.g. community sewer system). They would also be good for version 1 of your community internet service. But what about version 2? By the time the government is ready to roll out the version 2 internet backbone, it will be obsolete.
Harvard Study Shows Why Big Telecom Is Terrified of Community-Run Broadband
131–140 of 151 posts
Re: Harvard Study Shows Why Big Telecom Is Terrified of Community-Run Broadband
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
> CJDNS[1] (protocol for encrypted p2p address allocation and routing for mesh networks, so essentially OSI layer 3) and project Hyperboria[2] (a community of local WiFi initiatives) None of this addresses the big point, which is the backhaul, the transit networks, the big networks which knit together all of the smaller community networks and make them more useful. In short: If you make a nice little mesh network in…
1. build local net 2. feed it with a few links to the central net, but mostly transit the data locality 3. wait until ISPs goes out of business 4. plug isolated nets into new dark fiber lying around. done.
How do you figure that when 70% of traffic is streaming?
Re: Harvard Study Shows Why Big Telecom Is Terrified of Community-Run Broadband
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
That leaves nothing for those "service providers" to do except skim profit. Why should they get a cut? Because they have a router?
My question is an honest one. A modern ISP needs to only run a router, really. They don't need to provide email accounts. They don't need to provide a Usenet server. They don't need to provide free web hosting space. They don't need to provide hardly any of the things ISPs once did. They don't even need to provide DNS servers. They need to provide DHCP and a route to the Internet. That's it. Where is competition goin…
The trend has been going more towards OTT services, because there's more profit to be made.
Re: Harvard Study Shows Why Big Telecom Is Terrified of Community-Run Broadband
#134Government entities are fine for running utilities based on slow moving technologies (e.g. community sewer system). They would also be good for version 1 of your community internet service. But what about version 2? By the time the government is ready to roll out the version 2 internet backbone, it will be obsolete.
Fiber lasts for decades. It does not go obsolete. If you want something faster or better change the electronics on each end.
If you are worried about the governed not keeping up, let the government put in the fiber and have somebody else light it.
Re: Harvard Study Shows Why Big Telecom Is Terrified of Community-Run Broadband
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the less dense areas the most economical solution for great connectivity is definitely mesh networks. They are even being deployed in very rural areas at a very low cost! http://owni.fr/files/2011/09/Building_a_Rural_Wireless_Mesh_... Obviously there are better (commercial, prepackaged) mesh network solutions
For buildings (offices, condos, apartments), air fiber solutions are way better and often faster than fiber pulls. 60 GHz microwave, building-to-building if needed, all are in the big cities... why waste time fighting rights to run fiber in dense urban cores?
Define way better. Wireless solutions have many benefits, but they are in no way better in all aspects than fiber.
Fiber has its place, as has wireless.
Re: Harvard Study Shows Why Big Telecom Is Terrified of Community-Run Broadband
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
That leaves nothing for those "service providers" to do except skim profit. Why should they get a cut? Because they have a router?
My question is an honest one. A modern ISP needs to only run a router, really. They don't need to provide email accounts. They don't need to provide a Usenet server. They don't need to provide free web hosting space. They don't need to provide hardly any of the things ISPs once did. They don't even need to provide DNS servers. They need to provide DHCP and a route to the Internet. That's it. Where is competition goin…
I'm going to take a wild guess and say you have never run an ISP.
The answer is people. You need people to "provide a route to the Internet". To answer phones. To fix things when they break.
Running an ISP is far from glamorous and far from just leaning back and skimming the profit.
Re: Harvard Study Shows Why Big Telecom Is Terrified of Community-Run Broadband
#137Ask HN: If I wanted to create a very small cooperative ISP for my family and a handful of neighbors, it doesn't seem like rocket science, except... At some point it has to connect to the Internet, meaning I have to buy some sort of connection. How's that work?
I have been wondering about this. Appreciate it if anyone provide some idea. I mean it it quite easy nowadays to set up a network both wired and wireless to share among neighbours. I did that. But lastly, it needs to be connected to the internet/first mile. If I can negotiate enough numbers and do the fiber laying work myself, how can i get the internet connection at wholesale?
You can buy wholesale Internet bandwidth from most larger ISPs. Get quotes by contacting the carriers in your area. Expect to pay a few grand per month for the pleasure.
Give me a shout for more details.
Re: Harvard Study Shows Why Big Telecom Is Terrified of Community-Run Broadband
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
1. build local net 2. feed it with a few links to the central net, but mostly transit the data locality 3. wait until ISPs goes out of business 4. plug isolated nets into new dark fiber lying around. done.
How do you figure that when 70% of traffic is streaming?
if you are just consuming content owned by netflix or such, a central or decentralised net means nothing to the end user.
Re: Harvard Study Shows Why Big Telecom Is Terrified of Community-Run Broadband
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
The very government you expect to mandate universal service availability is the government that approves exclusive franchise agreements with predatory cable/internet providers. Unless you're ready to run for local office and champion municipal/coop internet, or find incumbents who support your cause, you will not succeed. > Any clever kid can run circles around them and provide a better service. And we let them have…
>A bit of an exaggeration of course; running an ISP is har I think you misunderstood me. I did not mean to say that being an ISP was something a clever kid could pull off. I meant to say that a clever kid can run circles around the established players when it comes to media distribution. That clever kid can upload whatever media needs to be distributed to a CDN and it's done. The entrenched players have to manage mai…
I misunderstood, thanks for clarifying. Agree that anyone can be Netflix/do media distribution these days with transcoding + storage + CDN all commodities now.
Re: Harvard Study Shows Why Big Telecom Is Terrified of Community-Run Broadband
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you figure that when 70% of traffic is streaming?
if you are just consuming content owned by netflix or such, a central or decentralised net means nothing to the end user.
Which was just about my point. As this covers the vast majority of all end users, how do you figure your list logically applies?