These guys are really, really redundant, which is excellent, still I am sure my local fibre ISP doesn't have even 1/3 of that. Probably two uplinks, no second power line and one diesel etc.
I haven't seen those expensive splicing machines, technicians have used a laptop and some small tool..
Starting an ISP is hard (2016)
11–20 of 36 posts
Re: Starting an ISP is hard (2016)
#12Indeed, it sounds easier to start a bank. Probably more profitable also.
It is definitely possible, but only really worth it in a place that isn't served by an existing "good enough" solution - one great example of this is B4RN in the UK.
The area they serve is mostly rural, and existing broadband provision is woeful due to long lines to cabinets, and then long lines from cabinets, or worse, long exchange-only lines.
Because the area is rural, they got the farmers to help - they get a reduced cost service (which is necessary in the UK for farmers to fill in statutory declarations that are online only) in return for allowing the wayleave, and also gets them involved with helping to dig trenches for the fibre to be laid into. The community gets involved as well, with many people who already enjoy the service getting stuck in to help put stuff in the ground.
It really is a remarkable story, but would never have happened on the scale it has if they had good enough service from OpenReach.
Re: Starting an ISP is hard (2016)
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Infact, I would love an article on just that! "Don't start an ISP, start a bank"
With the power of blockchains by your side, start your own bank today.
Because that's worked so well for a large number of exchanges ...
Banks cost a lot to start, because you have regulatory hurdles to leap, and need to spend a lot on security.
Re: Starting an ISP is hard (2016)
#14Starting an ISP doesn't have to be that hard at all. If you want to start one in the country where I live you could do so with very little investment. All the issues he talks about are due to the fact that there is no real competition in the US and no infrastructure to support competition. The way it works over here is that there is a (commercially owned) open fiber network which can be used by anyone who wants to, a…
What is this superb country you live in?
Re: Starting an ISP is hard (2016)
#15This is a unique perspective on the control Google has on the web. You basically can't start an ISP without access to Google, and access to Google is expensive. And you can't cache/proxy it yourself, because https is, like, really useful, man.
Re: Starting an ISP is hard (2016)
#16A nationwide FTTH ISP is a completely different affair to a local WISP...
Re: Starting an ISP is hard (2016)
#17Interesting read. It seems to me some of the long tail risks mitigated by expensive redundancies might be an acceptable risk for the customers. For example, the article indicates that they have redundant power suppliers, along with 2 days worth of diesel for on-premise generation. Apparently keeping the second power company available is a recurring cost. What are the chances power is cut to the office for more than 2…
Writer mentions he is writing about a developing country, where power supply could be quite volatile.I wonder which country he is writing about though, perhaps some South American country or South Africa, I am thinking that most Asian developing countries have power companies that are monopolies in the areas they serve.
Re: Starting an ISP is hard (2016)
#18I was involved in starting one of America's biggest ISP's back in the early 90's - I won't name which one, but it was #2 for a while - and I can say that things have radically changed from the way they used to be. But, I don't believe that the fact that "its hard" is a reason not to do it - I think we really need to return to the days of Mom&Pop BBS'es and locally-maintained and operated NOC's in neighborhoods that r…
I worked at #1! The place all this went bad was when big cable and AT&T got into the game and flushed out all the rest of the competition.
Comcast is a reprehensible company from top to bottom--the pricing sucks, cable tv sucks, bundling sucks, and their customer service SUCKS! So I won't do business with them and am relegated to crappy DSL from Frontier which also SUCKS, just not as bad as Comcast as a company. How did we ever get into this situation?
Granted the ISP I worked at was mostly dialup at the time, but they ran a decent business with decent service. The Mom & Pop ISPs in the rural areas were so cool back then--real American entrepreneurs, which starkly contrast with the robber barons.
Re: Starting an ISP is hard (2016)
#19the original impetus for 'build your own ISP' started from a HN discussion, and frankly i think its where it should end.
Detroit is a sterling reminder of the hubris of a generation in the wake of late stage capitalism. Naturally, creating your own internet in the wasteland that was once americas crown jewel of middle class prosperity seems not only natural, but necessary as the economic incentive from private industry is nonexistent.
For the rest of us, effort is best spent in cultivating a healthy local network. build your own open source router, control traffic according to your own best practices. For example, limit advertising servers and telimetry servers so as to diminish the unspoken incentive the repeal of net neutrality and operating systems that do not respect privacy. Host your own VPN for security and DNS server to avoid SRVFAIL hijacking.
Re: Starting an ISP is hard (2016)
#20Starting an ISP doesn't have to be that hard at all. If you want to start one in the country where I live you could do so with very little investment. All the issues he talks about are due to the fact that there is no real competition in the US and no infrastructure to support competition. The way it works over here is that there is a (commercially owned) open fiber network which can be used by anyone who wants to, a…
What is this superb country you live in?
The Netherlands.
Unfortunately, the fiber network doesn't cover the entire country yet. It was bought by the biggest telco a couple of years back and they pretty much halted expansion. Fortunately, a lot of local initiatives have started up with similar conditions.