I'm curious about the technology they are using. Is it an actual mesh network or point-to-point wireless?
Here's a map of their network: https://nycmesh.net/map/ (uncheck everything except "Link" to see the network)
'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC with cheap Wi-Fi
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Re: 'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC with cheap Wi-Fi
#12"NYC Mesh will comply with all federal laws in the countries it operates, however, as policy, no data is collected and therefore no data exists to provide requestors."
This is cute, but if you aren't hunting down people abusing the mesh, the whole connection to the internet will go away for a ToS violation.
Re: 'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC with cheap Wi-Fi
#13I'd like to imagine this would be competition on price and service. Sadly, that won't be the case. They can expect everything from spurious CALEA requirements to rooftop lease shenanigans to unwarranted radio interference claims.
Eventually, though, this mesh model will take over the world, from both a network perspective and a commercial one. We just have to squelch our authoritarian impulse.
Of course, technical challenges may still exist, but those certainly don't discredit the model.
Re: 'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC with cheap Wi-Fi
#14Re: 'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC with cheap Wi-Fi
#15Re: 'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC with cheap Wi-Fi
#16I'm in NYC. I know a few people who played with it. It barely works. I'm all for this kind of tech solutions, but for crying out loud pretending that this is a replacement for ISPs in NYC really discredits techies.
Actually scratch that, I tried getting a 1 gig cross manhattan link. Cost more than 1g to London.
Re: 'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC with cheap Wi-Fi
#17Who's responsible when someone torrents copyrighted material through that Internet exchange point? "NYC Mesh will comply with all federal laws in the countries it operates, however, as policy, no data is collected and therefore no data exists to provide requestors." This is cute, but if you aren't hunting down people abusing the mesh, the whole connection to the internet will go away for a ToS violation.
Over this same period, I have given out a customer's identifying information zero times (if more than 24 hours have passed, there is a very small chance that I am able to identify the customer). In every instance, it was "sorry, I am not able to identify the customer".
Zero is also the number of times I have heard anything from any of my upstreams regarding any ToS violations or similar.
Re: 'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC with cheap Wi-Fi
#18Who's responsible when someone torrents copyrighted material through that Internet exchange point? "NYC Mesh will comply with all federal laws in the countries it operates, however, as policy, no data is collected and therefore no data exists to provide requestors." This is cute, but if you aren't hunting down people abusing the mesh, the whole connection to the internet will go away for a ToS violation.
Re: 'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC with cheap Wi-Fi
#19Who's responsible when someone torrents copyrighted material through that Internet exchange point? "NYC Mesh will comply with all federal laws in the countries it operates, however, as policy, no data is collected and therefore no data exists to provide requestors." This is cute, but if you aren't hunting down people abusing the mesh, the whole connection to the internet will go away for a ToS violation.
That's just not how IXes and peering agreements work.
Re: 'Anti-authority' tech rebels take on ISPs, connect NYC with cheap Wi-Fi
#20The group also knows there will be growing pains as they challenge the status quo and that it's only a matter of time before the big ISPs take notice, which could bring new challenges. I'd like to imagine this would be competition on price and service. Sadly, that won't be the case. They can expect everything from spurious CALEA requirements to rooftop lease shenanigans to unwarranted radio interference claims. Event…