NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection • Hacker News Board

Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection

#61

Post by fixthenet » Tue, Aug 28, 2018, 10:34 PM UTC

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #46

There's a similar effort gaining traction in the Los Angeles area: https://www.communitybroadband.la/ I've also noticed that local municipalities are getting into the ISP business. Beverly Hills, for example, is currently deploying a city-owned/operated fiber-backed ISP: http://www.beverlyhills.org/fiber

Josh from the Community Broadband Project here. Would be happy to answer any questions about our mission and progress in LA. I'm no regular, but we just got a bunch of traffic from Hacker News and I'm here to spread the gospel.

NYC Mesh is doing very cool stuff--we wish them the best. We're in touch with a few other community ISPs who are growing organically in competition against big incumbent ISPs. It's inspiring.

Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, and Culver City are all constructing municipal fiber right now. In the case of at least WeHo and Culver, it's aimed primarily at businesses. Some residents may see fiber offered by the incumbents, but we did some math of those offerings and it was $133/mo for 1Gbps. It'd be more helpful for the community if reasonable speeds were more affordable and available, than only some wealthy neighborhoods getting fiber.

Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection

#62

Post by dboreham » Tue, Aug 28, 2018, 10:38 PM UTC

I think we had this before a few months ago. It is no different than any other regional transit provider (in the case of their fiber loop) or wireless ISP. You still have to pay for decent peering and you still have to deal with the laws of physics and claude shannon when deploying wireless networks.

Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection

#63

Post by pitaj » Tue, Aug 28, 2018, 10:41 PM UTC

m1573rp34130dy wrote: post #60

ATsch wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Radio is much less susceptible to fog than light because of the lower frequency. Usually, at any large distances, you'd try to use fibre optic cables if at all possible.

Unfortutnately i post too fast, and dont care about karma... I cant say ive ever downvoted someone over meaningfuly criticical review... ...lower frequency means lower bandwith...wifi frequencies have trouble bouncing around in fog penetrating leaves or even a couple thickness of drywall this is why submarines use ELF... where will you run your fibre optic? on the utility poles, or buried in the ground? how do you co…

The best way to do it is probably laser+radio with additional fiber on high-traffic routes. That way you normally have the bandwidth of laser and radio combined, with slower "just radio" as a backup when there's bad weather, and the fiber bandwidth for backbone connections.

Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection

#64

Post by detaro » Tue, Aug 28, 2018, 10:42 PM UTC

previously: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16978544 (230 comments)

Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection

#65

Post by ctime » Tue, Aug 28, 2018, 10:43 PM UTC

The bay area seems to have one such Mesh network, in Oakland: https://peoplesopen.net/

It would be great to see something like this on the Peninsula

Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection

#66

Post by teleclimber » Tue, Aug 28, 2018, 10:46 PM UTC

fixthenet wrote: post #61

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #46

There's a similar effort gaining traction in the Los Angeles area: https://www.communitybroadband.la/ I've also noticed that local municipalities are getting into the ISP business. Beverly Hills, for example, is currently deploying a city-owned/operated fiber-backed ISP: http://www.beverlyhills.org/fiber

Josh from the Community Broadband Project here. Would be happy to answer any questions about our mission and progress in LA. I'm no regular, but we just got a bunch of traffic from Hacker News and I'm here to spread the gospel. NYC Mesh is doing very cool stuff--we wish them the best. We're in touch with a few other community ISPs who are growing organically in competition against big incumbent ISPs. It's inspiring.…

Hi, is your product based on the Necto offering?

https://apply.nectolab.io

Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection

#67

Post by debaserab2 » Tue, Aug 28, 2018, 10:58 PM UTC

fixthenet wrote: post #61

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #46

There's a similar effort gaining traction in the Los Angeles area: https://www.communitybroadband.la/ I've also noticed that local municipalities are getting into the ISP business. Beverly Hills, for example, is currently deploying a city-owned/operated fiber-backed ISP: http://www.beverlyhills.org/fiber

Josh from the Community Broadband Project here. Would be happy to answer any questions about our mission and progress in LA. I'm no regular, but we just got a bunch of traffic from Hacker News and I'm here to spread the gospel. NYC Mesh is doing very cool stuff--we wish them the best. We're in touch with a few other community ISPs who are growing organically in competition against big incumbent ISPs. It's inspiring.…

You might be the totally wrong person to ask this and I apologize if this is a naive question.

Is there a way a lay person (non network-engineer) can somehow get involved with their community to help get this started? I'd love to see something like this get started where I live (Minneapolis) and would be willing to help in any capacity I could.

Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection

#68

Post by fixthenet » Tue, Aug 28, 2018, 11:00 PM UTC

teleclimber wrote: post #66

fixthenet wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Josh from the Community Broadband Project here. Would be happy to answer any questions about our mission and progress in LA. I'm no regular, but we just got a bunch of traffic from Hacker News and I'm here to spread the gospel. NYC Mesh is doing very cool stuff--we wish them the best. We're in touch with a few other community ISPs who are growing organically in competition against big incumbent ISPs. It's inspiring.…

Hi, is your product based on the Necto offering? https://apply.nectolab.io

No, but Necto looks like a very interesting way to make ISPs more approachable for a community. That's one of our own goals, but in our case we're doing everything in house, which makes the most sense given our expertise.

Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection

#69

Post by instaheat » Tue, Aug 28, 2018, 11:05 PM UTC

fixthenet wrote: post #61

joshuamcginnis wrote: post #46

There's a similar effort gaining traction in the Los Angeles area: https://www.communitybroadband.la/ I've also noticed that local municipalities are getting into the ISP business. Beverly Hills, for example, is currently deploying a city-owned/operated fiber-backed ISP: http://www.beverlyhills.org/fiber

Josh from the Community Broadband Project here. Would be happy to answer any questions about our mission and progress in LA. I'm no regular, but we just got a bunch of traffic from Hacker News and I'm here to spread the gospel. NYC Mesh is doing very cool stuff--we wish them the best. We're in touch with a few other community ISPs who are growing organically in competition against big incumbent ISPs. It's inspiring.…

Hi Josh.

Forgive my ignorance, I am honestly just curious. I took a look at your test area on your website, and it is filled with homes/condos that are in the millions of dollars. What practical reason would someone that could afford a home that costs this much need to utilize your service?

Is this area essentially exactly that, a test area, and not intended to be the location you deploy in first?

Re: NYC Mesh – community-owned network to replace your current internet connection

#70

Post by fixthenet » Tue, Aug 28, 2018, 11:06 PM UTC

debaserab2 wrote: post #67

fixthenet wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Josh from the Community Broadband Project here. Would be happy to answer any questions about our mission and progress in LA. I'm no regular, but we just got a bunch of traffic from Hacker News and I'm here to spread the gospel. NYC Mesh is doing very cool stuff--we wish them the best. We're in touch with a few other community ISPs who are growing organically in competition against big incumbent ISPs. It's inspiring.…

You might be the totally wrong person to ask this and I apologize if this is a naive question. Is there a way a lay person (non network-engineer) can somehow get involved with their community to help get this started? I'd love to see something like this get started where I live (Minneapolis) and would be willing to help in any capacity I could.

Like any business endeavor, if you don't have the skills to do it yourself, you need the resources to gain the skills, either through learning, networking and meeting people, or hiring someone. The scale you start at changes things too. We've spoken to a few grassroots ISPs that started 3-5 years ago by non-IT folks who just wanted to share with a few neighbors. Over the course of time they learned and grew the network and now they're at a couple hundred customers. Not big in the ISP sense, but it provided an essential service to their community and competes with [and steals customers from] incompetent, or at worse, anti-consumer incumbent ISPs.

If you have the passion, but not the IT skill set, be the banner waver. Be the leader of the endeavor. Use your passion to convert others. You'll find your talent.