While I am in favor of increasing competition among ISPs. I don't see how making it volunteer-based is actually good. All this does is take away presumably well-paying jobs from those who need them. IMO, a for-profit company developing a new mesh network would be more compelling. Not only would it provide local jobs, but it would also drive down the cost of internet for all. Somehow though, I feel this is a minority view.
New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web
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Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web
#22[deleted]
Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web
#23I've been very intrigued by their efforts for some time now. Last time I read about NYC Mesh, it sent me down a rabbit hole of research into mesh networks and what it takes to found an ISP. I'd love to replicate their efforts in NOLA, but the legal and technical hurdles are tricky! When I had looked into it, these resources had been helpful for research: Wireless Networking in the Developing world -- http://wndw.net/…
Hey there codexarcanum,
My partner and I are NOLA based programmers / lawyers who have been researching this matter for a few years. We own the domain nolamesh.net and would love to work with you to navigate the political / legal / business issues to deploy a similar network in the New Orleans metro area. Please reach out to us at nolalawcorp@gmail.com and let's set up a meeting.
Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web
#24While I am in favor of increasing competition among ISPs. I don't see how making it volunteer-based is actually good. All this does is take away presumably well-paying jobs from those who need them. IMO, a for-profit company developing a new mesh network would be more compelling. Not only would it provide local jobs, but it would also drive down the cost of internet for all. Somehow though, I feel this is a minority…
A for-profit company will drive profits for stockholders (and not necessarily the community or customers) which will also drive competition. Sure, it creates jobs but that’s not a for-profit company’s goal. I guess it is difficult to compete given laws and/or regulations, so running a new such company for-profit would be too difficult?
Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web
#25While I am in favor of increasing competition among ISPs. I don't see how making it volunteer-based is actually good. All this does is take away presumably well-paying jobs from those who need them. IMO, a for-profit company developing a new mesh network would be more compelling. Not only would it provide local jobs, but it would also drive down the cost of internet for all. Somehow though, I feel this is a minority…
"When it grows to about 1,000 members, he added, it can hire its first support person."
Volunteer-based initiatives can turn into companies if they're successful. Hopefully that's the case here.
Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web
#26While I am in favor of increasing competition among ISPs. I don't see how making it volunteer-based is actually good. All this does is take away presumably well-paying jobs from those who need them. IMO, a for-profit company developing a new mesh network would be more compelling. Not only would it provide local jobs, but it would also drive down the cost of internet for all. Somehow though, I feel this is a minority…
"We’ve had 14 installs and 84 requests in the past 4 weeks, which works out to 3.5 installs a week."
https://www.nycmesh.net/blog/march-2019-update/
I don't think they are threatening jobs at this point. I assume if it grows big, they will likely have to hire someone and pay them.
Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web
#27There were (maybe still are) tons of such mesh networks run by small commercial operators in Germany's rural areas, usually using directional radio to create connections between villages and then meshing all the wifi consumer routers to span wifi over the village. They did that/do that because the major commercial providers (i.e. Telekom) weren't exactly fast laying fiber to these villages. A buddy of mine used to ru…
My home internet in the Rocky Mountains, USA is delivered via mesh-WiFi provided by one of my neighbors. It's a really cool system actually- the towers are battery/solar operated and some can only be accessed via horseback. Covers ~500 homes.
5mbps down/2mbps up is what I get for $79/month, and I've learned to live with it. The only other option is satellite internet with restrictive usage caps. We used to have another competitor in the space but after big floods in 2013 they exited our area.
Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web
#28While I am in favor of increasing competition among ISPs. I don't see how making it volunteer-based is actually good. All this does is take away presumably well-paying jobs from those who need them. IMO, a for-profit company developing a new mesh network would be more compelling. Not only would it provide local jobs, but it would also drive down the cost of internet for all. Somehow though, I feel this is a minority…
A for-profit company will drive profits for stockholders (and not necessarily the community or customers) which will also drive competition. Sure, it creates jobs but that’s not a for-profit company’s goal. I guess it is difficult to compete given laws and/or regulations, so running a new such company for-profit would be too difficult?
> Sure, it creates jobs but that’s not a for-profit company’s goal
Well, of course. Giving away unlimited supplies of money without earning it is a privilege only the federal government has. Non-profit companies also cannot create money out of thin air. While non-profits can endeavor to create jobs as their primary mission, I have yet to see a non-profit that can actually create a job without first earning the money itself, whether through actually doing something or working to fundraise.
> I guess it is difficult to compete given laws and/or regulations, so running a new such company for-profit would be too difficult?
It doesn't even need to be for-profit. I suppose I should have clarified. It could be non-profit too. It's the all-volunteerness that I object to. The sorts of things done by volunteers here are actually jobs, that should be compensated. The receivers of the internet ought to be okay paying for it to pay for these people's livelihoods.
Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web
#29Damn, I wanna make something like this happen in Miami.
I wonder how expensive a 10GB uplink from Terremark would set me back.
Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web
#30There's a lot of good amateur radio mesh nets around as well - I'm in the process of setting up an antenna to join one in Orange County https://sites.google.com/site/orangecountymeshorganization/h...