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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

#111

Post by jkilpatr »

420codebro wrote: post #82
woah wrote: post #66

Shameless plug: My company Althea ( https://althea.net ) is making router firmware that makes it easy to people to set up incentivized mesh networks in their communities. It allows routers to pay each other for bandwidth which means that everyone hosting a node earns money for the packets they forward. We have 2 networks live, one in rural Oregon and one in Medellin, Colombia. Also, 4 more networks people are current…

As a network architect this seems pretty cool to me - incentivizing individual node/router operators. How is billing & payment reconciliation handled between parties?

See my presentation at NANOG 76 on that subject.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4EKbgShyLw

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#112

Post by oskapt »

corey_moncure wrote: post #96
chadwittman wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Love the project! Why does my intuition suggest big ISPs are going to try to regulate this out of existence in the US. It's depressing.

It's already illegal twice over. Anyone "forwarding" packets from a connection to an ISP is almost certainly in breach of contract. Amateur packet radio service regulations state that you may not use it for applications that are available over commercial services.

This isn’t APRS or amateur radio at all. The article doesn’t call out the band info, but if this is running over 2.4 or 5 GHz, it’s unlicensed spectrum and available for use by anyone.

If they were running over licensed spectrum, the FCC would have shut them down in the US.

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#113

Post by tlrobinson »

corey_moncure wrote: post #96
chadwittman wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Love the project! Why does my intuition suggest big ISPs are going to try to regulate this out of existence in the US. It's depressing.

It's already illegal twice over. Anyone "forwarding" packets from a connection to an ISP is almost certainly in breach of contract. Amateur packet radio service regulations state that you may not use it for applications that are available over commercial services.

Where did they say they were using amateur radio bands?

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#114

Post by jkilpatr »

thepete2 wrote: post #90
woah wrote: post #66

Shameless plug: My company Althea ( https://althea.net ) is making router firmware that makes it easy to people to set up incentivized mesh networks in their communities. It allows routers to pay each other for bandwidth which means that everyone hosting a node earns money for the packets they forward. We have 2 networks live, one in rural Oregon and one in Medellin, Colombia. Also, 4 more networks people are current…

That sounds awesome. How do the payments work?

I explain it in some detail here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4EKbgShyLw

Essentially we use Eth because we don't really need a 'cryptocurrency' as much as we need an api for cash where very small payments (10c) are practical. For reasons that I explain in the presentation the key simplifying assumption of low fee transactions makes a simple billing scheme (pay per forward) work.

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#115

Post by jkilpatr »

cristyansv wrote: post #94
woah wrote: post #66

Shameless plug: My company Althea ( https://althea.net ) is making router firmware that makes it easy to people to set up incentivized mesh networks in their communities. It allows routers to pay each other for bandwidth which means that everyone hosting a node earns money for the packets they forward. We have 2 networks live, one in rural Oregon and one in Medellin, Colombia. Also, 4 more networks people are current…

Wow, can you provide more info about Medellin network ?

You may appreciate Deborah's blog post.

https://blog.althea.net/faster-cheaper-internet-in-medellin-...

Ask away as far as other questions go.

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#116

Post by [deleted] »

buildbuildbuild wrote: post #84
lancesells wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is the connection? I checked with them a couple of months back and unfortunately my rooftop isn't in line of sight with any of the nodes. Really want to use it and say goodbye to Verizon.

It depends on how many hops are between you and a supernode but 60-80mbit is typical. Check the map in a few months, I was in your situation then suddenly a node popped up a mile away.

[deleted]

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#117

Post by hadlock »

d2mw wrote: post #34

I'm curious about how these things are expected to scale.. 1000 subscribers, dedicated support person 5000, ??? 10000, ??? At some point these community efforts must grow back into a company again, right? And the cycle repeats

Probably around the 1200-5000 mark you might start seeing market segmentation, and then a federation of local mesh networks' super hubs all sharing a dedicated backbone of some sort and cost sharing. Backbone and last mile always seem to get separated out pretty quickly as they're different businesses. Not all nonprofits need to scale to unicorn size.

Re: New York City Neighbors Build Cheaper Way to Connect to Web

#120

Post by shados »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #119

Wait, how can internet start from $66 in NYC of all places? Where a teeny bit of extra cable can get the connection to hundreds of other subscribers? I smell a rort.

Doesn't NYC have a Times Warner monopoly for internet?

If so, that's why.

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