Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
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Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#2So glad to see a renewed emphasis on proper wired infrastructure. It seems the "big boys" (Verizon, T-Mobile, etc) are heavily pushing wireless and not building out new wired areas, I assume because it's less capital intensive.
Hell if there's a way to invest in Prime-One, these guys seem to have their stuff together...
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#3I've seen a few articles about folks who started an ISP and they always talk about the physical infrastructure. But in today's world where ISP ads are touting the speeds of their wifi, it really makes me wonder what the support burden ends up being like. What's the breakdown for actual ISP issues vs issues with customer equipment?
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#4Congrats! I grew up just down the road from Saline. Exciting to see this happening on my old stomping grounds. Best of luck.
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#5A presentation from 2020 NLNOG by Jared Mauch who did something similar in Michigan community:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASXJgvy3mEg
2020 NANOG:
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#6I've seen a few articles about folks who started an ISP and they always talk about the physical infrastructure. But in today's world where ISP ads are touting the speeds of their wifi, it really makes me wonder what the support burden ends up being like. What's the breakdown for actual ISP issues vs issues with customer equipment?
This is 10 years out, but I used to work on an IT help desk, that was the outsourced 24/7 helpdesk / hosting for a collection of small local/regional isps (<5000 customer rural dsl companies, local municipalities, apartments, etc) My ballpark estimate from that over 3 years working there is probably 75%+ are Not equipment related. Setting up email was a big one, people accidentally hitting the input/source button on their remote and losing their STB input setting, People needing to reboot their router, flushing DNS settings / winsock reset. These might have been the majority of cases.
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#7I once lived in a town with local high speed (although it was cable, not fiber). It really does make a world of difference in terms of what you pay and what kind of support you get.
It's disgusting that big telecom has been able to monopolize so much of the US for so long.
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#8Still waiting for someone to do the same in Bay Area. Many parts of it don’t have any fiber optics options, even though Sonic does provide some in the north.
AT&T put an optic cable at my curb 10 years ago (most likely due to imminent competition from Google Fiber internet), but then never lit it (most likely because Google dropped their effort due to complications with cities)…
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#9I am always baffled by these things. Say there’s a huge company with a monopoly in your area. My first thought is “How did they get that monopoly? What happened to all the other people who must surely have had the idea to compete with them?” But no, these stories are always treating “Hey, let’s start a competing company!” like some revolutionary idea that nobody has thought of before, and that success is assured.
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#10I've seen a few articles about folks who started an ISP and they always talk about the physical infrastructure. But in today's world where ISP ads are touting the speeds of their wifi, it really makes me wonder what the support burden ends up being like. What's the breakdown for actual ISP issues vs issues with customer equipment?
I'd imagine it's a lot less than "Okay, let's start by going into your dialer settings..."
With fiber, the ISP can see that everything is good up to the GPON terminal. Probably the router too as most customers will just use the ISP provided one. So that leaves the ethernet interface / wifi card as the only thing that would fail and have to be ascertained over the phone, and with a local ISP its probably more cost effective to cut out all the abstractions and just have a tech stop by to check it out.
On the other side, customers have become a lot more used to self help. For example their email isn't even hosted with the ISP any more! I would think that most people would be aware that if a device works good close to the router, and not good far, the issue is wifi range. If they're still calling the ISP, you can direct them towards wifi extenders. Or if device A does not work but device B does, it's not a problem to call the ISP about. And so on.
Of course this is my idyllic view not having worked ISP tech support in a few decades...