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Starting an ISP: Deploying Fiber

chrishacken.com

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Re: Starting an ISP: Deploying Fiber

#3
Great write-up. Great entrepreneurial tenacity. Would love more insight on the wireless challenges and how you tackle them? I wonder if a software monitoring app could detect increased noise and automate channel hopping.

Surely that must exist -- on the other hand, you mentioned the vendors do everything to lower the BOM, so perhaps they are lazy and this software is needed. Could be a good OSS project.

Re: Starting an ISP: Deploying Fiber

#4
post #3

Great write-up. Great entrepreneurial tenacity. Would love more insight on the wireless challenges and how you tackle them? I wonder if a software monitoring app could detect increased noise and automate channel hopping. Surely that must exist -- on the other hand, you mentioned the vendors do everything to lower the BOM, so perhaps they are lazy and this software is needed. Could be a good OSS project.

So Mimosa, one of the hardware vendors we use, does actually have this built-in to their firmware. The issue is, from what I've seen, is that it hops around too much. It also moves to congested channels sometimes. I'm sure there's a way to perfect it, we just don't have the time at the moment (I also don't believe they provide full API access yet, so I'm not even sure if we can change it without creating an automated UI tool that clicks around on a browser.)

Re: Starting an ISP: Deploying Fiber

#5
It's really encouraging to see an effort like this happening in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area.

Having lived in Northeastern PA at various points in my life, I can attest that Internet speeds there have always kind of lagged behind. I knew people in more rural parts of the area who had basically zero wired internet options at all. It kind of just becomes something you learn to deal with.

Re: Starting an ISP: Deploying Fiber

#6
Are there any grants or any kind of city money for work like what you're doing? I would think towns like Wilkes-Barre and Scranton would be bending over backwards to try and attract the sorts of businesses that would rely on infrastructure like what you're putting down. That you have to do all this with your own money and credit seems really wrong.

Re: Starting an ISP: Deploying Fiber

#7
post #6

Are there any grants or any kind of city money for work like what you're doing? I would think towns like Wilkes-Barre and Scranton would be bending over backwards to try and attract the sorts of businesses that would rely on infrastructure like what you're putting down. That you have to do all this with your own money and credit seems really wrong.

You would think that. Unfortunately many/most people care more about their precious roads than they do about infrastructure.

Re: Starting an ISP: Deploying Fiber

#10
Inspiring story. Will be interesting to see what Chris is capable of if / when he's able to get access to more capital.

Are there VCs who invest in this sort of enterprise? The odds of getting a positive return seem favorable compared to many of the currently trendy software-only startups out there.

Also, I like Chris' tagline:

    Create value, not excuses.
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