If you ever have the chance to support a local ISP like this, do it! You can get some pretty sweet deals, the last time I had the opportunity to do this they threw in a /28 for "free" (agreed to two year terms)
Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
151–160 of 258 posts
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pardon my ignorance but what is the benefit to ipv6 for local, consumer internet?
For regular folks there isn't much benefit tbh. Mainly I think it simplifies ISP architecture and offers slightly faster (like 10%) performance but ISPs have to support IPv4 stack for foreseeable future anyway so kinda moot point. If you game a lot p2p (i don't) you should, in theory, see lower lag. For me personally, I work on networking startup so I'd like to be able to run IPv6 stack from my home network to test t…
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#153But kudos to them, that's the only way to break monopolies. Although I do wonder how much they bet on people not using all that bandwidth based on their promises.
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's not true. I tried getting unlimited data like 7-8 years ago and they said I needed a business account to get it.
What ISPs offer and how much they offer it for tends to vary wildly region to region. If you live in a region where they have no meaningful competition (which is still fairly common in a lot of places in the US) well bend over and lube up.
They will happily let you pay for years, for services that no longer exist, no longer connected to any of their networks. They'll take you to court rather than pay anything back; they know they are receiving extra money, and there's a significant amount that comes in, but "oh, it's so confusing, and there are so many legacy systems, we can't possibly catch every mistake."
The money they shuffle back and forth between each other, daily, reeks of book cooking - you might have a stretch of 20 miles of trunk in which there are 20 separate owners - not concurrent riding separate fiber lines, but in sequence, each paying rent to or getting rent paid by the adjacent rider, even though only a single company actually services the entire span.
It's funny how construction companies and ISPs get these rackets going, and then when people come along like these PrimeOne guys and offer a reasonable rate on a decent product, it's somehow vastly disruptive and threatening.
They'll expand, and be encouraged and allowed to expand, and after 5 or 6 years, the big ISPs will start circling, and eventually buy them out, and they'll retire happy. AT&T or Lumen will own their network inside of 10 years, and they'll claim it's modernized and upgraded infrastructure. People with shitty oversold undermaintained cable internet will be left alone until the money stops.
Starlink to phones is great, if it only didn't make ISPs so much money handling the base stations on the ground.
There's fiber all over the US just hanging there, unused, unmaintained, because merger after merger after merger left giant piles of assets under the ownership of companies like comcast and centurylink and at&t, who left infrastructure to rot, often built with public funding, and maintained their local monopolies and shitty service.
Whatever it is we're doing to regulate the industry at a federal level isn't working, but I imagine that's where a lot of the money goes.
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#155I'm one of their customers. I often see that one green car parked down the road. It's pretty good - their provided router is locked down to hell and they're on a cgnat, but not having to deal with Comcast's 1.2tb data cap is well worth it. Checking Comcast's site now, it seems that they now offer "unlimited" data. Interesting, that option wasn't there 6 months ago. ~100 customers seems too small for the amount of eff…
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the Bay Area Comcast offered (2017-2023 at least) internet with a default 1-1.2TiB/mo data cap that you can lift for the month for an extra 10-20usd (I don't recall, my roommate who played CoD was the one paying for this by himself on every month with huge updates). There's barely any competition here. You can pretty much chose from Comcast Business or XFinity, which both are just Comcast because of a free market…
Really 10-20 more? When I asked, and I'm in the Bay Area, the unlimited plan was $5 a month more than it would cost if I leased their modem.
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
After fixing internet for some neighbors and older relatives, I've wondered if people would pay for a home network / internet handyman service. It's super frustrating, especially for older folks. They often confuse their email passwords, ISP passwords, wifi setup, etc. Also I could save them a bunch of money getting rid of services they don't use, like moving their landlines to VOIP.
Also I could save them a bunch of money getting rid of services they don't use, like moving their landlines to VOIP. If you want a landline to call emergency services, I'd expect a real landline will have higher uptime than one that depends on your router.
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#158"Everything that we're doing is all underground." This indicates that their local and state governments aren't (at this time) captured by the incumbent cable provider. A captured state gov will pass laws to thwart new infra deployment, commonly written by ISP interests. A captured local gov will never approve deployment or slow-walk permitting in an attempt to bankrupt the upstart. more explainers: New suburban fiber…
It's not that easy. Poles vs trenches are a tradeoff discussion. FWIW I was once in construction digging trenches and I'm German, so I might be biased a bit. Pro poles / open air: - very, VERY cheap and fast to build out with GPON. That's how you got 1/1 GBit fiber in some piss poor village in the rural ditches of Romania. - easy to get access when you need to do maintenance Con poles / open air: - it looks fucking u…
frontier installed fiber in my area using this method. relatively quick and no damage that needs to be "aggressively" paved over.
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#159I'm one of their customers. I often see that one green car parked down the road. It's pretty good - their provided router is locked down to hell and they're on a cgnat, but not having to deal with Comcast's 1.2tb data cap is well worth it. Checking Comcast's site now, it seems that they now offer "unlimited" data. Interesting, that option wasn't there 6 months ago. ~100 customers seems too small for the amount of eff…
Re: Two guys hated using Comcast, so they built their own fiber ISP
#160I'm one of their customers. I often see that one green car parked down the road. It's pretty good - their provided router is locked down to hell and they're on a cgnat, but not having to deal with Comcast's 1.2tb data cap is well worth it. Checking Comcast's site now, it seems that they now offer "unlimited" data. Interesting, that option wasn't there 6 months ago. ~100 customers seems too small for the amount of eff…
It was there 6 months ago, because when I moved and had to switch to comcast in 2021 I found out about the cap after ~5TB/mo
This article couldn't have passed through my inbox more than 6 weeks or so ago so it is a very recent change.