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Launch HN: Necto (YC W18) – ISP Starter Kit

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Re: Launch HN: Necto (YC W18) – ISP Starter Kit

#22

Post by montasaurus »

kbaker wrote: post #8

Interesting project. With ARIN effectively out of IPv4 space, where do you get IPs from for a new ISP? Does it have to be transferred/purchased from an existing block? I am assuming you are setting up IPv6 as well for your customers, are you deploying some sort of CGNAT?

We've been able to source enough IPv4s for our needs so far, but we don't expect that to last forever. ARIN is cutting off the allocations, but there are still a decent amount available for lease.

Re: Launch HN: Necto (YC W18) – ISP Starter Kit

#24

Post by jarito »

Rotdhizon wrote: post #17

[redacted]

They mention several times that they require you have $25k of capital to join the program. However, that probably only covers network deployment and other costs like marketing so I would expect the actual outlay to be quite a bit higher if you want to be successful.

Re: Launch HN: Necto (YC W18) – ISP Starter Kit

#25

Post by dsl »

Starting an ISP is relatively easy... get an uplink, some rack space somewhere, a router, hire a smart high school kid for tech support, and you are off to the races.

The really hard part is last-mile connectivity. You are either on someone elses lines (cable, DSL, etc), dealing with NIMBYs to bury your own lines, or working around line of site to do wireless. It isn't clear that you've solved this problem (or even from your website what you are using for last mile).

Re: Launch HN: Necto (YC W18) – ISP Starter Kit

#26

Post by toomuchtodo »

dsl wrote: post #25

Starting an ISP is relatively easy... get an uplink, some rack space somewhere, a router, hire a smart high school kid for tech support, and you are off to the races. The really hard part is last-mile connectivity. You are either on someone elses lines (cable, DSL, etc), dealing with NIMBYs to bury your own lines, or working around line of site to do wireless. It isn't clear that you've solved this problem (or even f…

The hard part doesn’t scale. Takes boots on the ground geographically to assess what’s possible and implement what’s cost effective (copper or fixed wireless, maybe fiber if its greenfield and you have cheap trenching capabilities).

Re: Launch HN: Necto (YC W18) – ISP Starter Kit

#27

Post by [deleted] »

montasaurus wrote: post #11
toomuchtodo wrote: post #5

Is what you're offering substantially substantive above https://startyourownisp.com ? I won't mince words: you're asking customers to outsource the core pieces of their business (netops, backhaul, billing) that they should be competent in, which puts them in a precarious position if you exhaust your runway, decide to move on to another venture, or are acquired by a less-than-ideal org. Full disclosure: Muncipal/coop…

We definitely want to make sure that nobody's left high and dry in any set of circumstances. Obviously, we hope to happily partner with our operators indefinitely, but we wouldn't ask someone to commit their capital and ask their customers to depend on them without having these contingencies covered. Companies have started & run ISPs before Necto (of course), but there are significant cost and knowledge hurdles that…

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