Fiber cables are cheaper, and has much more capacity. The problem is getting them cables in the ground. If you can solve that, there's your unicorn startup.
Start Your Own ISP
51–60 of 199 posts
Re: Start Your Own ISP
#52Hey everyone! Author here. Happy to answer questions. Thanks for posting @tomcam! Just a quick note about me - I currently work with the great folks at common.net running an ISP that is similar but not exactly like what's described here. Look us up if you're in East Bay maybe we can get you better Internet service! This site is not associated with common.net, though.
Hey! Just wanted to say that although you haven't come to my house yet, everyone I've talked to in Alameda loves you guys. Having worked at an ISP startup, I know how tough it is to succeed -- hope you guys manage!
Re: Start Your Own ISP
#53Wow, this is fascinating! I would love to invest and start a wireless ISP on the eastside of Seattle. Suppose you have an area that is flat with lots of exposure, where everyone hates Comcast (maybe that last part is superfluous). I would think you'd find plenty of programmer customers if you have a say 200 mbit wireless connection without bandwidth caps (or maybe something insane like 10 tb/month). This seems like a much better area to invest in instead of putting more money in my 401k. It's not so much much money, less than two year's 401k contributions to run it for a year and see if it catches on.
I hate comcast with a passion, they are on the only provider in my area. Here's another fantasy, I imagine two points of presence, one at my house. I run fiber to my house as part of this business, then I've got infinite capacity. Who's up for this?
How much does it cut out if it rains, probably that is a problem here.
Re: Start Your Own ISP
#54My very first real job at 16 was a WISP that served a small town in Arizona (~8k pop), by having a microwave tower on top of a hill in the middle of the town and just tying a few t1s in. The factor that got this WISP traction though was that we were doing family friendly filtering for customers, and in a religious town that went over pretty well. I left because I ended up doing too much of the work for $6 dollars an…
There's a small market for "filtered ISPs."
There are Christian ones.[1] There are Jewish ones.[2] And there are ultra-orthodox Jewish ones that allow only a short whitelist of sites.[3] It seems to be a declining business; "kleenweb" and "koshernet" are gone. "crosswayisp.net" is still selling dial-up.
[1] http://www.christianbroadband.com/ [2] http://www.thejnet.com/ [3] http://www.yeshivanet.com/faq/index.php
Re: Start Your Own ISP
#55I started one of the first 56k dial up ISPs in Nebraska when I was 13 years old with the help of my parents. In high school I partnered with some friends after reading a CNET article about a WISP in Washington state. My friend's dad had a few businesses that needed to share a T1 line so we connected them wirelessly and sold the excess capacity to farmers in rural Nebraska and Kansas. It was an amazing experience. Wor…
I would love to hear more about your experience. Did you write about it anywhere?
Re: Start Your Own ISP
#56Anyone created shared access for their condo building? Our building is wired for xfinity cable and Fios gig Fiber, but I was thinking of having a building provided internet for a low price. I'm not sure if Verizon will give us a wholesale connection when they'd prefer everyone pay separately.
Re: Start Your Own ISP
#57Great work! I recently moved to a rural area. My options were dialup, satellite or WISP. I chose to sign up with the WISP and it has beat expectations so far.
It’s run by 2 older guys who do software dev in Boulder. They use all Ubiquiti gear, backhaul with microwave and then directional WiFi between the houses.
It’s quite impressive. We’re in a heavily mountainous area, handling ~2k vertical feet and ~20 miles back to a fiber line.
Now if only I could get symmetrical 20mbps. Currently at 5/2 and it is a bit slow. From what I understand they recently got licensed for some new spectrum. Fingers crossed!
Watching them has really made me want to either join them or work on my own WISP.
Re: Start Your Own ISP
#58Wow, this is fascinating! I would love to invest and start a wireless ISP on the eastside of Seattle. Suppose you have an area that is flat with lots of exposure, where everyone hates Comcast (maybe that last part is superfluous). I would think you'd find plenty of programmer customers if you have a say 200 mbit wireless connection without bandwidth caps (or maybe something insane like 10 tb/month). This seems like a…
This sounds interesting. I am in Seattle and also hate Comcast with a passion. My roommate has a similar hate of Comcast. If I could get 200 mbit at a similar cost to what I am paying now it would be an instant transition.
Re: Start Your Own ISP
#59Would it be feasible to provide an alternate to fiber for intranet within an ISP over a city using FSOC (freespace optical communications)? I kind of doubt it is practical but it seems like having some amazing high bandwidth safe way to transmit data from private homes rooftops over significant distance would solve another one of the technical/logistical hurdles (digging streets and laying fiber) keeping monopolies in place.
Re: Start Your Own ISP
#60Great initiative! I would like to know what you think of Artemis Network's stuff? Is it legit?