8 ms·

DIY broadband. Can that happen in the US of A?

by finid 10y ago

Mz 10y ago
I don't know, but you might be interested in this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/technology/how-to-give-rural-america-broadband-look-to-the-early-1900s.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/technology/how-to-give-rur...
toomuchtodo 10y ago
Totally. My cousin and her husband are moving from the Wesley Chapel area of Tampa (where they had 100Mb up/down at my uncle's house) about 20 miles north to 1000 acres of rural farmland, where no connectivity options exist. We're using two 65 foot self supporting towers and $400 worth of point to point Ubiquiti wifi gear to bring 100Mb to their property. The difficulty level goes up if you want to run copper, coax, or fiber, but it too can be done. Just google "community broadband", "municipal broadband", or "broadband coop".
- codeddesign 10y ago
  I believe what he meant was that this would be against the TOS of many providers. You are essentially buying a service plan for one location and distributing it. While I would agree that "if I am buying 100mbps than I should be able to use it how I wish" unfortunately just isn't the case and not how u.s telecom works. With that assumption, a city could technically buy 10 packages and distribute free wifi internet to an entire city on the cheap.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Yes, you're correct. You cannot just buy residential service from a provider and share it out to the entire neighborhood. In that case, you need to buy transit/business/commercial service from them and use that as your upstream.
    - SCHiM 10y ago
      Well you _can_ just do it ;). What can't be enforced can't be effectively outlawed.
  - jcrawfordor 10y ago
    Against the ToS of home providers, sure, but there are tons of companies who will happily sell you transit for your small ISP - including some of the big incumbents, e.g., most of the small wireless ISPs in my area use CenturyLink as their upstream provider. This is a standard service offering in the commercial space, and if you want enough capacity to get 100+mbps service to multiple people, then you're going to be shopping in the commercial space.
    - toomuchtodo 10y ago
      CenturyLink is good, and believe it or not, I had an excellent experience with Comcast Business running greenfield fiber for me for backhaul (no one was more surprised than I!). ~$3000/month with a 3 year commit, 100mb symmetrical, and they ran the fiber over a mile with no up front cost.
      - closeparen 10y ago
        Why does that cost 30x more than a personal 100mbit connection?
        pjc50 10y ago
        You can actually put 100mbit down it constantly without getting cut off, overcharged, or contended with 30 other people. Plus 50% extra ISP monopoly pricing.
        feld 10y ago
        $30/mbit is still far too much. $10/mbit maybe would be reasonable
        toomuchtodo 10y ago
        You missed the part where I said they rolled the construction costs into the monthly payment. This was in a suburban area that required permitting and working with other utilities to run underground fiber.
- amazon_not 10y ago
  It doesn't really make sense to run copper or coax anymore. Fiber is where it's at. It's not very hard if you do it on private property, but the difficulty level does go up if you have to use public right of way due to red tape.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - karambahh 10y ago
    Scani is a DIY ISP in France, member of the French Data Network Federation [0] initiative. They run a wifi (ubiquiti based) mesh network[1] in a rural part of France, which spans roughly 100km north to south and 60km west to east. They are about to roll out their own fiber network in this rural area. If some of you are interested in these subjects, there will be a decentralised internet devroom at FOSDEM in Brussels in early February[2] [0]https://www.ffdn.org/en https://www.ffdn.org/en [1]https://cooperateurs.scani.fr/openinfos.html#11/47.9508/3.7676 https://cooperateurs.scani.fr/openinfos.html#11/47.9508/3.76... [2]https://fosdem.org/2017/schedule/track/decentralised_internet/ https://fosdem.org/2017/schedule/track/decentralised_interne...
nickpsecurity 10y ago
This is my favorite one which seems like it could be done in U.S. rural areas: https://motherboard.vice.com/read/this-rural-community-is-building-its-own-gigabit-fibre-network https://motherboard.vice.com/read/this-rural-community-is-bu... One local for dense, suburban areas or maybe urban. Helps to run the fiber on the utility poles instead of underground. More risk with weather, etc but cheaper. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/02/gigabit-internet-for-80-the-unlikely-success-of-californias-sonicnet/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/02/gigabit-internet-...
pkaye 10y ago
You need to live in the rural areas where the city and county regulations are not onerous but the population density is low enough that the big players don't care.
dboreham 10y ago
I've been doing it for more than a decade, so yes. Using fixed wireless though, not fiber. Trenching fiber on a private basis is possible, but expensive.

DIY broadband. Can that happen in the US of A?

by finid 10y ago

DIY broadband. Can that happen in the US of A?

Mz 10y ago

I don't know, but you might be interested in this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/technology/how-to-give-rural-america-broadband-look-to-the-early-1900s.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/08/technology/how-to-give-rur...

toomuchtodo 10y ago

Totally. My cousin and her husband are moving from the Wesley Chapel area of Tampa (where they had 100Mb up/down at my uncle's house) about 20 miles north to 1000 acres of rural farmland, where no connectivity options exist. We're using two 65 foot self supporting towers and $400 worth of point to point Ubiquiti wifi gear to bring 100Mb to their property. The difficulty level goes up if you want to run copper, coax, or fiber, but it too can be done. Just google "community broadband", "municipal broadband", or "broadband coop".

codeddesign 10y ago
I believe what he meant was that this would be against the TOS of many providers. You are essentially buying a service plan for one location and distributing it. While I would agree that "if I am buying 100mbps than I should be able to use it how I wish" unfortunately just isn't the case and not how u.s telecom works. With that assumption, a city could technically buy 10 packages and distribute free wifi internet to an entire city on the cheap.
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  Yes, you're correct. You cannot just buy residential service from a provider and share it out to the entire neighborhood. In that case, you need to buy transit/business/commercial service from them and use that as your upstream.
  - SCHiM 10y ago
    Well you _can_ just do it ;). What can't be enforced can't be effectively outlawed.
- jcrawfordor 10y ago
  Against the ToS of home providers, sure, but there are tons of companies who will happily sell you transit for your small ISP - including some of the big incumbents, e.g., most of the small wireless ISPs in my area use CenturyLink as their upstream provider. This is a standard service offering in the commercial space, and if you want enough capacity to get 100+mbps service to multiple people, then you're going to be shopping in the commercial space.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    CenturyLink is good, and believe it or not, I had an excellent experience with Comcast Business running greenfield fiber for me for backhaul (no one was more surprised than I!). ~$3000/month with a 3 year commit, 100mb symmetrical, and they ran the fiber over a mile with no up front cost.
    - closeparen 10y ago
      Why does that cost 30x more than a personal 100mbit connection?
      - pjc50 10y ago
        You can actually put 100mbit down it constantly without getting cut off, overcharged, or contended with 30 other people. Plus 50% extra ISP monopoly pricing.
        feld 10y ago
        $30/mbit is still far too much. $10/mbit maybe would be reasonable
        toomuchtodo 10y ago
        You missed the part where I said they rolled the construction costs into the monthly payment. This was in a suburban area that required permitting and working with other utilities to run underground fiber.
amazon_not 10y ago
It doesn't really make sense to run copper or coax anymore. Fiber is where it's at. It's not very hard if you do it on private property, but the difficulty level does go up if you have to use public right of way due to red tape.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- karambahh 10y ago
  Scani is a DIY ISP in France, member of the French Data Network Federation [0] initiative. They run a wifi (ubiquiti based) mesh network[1] in a rural part of France, which spans roughly 100km north to south and 60km west to east. They are about to roll out their own fiber network in this rural area. If some of you are interested in these subjects, there will be a decentralised internet devroom at FOSDEM in Brussels in early February[2] [0]https://www.ffdn.org/en https://www.ffdn.org/en [1]https://cooperateurs.scani.fr/openinfos.html#11/47.9508/3.7676 https://cooperateurs.scani.fr/openinfos.html#11/47.9508/3.76... [2]https://fosdem.org/2017/schedule/track/decentralised_internet/ https://fosdem.org/2017/schedule/track/decentralised_interne...

nickpsecurity 10y ago

This is my favorite one which seems like it could be done in U.S. rural areas: https://motherboard.vice.com/read/this-rural-community-is-building-its-own-gigabit-fibre-network https://motherboard.vice.com/read/this-rural-community-is-bu... One local for dense, suburban areas or maybe urban. Helps to run the fiber on the utility poles instead of underground. More risk with weather, etc but cheaper. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/02/gigabit-internet-for-80-the-unlikely-success-of-californias-sonicnet/ http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/02/gigabit-internet-...

pkaye 10y ago

You need to live in the rural areas where the city and county regulations are not onerous but the population density is low enough that the big players don't care.

dboreham 10y ago

I've been doing it for more than a decade, so yes. Using fixed wireless though, not fiber. Trenching fiber on a private basis is possible, but expensive.