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Thanks for this article. I have been considering the feasibility of starting a WISP here in West Texas, so it's cool to see the beggining stages from the inside

Thanks for this article. I have been considering the feasibility of starting a WISP here in West Texas, so it's cool to see the beggining stages from the inside perspective. I whish I knew more about the laws on common access to equipment/lines. For example, the only cable provider locally is Suddenlink, AT&T Uverse is still on copper phone lines, and there is only one local ISP bringing fiber to residential customers. The local ISP got a huge bunch of grants for the fiber rollout (of course someone embezzled a bunch of it (few mil) and they had to get bought out to get the new set of grants) but all I want to know is: if the government payed for the fiber rollout, shouldn't I be able to use it as well for a nominal fee of some sort? What about ownership and fees on the last mile? How does all that work? I just wish there was a clear and simple place to find this stuff out. It feels like the ISP game is really geared towards big companies expanding or buying existing ISP's, and is not very encouraging of small local competition. Of course, that's where WISPs come in, because it is so much simpler to not have to deal with all the trenching and agreements, and the equipment is getting better and better and cheaper and cheaper. (loving ubiquity airfiber products for example). Anyway, more power to you, I hope things work out. I would like to see more posts about the business/political/technical struggles you run into.

froztbyte 10y ago
(all below is in an American/US context) Read about ILECs/CLECs. Understand what the cable offerings' contention model is. Do the math. Understand the support burdens of NAT-on-NAT. Run the numbers of RF contention, and shared-medium bandwidth management. Do the math. Probably the best advice I could give here: It's very easy to do a mediocre job of all this. It's a fair bit harder to do a good job of it. And think of how much you dislike the mediocre ISPs.
grahamburger 10y ago
I've been building WISPs in the US (including Texas) for about 14 years now. Happy to chat, email in my profile.
timthorn 10y ago
Another presentation at UKNOF 36 entitled "Starting a Wireless ISP by accident": https://youtu.be/-hF_UccnHxk?list=PLjzK5ZtLlc91r5YZVNiebhcq0W5aB5Zu6 https://youtu.be/-hF_UccnHxk?list=PLjzK5ZtLlc91r5YZVNiebhcq0...
- __strisk 10y ago
  this is awesome. I was in a similar situation several years ago using crap like Clearwire, Hughes Net, and some mifi hacks to get internet to a dislocated house. I ended up researching and finding out about ubiquiti radios and found a way to hook up comcast to a garage by the road. the distance is about quarter of a mile from the modem location to the house. I went from having the most miserable internet experience (SATELLITE INTERNET SUCKS), to practically being in internet heaven. Here's the kicker. Comcast was willing to drop a line to the house for around $15,000. No thanks. With two m5 ubiquiti radios and 100ft of ethernet cable, I solved the problem spending less than $300. It would have been nice to have a direct connection, but I'd rather save some money. The radio's have been up for 5+ years now. I had a problem with one of the POE adaptors once, but other than that I think these devices are cost-effective and robust. I believe these radios can help bring about internet connectivity for a large portion of the unserved population. Easy to setup. Cheap. Robust.
hawski 10y ago
I wonder when point-to-point radio network could be more cost effective solution than fiber network in someone else’s ground or trench. I assume that point-to-point radio has more expensive equipment, is that true? Probably it all depends on a scale. Curious how would curves look like - maybe population density on x and approximated cost of infrastructure on y.
- shambolic 10y ago
  Wireless point-to-point links are comparatively cheap, but require clear line of sight, uncontested spectrum and power. Sometimes you have none of those. Wireless also scales poorly past 1 Gbps. Fiber is more expensive up front, but cheaper in the long run if your bandwidth requirements grow. Fiber also does not become obsolete, like wireless equipment.

froztbyte 10y ago

(all below is in an American/US context) Read about ILECs/CLECs. Understand what the cable offerings' contention model is. Do the math. Understand the support burdens of NAT-on-NAT. Run the numbers of RF contention, and shared-medium bandwidth management. Do the math. Probably the best advice I could give here: It's very easy to do a mediocre job of all this. It's a fair bit harder to do a good job of it. And think of how much you dislike the mediocre ISPs.

grahamburger 10y ago

I've been building WISPs in the US (including Texas) for about 14 years now. Happy to chat, email in my profile.

timthorn 10y ago

Another presentation at UKNOF 36 entitled "Starting a Wireless ISP by accident": https://youtu.be/-hF_UccnHxk?list=PLjzK5ZtLlc91r5YZVNiebhcq0W5aB5Zu6 https://youtu.be/-hF_UccnHxk?list=PLjzK5ZtLlc91r5YZVNiebhcq0...

__strisk 10y ago
this is awesome. I was in a similar situation several years ago using crap like Clearwire, Hughes Net, and some mifi hacks to get internet to a dislocated house. I ended up researching and finding out about ubiquiti radios and found a way to hook up comcast to a garage by the road. the distance is about quarter of a mile from the modem location to the house. I went from having the most miserable internet experience (SATELLITE INTERNET SUCKS), to practically being in internet heaven. Here's the kicker. Comcast was willing to drop a line to the house for around $15,000. No thanks. With two m5 ubiquiti radios and 100ft of ethernet cable, I solved the problem spending less than $300. It would have been nice to have a direct connection, but I'd rather save some money. The radio's have been up for 5+ years now. I had a problem with one of the POE adaptors once, but other than that I think these devices are cost-effective and robust. I believe these radios can help bring about internet connectivity for a large portion of the unserved population. Easy to setup. Cheap. Robust.

hawski 10y ago

I wonder when point-to-point radio network could be more cost effective solution than fiber network in someone else’s ground or trench. I assume that point-to-point radio has more expensive equipment, is that true? Probably it all depends on a scale. Curious how would curves look like - maybe population density on x and approximated cost of infrastructure on y.

shambolic 10y ago
Wireless point-to-point links are comparatively cheap, but require clear line of sight, uncontested spectrum and power. Sometimes you have none of those. Wireless also scales poorly past 1 Gbps. Fiber is more expensive up front, but cheaper in the long run if your bandwidth requirements grow. Fiber also does not become obsolete, like wireless equipment.