4 ms·

> I was wondering, what exactly 5G will bring us. WISP internet service to the home.

derekp7 8y ago
Again, looking for the advantage -- in this case, I can see WISP being useful for areas that are underserved by the local cable monopoly, and in other areas it provides a third competitor (cable/dsl/wisp). I wonder how 5G home internet will compare to the up and coming LEO satellite constellations (StarLink for example).
- ryder9 8y ago
  You still need to lay fiber for 5G base stations
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    And if you're going to bring the fiber most of the way, you might as well terminate it at the premises.
    - krisrm 8y ago
      This isn't necessarily the case. Bringing that cable an extra ~300m and providing the ONT hardware for each house is quite expensive for the small number of customers that might benefit in a rural area. Terminating at fast wireless and providing radios is much more cost effective from the telco's perspective.
      - toomuchtodo 8y ago
        From the telco's perspective, yes. From an end user who is getting fiber from a coop or muni fiber provider, it's about $300-$500, which might be considered reasonable if your ongoing operating costs (and therefore, costs to the end user) are lower. Disclaimer: I have contributed to a muni fiber project, and am familiar with trenching/arial mounting and premises termination costs.
    - Unklejoe 8y ago
      That depends heavily on the location. In many suburban developments, the power/communication lines are all buried underground. It would probably be much easier to install a couple of microcells around the neighborhood than to dig up everyone's lawn. I was lucky enough to live in a neighborhood where Verizon initially installed FiOS. It was a massive undertaking. They had to trench every street in my development. I was young at the time, but I remember thinking how massive the effort was considering not every house would even sign up for it.
      - toomuchtodo 8y ago
        I’ll confirm, as a crew is dragging/trenching fiber as we speak (I’m looking out the back window watching after ordering them pizza) at a family member’s home in a suburban community, to be terminated on the side of each home (fiber to the premises). They ran aerial fiber to the neighborhood, and then ran the fiber under each street, with the final run being placed in the backyard easement between house rows (with a Ditch Witch doing the heavy lifting). Family member is going from AT&T DSL for $40/month with 3Mb down/1Mb up to $50/month for 200Mb down/75Mb up (with a two year price guarantee and no data caps). It’s quite the deal.
        mrweasel 8y ago
        That's a little weird. I lived in an area that had fiber installed, it's pretty nonintrusive. The fiber is laid under the side walk and the last bit from the side walk to the house is blasted in. You have a small hole dug by the house and another one by the side walk, no trenches needed. At no point does a fiber installation require digging up an entire road or even your lawn.
      - derekp7 8y ago
        In my old neighborhood, I saw Comcast fishing cables through the street drainage sewers. Not sure if there was a separate conduit that was accessed via those grates, or if it actually just laid along the the bottom of the sewer pipe lines.
deleted 8y ago
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wl 8y ago
WISP is very useful in rural areas. It's less compelling as an alternative to wired services in the dense urban environments where we'll see 5G deployments. You're going to have to run all that fiber, anyway.
- kylec 8y ago
  My only choice for internet in a reasonably urbanized area is Comcast. No one has run fiber to my apartment building. If someone wants to run fiber and set up nearby 5G cells, and can provide internet service that is competitive with Comcast, I don't see why I wouldn't switch.
- twothamendment 8y ago
  That all depends on how rural it is. Rural enough that a tower can cover enough houses to make it worth it or so rural enough you have almost as many towers as houses? I spent a decade on various WISPs, even had one of their towers on my house (free connection + cash = very yes). It was a city with a mix of single family homes on small lots and townhomes/condos. Cable doesn't exist there, so WISP was the way to go. It was pretty good until Netfix got popular. It was bad in the evenings when everyone would sit down and turn on a show. Now I'm in a very rural place, lots of hills, thick trees. Luckily there is a telephone/internet co-op who put in fiber. I think they realized with the distances they have to cover that WISP and copper were out. I've never seen fiber to such remote locations. We only have one cell tower that covers us now, so I won't hold my breath for 5G.
microcolonel 8y ago
The problem is that the new spectrum is not appropriate for that purpose for the exact same reason it interferes with weather forecasting equipment.

Again, looking for the advantage -- in this case, I can see WISP being useful for areas that are underserved by the local cable monopoly, and in other areas it provides a third competitor (cable/dsl/wisp). I wonder how 5G home internet will compare to the up and coming LEO satellite constellations (StarLink for example).

ryder9 8y ago
You still need to lay fiber for 5G base stations
- toomuchtodo 8y ago
  And if you're going to bring the fiber most of the way, you might as well terminate it at the premises.
  - krisrm 8y ago
    This isn't necessarily the case. Bringing that cable an extra ~300m and providing the ONT hardware for each house is quite expensive for the small number of customers that might benefit in a rural area. Terminating at fast wireless and providing radios is much more cost effective from the telco's perspective.
    - toomuchtodo 8y ago
      From the telco's perspective, yes. From an end user who is getting fiber from a coop or muni fiber provider, it's about $300-$500, which might be considered reasonable if your ongoing operating costs (and therefore, costs to the end user) are lower. Disclaimer: I have contributed to a muni fiber project, and am familiar with trenching/arial mounting and premises termination costs.
  - Unklejoe 8y ago
    That depends heavily on the location. In many suburban developments, the power/communication lines are all buried underground. It would probably be much easier to install a couple of microcells around the neighborhood than to dig up everyone's lawn. I was lucky enough to live in a neighborhood where Verizon initially installed FiOS. It was a massive undertaking. They had to trench every street in my development. I was young at the time, but I remember thinking how massive the effort was considering not every house would even sign up for it.
    - toomuchtodo 8y ago
      I’ll confirm, as a crew is dragging/trenching fiber as we speak (I’m looking out the back window watching after ordering them pizza) at a family member’s home in a suburban community, to be terminated on the side of each home (fiber to the premises). They ran aerial fiber to the neighborhood, and then ran the fiber under each street, with the final run being placed in the backyard easement between house rows (with a Ditch Witch doing the heavy lifting). Family member is going from AT&T DSL for $40/month with 3Mb down/1Mb up to $50/month for 200Mb down/75Mb up (with a two year price guarantee and no data caps). It’s quite the deal.
      - mrweasel 8y ago
        That's a little weird. I lived in an area that had fiber installed, it's pretty nonintrusive. The fiber is laid under the side walk and the last bit from the side walk to the house is blasted in. You have a small hole dug by the house and another one by the side walk, no trenches needed. At no point does a fiber installation require digging up an entire road or even your lawn.
    - derekp7 8y ago
      In my old neighborhood, I saw Comcast fishing cables through the street drainage sewers. Not sure if there was a separate conduit that was accessed via those grates, or if it actually just laid along the the bottom of the sewer pipe lines.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

wl 8y ago

WISP is very useful in rural areas. It's less compelling as an alternative to wired services in the dense urban environments where we'll see 5G deployments. You're going to have to run all that fiber, anyway.

kylec 8y ago
My only choice for internet in a reasonably urbanized area is Comcast. No one has run fiber to my apartment building. If someone wants to run fiber and set up nearby 5G cells, and can provide internet service that is competitive with Comcast, I don't see why I wouldn't switch.
twothamendment 8y ago
That all depends on how rural it is. Rural enough that a tower can cover enough houses to make it worth it or so rural enough you have almost as many towers as houses? I spent a decade on various WISPs, even had one of their towers on my house (free connection + cash = very yes). It was a city with a mix of single family homes on small lots and townhomes/condos. Cable doesn't exist there, so WISP was the way to go. It was pretty good until Netfix got popular. It was bad in the evenings when everyone would sit down and turn on a show. Now I'm in a very rural place, lots of hills, thick trees. Luckily there is a telephone/internet co-op who put in fiber. I think they realized with the distances they have to cover that WISP and copper were out. I've never seen fiber to such remote locations. We only have one cell tower that covers us now, so I won't hold my breath for 5G.

microcolonel 8y ago

The problem is that the new spectrum is not appropriate for that purpose for the exact same reason it interferes with weather forecasting equipment.