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I live in a large US city and have one cable provider as my only viable high speed option. The dsl provider which I would have preferred hasn't upgraded the las

I live in a large US city and have one cable provider as my only viable high speed option. The dsl provider which I would have preferred hasn't upgraded the last 50 meters of lines going to my house, and said they had no plans to. The top speed they could offer me was 3Mbps. EDIT: In comparison, the same dsl provider on streets that have had their lines upgraded offers 100Mbps plans for about $30 less per month than the cable provider. So some homes actually do enjoy a little healthy competition, but it hasn't been enough to cause any changes in the cable plan pricing yet :(

mikepurvis 7y ago
You'd think there might be a business opportunity in this kind of situation for an ultra low cost, short range WISP. Like, if you could identify a bunch of scenarios like this where last mile issues have left behind neighbourhoods where there might be a few dozen potential customers (identify using speedtest.net data or something?), it would be possible to plug in a box on a utility pole at the edge of the existing coverage and then supply the participating households with modems. I don't know what the cost of that kind of infrastructure is or how much of an issue it would be to plug into what's already there, but hopefully it's not terrible assuming the existing provider would agree to let you in. I guess the main risk is that doing this might wake up the provider who would then finish their rollout to get those customers back, and undercut you on price. So it would need to be quick and easy to grab your box and move it to some other neighbourhood in that scenario.
- hanklazard 7y ago
  https://starry.com/internet https://starry.com/internet These guys are doing that around the Boston area. They aren't in my area yet but I have friends who have signed up and had good experiences.
- wmf 7y ago
  ...plug in a box on a utility pole at the edge of the existing coverage and then supply the participating households with modems. I don't know what the cost of that kind of infrastructure is... It's very expensive. ...or how much of an issue it would be to plug into what's already there, but hopefully it's not terrible assuming the existing provider would agree to let you in. They won't let you in. I guess the main risk is that doing this might wake up the provider who would then finish their rollout to get those customers back, and undercut you on price. And they also do that. National ISPs can afford to lose money in one city in the short term but you can't.
- Spooky23 7y ago
  The pole rentals are extremely expensive and the existing players aren’t required to play with you. A few players like this tried to use streetlights for this sort of thing with WiFi. Hanging a WiFi point on a pole is outrageous unless the city owns the pole and plays ball.

mikepurvis 7y ago

You'd think there might be a business opportunity in this kind of situation for an ultra low cost, short range WISP. Like, if you could identify a bunch of scenarios like this where last mile issues have left behind neighbourhoods where there might be a few dozen potential customers (identify using speedtest.net data or something?), it would be possible to plug in a box on a utility pole at the edge of the existing coverage and then supply the participating households with modems. I don't know what the cost of that kind of infrastructure is or how much of an issue it would be to plug into what's already there, but hopefully it's not terrible assuming the existing provider would agree to let you in. I guess the main risk is that doing this might wake up the provider who would then finish their rollout to get those customers back, and undercut you on price. So it would need to be quick and easy to grab your box and move it to some other neighbourhood in that scenario.

hanklazard 7y ago
https://starry.com/internet https://starry.com/internet These guys are doing that around the Boston area. They aren't in my area yet but I have friends who have signed up and had good experiences.
wmf 7y ago
...plug in a box on a utility pole at the edge of the existing coverage and then supply the participating households with modems. I don't know what the cost of that kind of infrastructure is... It's very expensive. ...or how much of an issue it would be to plug into what's already there, but hopefully it's not terrible assuming the existing provider would agree to let you in. They won't let you in. I guess the main risk is that doing this might wake up the provider who would then finish their rollout to get those customers back, and undercut you on price. And they also do that. National ISPs can afford to lose money in one city in the short term but you can't.
Spooky23 7y ago
The pole rentals are extremely expensive and the existing players aren’t required to play with you. A few players like this tried to use streetlights for this sort of thing with WiFi. Hanging a WiFi point on a pole is outrageous unless the city owns the pole and plays ball.