4 ms·

Also, these customers are likely unprofitable to monetize. The cost for a single SWE likely exceeds the incomes of the whole town a few times over.

netr0ute 5y ago
What about if it's all unpaid? FOSS is a thing, after all.
giantrobot 5y ago
> Also, these customers are likely unprofitable to monetize. I don't see why you think this would be the case. A friend of mine lives down in Gilroy, CA (south of the San Jose) in a veritable mansion. He and his wife have done very well for themselves. Because they chose land over some SF row house their only internet access is a spotty 4G connection that really acts like a spotty 2G connection much of the time. No ISP is willing to run a landline out where he lives and WISPs aren't much better than the 4G. He's definitely not the only monied person with shitty Internet access. Lost 2G users don't necessarily have 2G (or equivalent) connections all the time. There's plenty of places or times where 4G gets congested and performs terribly even when the end users have high end devices and nominally good connections. A lost sale because someone couldn't complete a form because of poor coverage on the subway is a lost sale. Mobile Internet should never be expected to be some fixed value for any user. Someone with a brand new iPhone on a network with great 5G coverage can still be standing behind a lamppost or something and get 2G levels of network performance. Since an overwhelming percentage of web traffic is from mobile it doesn't make sense to not degrade gracefully in poor network conditions or just minimize resource use.
LAC-Tech 5y ago
These customers are also businesses, sometimes pretty big ones. A lot of work gets done away from towns. Also Australia is a pretty rich country.
swiftcoder 5y ago
Do you know how many massive mining/logging/oil corporations operate most of their hardware outside of "normal" internet connectivity? There's for sure money in that market (if you can work your way past the environmental/ethical issues)

netr0ute 5y ago

What about if it's all unpaid? FOSS is a thing, after all.

giantrobot 5y ago

> Also, these customers are likely unprofitable to monetize. I don't see why you think this would be the case. A friend of mine lives down in Gilroy, CA (south of the San Jose) in a veritable mansion. He and his wife have done very well for themselves. Because they chose land over some SF row house their only internet access is a spotty 4G connection that really acts like a spotty 2G connection much of the time. No ISP is willing to run a landline out where he lives and WISPs aren't much better than the 4G. He's definitely not the only monied person with shitty Internet access. Lost 2G users don't necessarily have 2G (or equivalent) connections all the time. There's plenty of places or times where 4G gets congested and performs terribly even when the end users have high end devices and nominally good connections. A lost sale because someone couldn't complete a form because of poor coverage on the subway is a lost sale. Mobile Internet should never be expected to be some fixed value for any user. Someone with a brand new iPhone on a network with great 5G coverage can still be standing behind a lamppost or something and get 2G levels of network performance. Since an overwhelming percentage of web traffic is from mobile it doesn't make sense to not degrade gracefully in poor network conditions or just minimize resource use.

LAC-Tech 5y ago

These customers are also businesses, sometimes pretty big ones. A lot of work gets done away from towns. Also Australia is a pretty rich country.

swiftcoder 5y ago

Do you know how many massive mining/logging/oil corporations operate most of their hardware outside of "normal" internet connectivity? There's for sure money in that market (if you can work your way past the environmental/ethical issues)