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> What happened to all the other... There's a huge gap between "had the idea" and "had all the technical skills, the $millions in capital, and the managerial a

> What happened to all the other... There's a huge gap between "had the idea" and "had all the technical skills, the $millions in capital, and the managerial ability to actually build it". Then there's the barrier of "and succeed". If you read between the article's lines a bit - these guys had loads of the first 3, yet they're still losing loads of money every month. But, bigger picture, you have a good point. These articles are obviously cherry-picked stories, with an extremely optimistic "... and the little guy wins!" spin. Ars is writing for an audience of techies who are frustrated with crappy ISP's.

immibis 1y ago
The capital for an ISP is surprisingly low. The main problem is getting a physical connection to your customer's house. And that's such an obvious legal minefield that no networking nerd wants to do it.
- bell-cot 1y ago
  The capital can be low. Vs. the article notes that these two guys have 75 miles of fiber installed (to 1,500 potential-customer homes) and 15 local employees. Vs. currently monthly revenues of about $10K. Yeah, obviously these guy's long prior experience - pulling fiber for other ISP's - was another critical cornerstone of their ability to go from idea to build-out.
- protocolture 1y ago
  >The capital for an ISP is surprisingly low. Crazy generalization. >And that's such an obvious legal minefield that no networking nerd wants to do it. Honestly half the fun.