Its a good time to start a wireless ISP

Post #83,640 by tuberculosis 2/24/03 3:12:08 AM Reply	Its a good time to start a wireless ISP Which is one of 3 business plans I'm working on. I'm thinking I've got to make my own job when I get back to the states. I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customer got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What's in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more. --Alan Perlis
Post #84,506 by Fuat 2/26/03 10:28:57 PM Reply	Re: Its a good time to start a wireless ISP Sprint tried that in the San Jose area I think a few years ago using MMDS (Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service). Wasn't terribly successful. Perhaps the time wasn't right then. I recently read somewhere that Intel, AT&T and someone else were putting together a joint effort to provide nationwide 802.11b/g service. Something with fairly wide coverage (don't know how they'll do this), unlike the T-Mobile access points in airports, Starbucks, etc.
Post #84,613 by deSitter 2/27/03 10:31:51 AM Reply	Great Idea I've been thinking about that as well, it's a phenomenal opportunity. I live in a place without DSL or digi-cable and there are many like me. You could tie in home networking and offer a complete solution. What you need to do is secure cheap space in relatively tall buildings to put up the transmitters. As of now there is little regulation of the broadcast end of things, so that won't impede the startup by adding administrative costs. The main tactical problem is making sure everyone likely to be a customer has line-of-sight to one of your transmitters. This is also a phenomenal growth opportunity for hooking up people in the hinterlands. In a way that would be an ideal business - travelling the vast expanses of the West, putting up networking. -drl
Post #84,614 by boxley 2/27/03 10:42:20 AM Reply	Here is a link on how not to do it. [link\|http://www.eprairie.com/news/viewnews.asp?newsletterID=2264\|http://www.eprairie....newsletterID=2264] The source also said: "When Winstar signed customers, it typically provisioned back-up, leased, high-capacity circuits from the incumbent local-exchange carrier (ILEC). This is likely the biggest reason they went under. "It's similar to the DSL providers. If you have your own considerable capital expenditures (the cost of deploying the wireless transceiver on the roof) and you have to lease back-up lines from the incumbent, where is the profit margin?" thanx, bill will work for cash and other incentives [link\|http://home.tampabay.rr.com/boxley/resume/Resume.html\|skill set] questions, help? [link\|mailto:pappas@catholic.org\|email pappas at catholic.org] \ufffdOmni Gaul Delenda est!\ufffd Ceasar
Post #84,642 by deSitter 2/27/03 1:24:25 PM Reply	Fixed Wireless You own and build your own infrastructure. A figure I saw was - $25k for infrastructure to serve 3000 customers, $50 per month flat rate. The money would definitely flow. The opportunity here is that the cable companies are too busy upgrading existing nets to bother with small-timing like this. The opportunity won't last long, but the window is open NOW. You could get the business going with as little as $50k in cash - $100k would be better. I'm so certain this would work I'd quit my existing job to help develop it. -drl
Post #84,664 by imric 2/27/03 3:31:41 PM 2/27/03 3:32:52 PM Reply	If only I had 50-100K! Heck - there's a wireless ISP in Key West just for boats @ the marina... THERE'S a market waiting to be tapped (meaning marinas - KW is covered)... And you'd get a neat locale to work in, too! Imric's Tips for Living Paranoia Is a Survival Trait Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised... Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win. Edited by imric Feb. 27, 2003, 03:32:52 PM EST Expand All History
Post #84,619 by drewk 2/27/03 11:08:19 AM Reply	Alternative Find a home security company and cut a deal with them. Run a fat pipe into their headquarters. When someone wants an alarm system, have them pull a "dry pair". Yes, the security companies will pull copper to the home. Make appropriate connections at the home office. Presto, combination home security/ISP. Great thing is you don't even have to sell a combined service. You're basically piggy-backing on their installers. === Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.
Post #84,621 by jake123 2/27/03 11:19:25 AM Reply	ISTR that pulpit guy yakking about that some years back... --\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca \n [link\|http://consultron.ca\|http://consultron.ca] [link\|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca\|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] \n Kingston Ontario Canada [link\|news://news.consultron.ca\|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
Post #84,624 by drewk 2/27/03 11:41:18 AM Reply	Probably where I got the idea === Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.
Post #84,643 by CRConrad 2/27/03 1:32:17 PM Reply	Only as I recall it, Cringley said... ...not that "security companies will pull copper to the home", but that in most locations they already have contracts (hopefully more or less iron-clad) with the "incumbent something something carrier" ("ILEC"), so the security company gets to lease those "dry pairs" at cost from the very local telco that would otherwise be impossible for anyone to compete with. (Not claiming to be one thousand percent certain that's what he said, but I do pride myself on a pretty good memory for shit I've read years ago.) [link\|mailto:MyUserId@MyISP.CountryCode\|Christian R. Conrad] (I live in Finland, and my e-mail in-box is at the Saunalahti company.) Your lies are of Microsoftian Scale and boring to boot. Your 'depression' may be the closest you ever come to recognizing truth: you have no 'inferiority complex', you are inferior - and something inside you recognizes this. - [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=71575\|Ashton Brown]
Post #84,644 by drewk 2/27/03 1:41:06 PM Reply	Well ... Exactly what he [link\|http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20010823.html\|said] was: Of course the local telephone companies hate this whole idea because they want to sell you that T-1 line for $500-600 per month. That's why they will tell you dry pairs don't exist when they usually do exist. And that's why phone companies are trying to get rid of dry pairs as quickly as they can. ... All this dry pair stuff means that anyone who already has dry pairs -- LOTS of dry pairs -- suddenly has an asset they never knew had value. Quick like a bunny, buy-up that stodgy old burglar alarm company that's been limping along in your town for 50 years. They have a dry pair (often more than one) going to every building. Switch the dry pairs to digital, make the alarm service digital, too, then use the old alarm panel and all that excess bandwidth to offer both wired and wireless Internet access to the whole town. With the lowest circuit cost and more circuits than a regular ISP could ever afford, you'll soon be a broadband tycoon. It looks like alarm companies got permission to pull the copper before anyone had thought of building their own network from scratch, and the CLEC are trying desperately to make them go away. === Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.
Post #84,685 by CRConrad 2/27/03 5:21:08 PM Reply	Aah, kewl!

Welcome to IWETHEY!