Starting an ISP.

[hubbs]

There is plans of starting a wireless ISP. A smaller isp maybe 500 users tops and what kind of stuff would you need to start this. We will have a area of about 3 square miles, what type of equipment would be needed to service the people?

 

[CubicZirconia]

I don't want to sound negative here, but I'm thinking you would have to know quite a bit to efficiently run an ISP of any size. I'm not saying that you don't, but doesn't everyone else agree?

 

[Soybomb]

Actually I've been thinking of doing the same thing so I'll see if I can share a bit. As far as equipment goes you'll need an access point, and equipment for your customers. You'll need a tower to put your equipment on. You'll need a router, csu/dsu card, switch, a couple servers, and a T1 to start with. You will of course need a good amount of knowledge to get running a mail server, dns server, web server, maybe some authentication, billing software, etc.

One of the biggest hurdles though for me is money. As I recall you're pretty young (could be thinking of a different hubbs though) so coming up with the cash for all this could be a problem. I'm 21 and will have a hard enough time coming up with the money to get everything so a good financial backbone is also a necessary component.

 

[hubbs]

Its not me whose doing it, sorry if i confused some. Its a person in town who asked me to help him out. I just wanted to find out what all went into what he was trying to do.

 

[Bleep]

hubbs:

Good luck on your getting this thing up. Just a little on my experience on having a ISP. Several of my friends and I started a ISP several years ago, I knew nothing and still dont about them but 2 of the guys were very good at this sort of thing. The initial investment was $75000.00 a lot of money probably cost more now. It came to be that about every 6 months we would have to do a upgrade to the modems--servers add more bandwidth--more modems better routers and the other things associated with the project. We ended up with over 2000 suscribers at $20.00 per month for a 56 K phone line acess. We finally had to sell out as we never made a dime and was lucky to get back our investmate. So I hope your mentor has deep pockets as wireless is a whole lot more expensive than a phone line acess. you see the initial investimate can never be gotten back with a severly limited number of suscribers. It is a real catch 22.
The phone co will charge you a arm and a leg.

Bleep

 

[Soybomb]

Actually I see wireless as a way around alot of that. The phone company will charge you an arm and a leg for anything, but with wireless you don't need lots of dialup lines or to make your customers pay for dsl line charges. Thats alot of overhead gone. To me that is why wireless is appealing, yes there are other costs, but I think it really helps.

From reading and my ISP experience I've come up with a few guide lines I want to follow with my isp-to-be:
1.) Sell out: Yes, build up the business and sell it off. New technology comes along, up grades are expensive, and the service you provide becomes stale. I don't see an ISP as being "the family business." You start it, spend probably 5-7 max building it and get rid of it. Plan for it.

2.) Set your self apart: Come up with something new or at least a service not available in your area.

3.) Be prepared. Get good equipment and know how to use it. Nothing pisses off your customers more than downtime.

4.) Keep it decently fast. With broadband it used to be easy to say most of the traffic was "bursty" but with all these file sharing utilities, alot of people really want their full amount of bandwidth. Be sure that you're clear that there is a maximum speed and it is not guarenteed. People also get pissy about their bandwidth.

5.) Business is where it is at! Residential customers can pay the bills, but you're not going to make any real money without business services. They are almost pure profit, residential customers are almost pure cost Wait until you see the tech support demands both groups have though. Damn people are dumb!

6.) hmmmmm well I'm sure there is more but its late and I'm tired. I'm currently reading an O"Riley book on wireless called something like "Building Wireless Community Networks" It isn't specifically for the WISP but is a pretty good book and I'd recommend you read it.

I'm actually pretty anxious to hear from someone who works for/owns a wireless ISP. I've been hanging out at the local wireless shop and have my own insights, but I wanna' see others!

Actually hubbs, I'm also curious what you get out of this? Will you have stock in the company, you should. What functions will you perform there? What are you salary expectations? How long do you plan to stay with them?