woodward
XMission Broadband
VIP
join:2000-12-28
Salt Lake City, UT
| reply to coopISP
Re: co-op isp
We've researched these very issues to some extent here in Utah, both as part of our participation as a service provider on the UTOPIA network and in private community projects, too. Here are the replies I dug up on these questions.
1) Yes, but its a new industry still trying to figure itself out. Depending on your size, you may also want to talk to DirecTV or Dish about the latest status of their MDU IPTV products. Could be a good fit for you, and the overhead is reasonable (probably under $100k for the head end). That will only work on private communities, though. If its a public neighborhood, there are legal problems with those products (last I heard, and we gave up waiting). There are also services that can let you carry the IPTV feed into your network over fiber, but that will require vast upstream networking. I doubt you want to build your own head end, as that can cost millions.
2) In our region, aerial is vastly less expensive, but can be difficult to gain access to (The UTOPIA project was brought to its knees over pole access by Qwest).
3) Last mile fiber? Varies a lot. In our practice, best case is about $1500 per home, worst upwards of $5k. Bid this out carefully. |
