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to jcremin
Re: WISP StartupGood outlook on it!
I will get all the details today on the water tower, which is owned by the city and the Mayor sounded pretty happy that someone was inquiring about it all. |
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w1spfanatic |
to OHSrob
I'm actually thinking of running a free wi-fi service in the city limits in the 5Ghz band due to LOS. Most subscribers can't get perfect LOS so 2.4 sounds welcoming but 900 would be perfect! |
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TomS_Git-r-done MVM join:2002-07-19 London, UK |
TomS_
MVM
2013-Jan-17 8:05 am
5GHz will really limit the number of devices that can actually use the service though. Devices tend to have B/G support more than they have A support. |
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Here's the update...
The Mayor signed a contract with Utility Services Group right after the WISP tanked on the city and I have to go through them to lease space on the tower. With that comes numerous standards and laws in order to accomplish the task along with one hefty price tag. $500 a month for leasing space. The Mayor informed me that he sets this price and could lower it down but no less than $275 a month. SMH, non-sense.Luckily, I had a plan B. Another local man OWNS a couple of towers around the area and has agreed to let me lease some space on a few of them. 2 of them I am eyeing. One is in a bigger city 15 mins away, with a tremendous possible customer base compared to my original proposed area. BUT, I'll be competing with the likes of Comcast and VZW LTE.
Who here has competition? And if you do, what models do you use to draw-in your customers? How do you keep them?
I'm back to the drawing board to see if this would be a good jump for me considering the monsters I am up against. If anything, I could purchase a Comcast line in-town here and set me up a wireless link. I need the experience w/ the technology and the stable connection.
Also, with the 2.4Ghz in NLOS conditions what's the theoretical range, /= 2 miles? |
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InssomniakThe Glitch Premium Member join:2005-04-06 Cayuga, ON |
Competing against comcast will probably be tough, fast speeds, etc.
I only compete against other wireless services, and some DSL because no one likes the incumbent, but I just usually do my whitelabel DSL for them, usually these ppl are good for spreading the word. Not much money in it. No LTE here but 3G is no competition because of low caps.
Yea 500 a month is a lot for a startup if you ask me. Even $250 is a lot really for me, We pay at most $4-500 a year for 100+ foot Grain legs, or trade it off in free Internet.
2.4ghz in NLOS at 2 miles is no good really, but 2.4ghz does have good NEAR LOS performance. I have done 5-6 mile near LOS 2.4ghz no problem. But NLOS as in trying to just burn a hole thru a big nearby bush lot isnt gonna happen at 2 miles. |
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to w1spfanatic
$275 a month is perfectly reasonable. What did you expect, free? Heck $500 a month is probably reasonable depending on how much gear you can hang on their tower. |
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WHT join:2010-03-26 Rosston, TX |
to w1spfanatic
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TomS_Git-r-done MVM join:2002-07-19 London, UK |
to wirelessdog
said by wirelessdog:$275 a month is perfectly reasonable. Agreed. Done pretty well to knock 45% off the price just by asking! Most likely some of that has to cover insurance for the tower, since anything that goes wrong with your gear could cause damage (e.g. fire) As a start up he may be interested to see you get going and offer some competition. Youve got to think about this in numbers. $275/month / 10 customers = $27.50 breakeven. Most likely you could charge somewhere around $30/month and still be a viable option for a lot of customers. On rental alone, every customer after that is profit. 10 customers is not bad for breakeven, especially if you have access to a lot more from there, or can link to more valuable places. But naturally you have to include your other costs like bandwidth so that figure is likely to rise, but again, not uncommon. |
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1 edit |
The $275 was being presented to the city council and was depending on their vote. They require me to have insurance on my equipment, provided out of my pocket. I also have to cover the light bill for the utility shed/base station. The potential customer base in the city with the water tower would not break 25 on startup so it would be financially tough.
On the other hand, the tower owned by a local is willing to lease me rental space for $150/month because I am a start-up and allow me up to 100ft. No word on splitting the utility bill yet, but the fiber connect is still $50 per 1/1. The only problem would be competing against the wired folks. Charge 25/month for 1/512 entry level package and draw in customers. |
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to w1spfanatic
I think you have some real misconceptions about what a business venture like this costs. To think you will break even immediately is quite frankly laughable. |
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I'll be breaking even on a month to month total cost of operation is what I mean. |
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w1spfanatic 1 edit |
to wirelessdog
I'm not expecting any kind of hand outs. Keep in mind the different financial means people have. From the previous posts, you would see that I will be hanging 3 120 degree sector antennas and when the numbers are crunched, charging 25/month for a community of 400 homes and less than 1/3 of those being potential customers is not even close to being practical. |
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