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This is a sub-selection from Start your own
johan_hammy
join:2003-08-08
Dekalb, IL

johan_hammy to pandora

Member

to pandora

Re: Start your own

It is certainly possible and not that difficult to be an ISP anywhere in the United States. What is difficult is providing people the services they think they need for the prices they think they need them at.

Very few people today need more than 25 megabit/s of Internet. There just isn't much advantage to it.

Sell them 25 megabit for $60 and they'll complain it isn't 50 megabit for $45. There just is no way to win.

That said, there are literally thousands of independent ISPs in the US. If it were so hard or impossible, they wouldn't exist.

I'm sorry you've set yourself up with the assumption that it can't be done.
pandora
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Outland

pandora

Premium Member

said by johan_hammy:

It is certainly possible and not that difficult to be an ISP anywhere in the United States. What is difficult is providing people the services they think they need for the prices they think they need them at.

Very few people today need more than 25 megabit/s of Internet. There just isn't much advantage to it.

Sell them 25 megabit for $60 and they'll complain it isn't 50 megabit for $45. There just is no way to win.

There is no way to win. Karl loves to compare high density areas of Hong Kong to the Continent that is the United States.

I'd love Karl to get dslreports to create an ISP serving a few square blocks around him. It'd help provide gravitas to his critiques. Hey Karl, why not have dslreports.com sponsor an experimental neighborhood ISP if there is any user interested in starting one. I'd love to read a blot telling us how easy and profitable they are to create. You'll pay for content? What could be better than paying to have a series of articles regarding establishment of a neighborhood ISP.

Comcast charges me about $60 per month for 25 MB down. It's not great speeds per the ISP in Hong Kong. Then again, many Hong Kong residents are living in 375 cubic foot cages. I don't know who wants to trade a U.S. home or apartment for 375 cubic feet to get that high speed low cost Internet we read about on these forums. »www.dailymail.co.uk/news ··· hes.html

Living in a 2.5 x 2.5 x 6' rabbit wire cage with a few hundred friends getting really fast LAN like service within part of Hong Kong isn't my dream living situation.

Google tells me the low cost $25 per month Hong Kong plan costs about $35 U.S. ($268HK) per month. From this website - »www.hkbn.net/new/en/acce ··· an.shtml if you read the fine print, overseas websites are not included in the "up to 1 GB" speed. A dslreports poster went to Japan a while back, and indicated speeds were OK for Japanese websites, but very bad for U.S. or other non-Japanese websites.

Hong Kong has 7 million people living in about 26 square miles. »www.gov.hk/en/about/abou ··· tion.pdf New York City, has 8 million people living in about 300 square miles. - »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ne ··· ork_City

We can drool over how great live would be if we were packed like sardines. We could move to Hong Kong and get in on their great lifestyle. Alternately we could try to get rich providing ISP services in our neighborhood.

How many of us are moving to Hong Kong, or setting up an ISP in the U.S. If it were easy, profitable, or desirable, many would.

We need to change our culture, and allow easier pole attachments, with a ton less regulation. That means coverage will be unfair, sometimes arbitrary, the poor, disabled, and non-English speakers may suffer. However, costs would be lower, and speeds greatly improved.

Many want the regulations, but complain about costs. Regulations caused the monopoly or duopoly we experience today. Regulations cause higher prices. Regulations are barriers to entry. Yet few want to give them up.
johan_hammy
join:2003-08-08
Dekalb, IL

johan_hammy

Member

I agree with this a lot. I'm actually working with Karl to get some articles up from the independent ISP's perspective.
pandora
Premium Member
join:2001-06-01
Outland

pandora

Premium Member

said by johan_hammy:

I agree with this a lot. I'm actually working with Karl to get some articles up from the independent ISP's perspective.

THAT would be fantastic. A report from someone who is trying to offer service would be great reading. If possible, try to find someone with wit and a bit of a sense of humor. (Adam Carolla like comes to mind).
johan_hammy
join:2003-08-08
Dekalb, IL

1 recommendation

johan_hammy

Member

said by pandora:

said by johan_hammy:

I agree with this a lot. I'm actually working with Karl to get some articles up from the independent ISP's perspective.

THAT would be fantastic. A report from someone who is trying to offer service would be great reading. If possible, try to find someone with wit and a bit of a sense of humor. (Adam Carolla like comes to mind).

*nods* I could, but I'm not a great writer. A few have blogs, so they're a starting point... working on getting it all pieced together.

»www.wirelesscowboys.com/
»www.muniwireless.com/aut ··· conaway/

Count Zero
Premium Member
join:2007-01-18
Milton, FL

Count Zero to pandora

Premium Member

to pandora
Actually it would be about 7.9x7.9x6' cage - but I agree that it's a small amount of space no matter how you describe it.
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Skippy25 to johan_hammy

Member

to johan_hammy
Please send me some of that crack you are smoking it appears to be some great stuff.
johan_hammy
join:2003-08-08
Dekalb, IL

johan_hammy

Member

said by Skippy25:

Please send me some of that crack you are smoking it appears to be some great stuff.

Instead of wasting both of our times, how about you restate that, stating or asking something useful?
Skippy25
join:2000-09-13
Hazelwood, MO

Skippy25

Member

said by Skippy25:

It is certainly possible and not that difficult to be an ISP anywhere in the United States.

As you wish. Possible to be an ISP? Sure provided of course you can get a current incumbent to actually reasonably lease you connectivity for you to reach customers. However, it is certainly no walk in the park as you indicate by the delusional "not that difficult" statement. Here in St. Louis at my house I have exactly 2 ISP's to choose from, but on totally different networks and not sharing a thing. If it were so easy, I am sure there would be multiple choices for all not only here but in the US. Which clearly shows the absurdity of your comment.

Maybe you are the son of some billionaire with hundreds of millions if not billions at your disposal to create a network anywhere in the US. Thus giving you the illusion of it not being difficult being an ISP anywhere. But then again maybe you are thinking more like AOL and simply being an internet content provider/portal company as a faux ISP.

And please dont respond with wireless as a good way to get into the ISP business. Wireless capabilities will NEVER compete with wired and it should be thought of as nothing more than a enhanced service that piggy backs off the core wired network as that is all it really is and all it will ever be.

Alex J
@sunwave.com.br

Alex J to johan_hammy

Anon

to johan_hammy

It is certainly possible and not that difficult to be an ISP anywhere in the United States. What is difficult is providing people the services they think they need for the prices they think they need them at.

It is possible to create tiny, irrelevant and piddly ISPs in select regions if you have the money. But try to expand that footprint in any meaningful capacity (like across states) and you run face first into a significant ecosystem of regulation, literally written by incumbent carriers, designed to make you fail.

If you're denying this reality you're operating in a very insular bubble.

I also like how nobody in this thread busy bitching about how unfair the author is has any comment on the article itself, or the fact that regional monopolies are passing laws prohibiting local towns and cities from making their own decisions.

The naivete and willful ignorance in this thread is astonishing.
johan_hammy
join:2003-08-08
Dekalb, IL

johan_hammy to Skippy25

Member

to Skippy25
said by Skippy25:

Sure provided of course you can get a current incumbent to actually reasonably lease you connectivity for you to reach customers.

I send not a single dime to any incumbents anywhere, other than tariffed rates for voice services.
said by Skippy25:

Here in St. Louis at my house I have exactly 2 ISP's to choose from

Not your specific house, but could you supply me with the nearest major intersection so I can see if anyone else is available in your area?
said by Skippy25:

Maybe you are the son of some billionaire with hundreds of millions if not billions at your disposal to create a network anywhere in the US.

No, actually, my family was rather poor. I have been out of HS slightly over 10 years and my family of 5 made a whopping $30k/year. Nothing to brag about!
said by Skippy25:

And please dont respond with wireless as a good way to get into the ISP business. Wireless capabilities will NEVER compete with wired and it should be thought of as nothing more than a enhanced service that piggy backs off the core wired network as that is all it really is and all it will ever be.

Why? Please give me facts and numbers, not emotions.

Also, many of my ISP brethren are starting to build out FTTP networks, independent of any incumbents.
johan_hammy

johan_hammy to Alex J

Member

to Alex J
said by Alex J :

It is possible to create tiny, irrelevant and piddly ISPs in select regions if you have the money. But try to expand that footprint in any meaningful capacity (like across states) and you run face first into a significant ecosystem of regulation, literally written by incumbent carriers, designed to make you fail.

I bet you the customers of those tiny piddly ISPs don't think they're so irrelevent. Who says my ISP needs to cover several states? I am not aware of any regulations that would prevent me from providing the services people need to them, whether by wire or wireless.
said by Skippy25:

If you're denying this reality you're operating in a very insular bubble

No, I'm just doing what you say can't be done. It's kind of hard for me to believe you when I (and thousands of others) am doing exactly what you say can't be done.
« Connect North Carolina
This is a sub-selection from Start your own