I am going to start an ISP
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@dustinb3403 said in I am going to start an ISP:
@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
Yes, that is correct. I am going to start an ISP.
In my town, we have a highway running through it. Half of the town has good Internet, and the other half is just terrible. The current BIG ISPs have had enough time to come in and either upgrade what is already there or to replace. It looks like they are not interested in providing rural people with decent Internet because of population density per sub. Its not economically advantageous for them to expand out that way.
Therefore, I am going to start a WISP. I have already been talking to other WISPs out there and have been getting tips. I am also going to take @scottalanmiller's advice on inappropriate coupling of services. Therefore, I will not be offering email, VoIP, AV, or storage for my customers. Just Internet and a side retail of products that the customer could buy from me in order to establish their own private network. I am also planning on expanding into consulting for the community after the ISP is already established and running.
Internally, I am going to go all Vultr for the servers necessary with Debian 9.1 and Fedora as appropriate and FreePBX.
I believe @JaredBusch said one time that WISPs are worth while if they are done right. I was hoping he can expand on that a little bit if possible.
Welcome to Document Hell, please accept this literal 3000 page document pamphlet, dot your I's and cross your T's. Oh and when the large ISP sues you for unfair practices, don't blame us.
Pretty much this. Most big name ISPs are going to sue the shit out of you, regardless of if they can or not. It's pretty common.
Make sure you do all the paperwork necessary. There are some pretty stringent regulations on ISPs that need to be met prior to doing anything else.
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@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@emad-r said in I am going to start an ISP:
Best of luck, if you pull this off, you will be your own boss.
Thanks. My only concern is I will be trading a much shorter commute for more working hours. Will I even see my kids during the week besides when they are already in bed?
It may be like that for a bit. Once your established and have to start hiring people that will change.
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@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@dashrender said in I am going to start an ISP:
@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@dafyre said in I am going to start an ISP:
@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
and email (again, internal to company only).
Why not just go ahead with O365? It's cheap enough.
That's definitely a possibility as I don't want to put all of my eggs in one basket.
Uh oh... there's that phrase again - Hey Scott - you have a video for this yet?
Need clarification on when this is appropriate and when it is not. I believe that Scott did clarify this in the video I tagged earlier.
The eggs in one basket thing mostly doesn't apply to a vendor like Vultr - is it possible they could loose a whole DC, sure, is it likely? probably not. What I don't know is if Vultr has multiple ISPs. I would hope that they do so they can handle ISP failures, but again, don't know for sure.
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@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
Yes, that is correct. I am going to start an ISP.
In my town, we have a highway running through it. Half of the town has good Internet, and the other half is just terrible. The current BIG ISPs have had enough time to come in and either upgrade what is already there or to replace. It looks like they are not interested in providing rural people with decent Internet because of population density per sub. Its not economically advantageous for them to expand out that way.
Therefore, I am going to start a WISP. I have already been talking to other WISPs out there and have been getting tips. I am also going to take @scottalanmiller's advice on inappropriate coupling of services. Therefore, I will not be offering email, VoIP, AV, or storage for my customers. Just Internet and a side retail of products that the customer could buy from me in order to establish their own private network. I am also planning on expanding into consulting for the community after the ISP is already established and running.
Internally, I am going to go all Vultr for the servers necessary with Debian 9.1 and Fedora as appropriate and FreePBX.
I believe @JaredBusch said one time that WISPs are worth while if they are done right. I was hoping he can expand on that a little bit if possible.
While I just watched @scottalanmiller's video, and agree from the perspective of not buying bundled services especially where the ISP hosts a softswitch in their local data center, as a business you definitely want to bundle and sell Hosted PBX.
To be clear... If you like money, and want to make some as a WISP targeting commercial businesses, you have to offer Hosted PBX.
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@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@emad-r said in I am going to start an ISP:
Best of luck, if you pull this off, you will be your own boss.
Thanks. My only concern is I will be trading a much shorter commute for more working hours. Will I even see my kids during the week besides when they are already in bed?
This should be a given with any startup in its initial years. My older 2 kids are getting to the age that I would be teaching them to mount and sync CPE's and properly seal outdoor grommets
When the first storm comes through and knocks all your antennas off spectrum you will have help. -
@bigbear said in I am going to start an ISP:
@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@emad-r said in I am going to start an ISP:
Best of luck, if you pull this off, you will be your own boss.
Thanks. My only concern is I will be trading a much shorter commute for more working hours. Will I even see my kids during the week besides when they are already in bed?
This should be a given with any startup in its initial years. My older 2 kids are getting to the age that I would be teaching them to mount and sync CPE's and properly seal outdoor grommets
When the first storm comes through and knocks all your antennas off spectrum you will have help.Don't forget the drip loop...
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While you are exploring this you should check out this company... https://www.newwavecom.com/
When last I worked with them (some 6 years ago) they were building out areas like yours and then Big Cable would buy the area out. I helped with a setup in western KY. They built out the area with sales, used the right equipment, built the right kind of network and signed the right contracts so that Bright House would buy them out. Sure enough within 18 months that happened. Now the same service is owned by Time Warner (Spectrum).
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@bigbear said in I am going to start an ISP:
While you are exploring this you should check out this company... https://www.newwavecom.com/
When last I worked with them (some 6 years ago) they were building out areas like yours and then Big Cable would buy the area out. I helped with a setup in western KY. They built out the area with sales, used the right equipment, built the right kind of network and signed the right contracts so that Bright House would buy them out. Sure enough within 18 months that happened. Now the same service is owned by Time Warner (Spectrum).
So they caved and then Spectrum ripped out everything of value and ran copper over the telephone lines.
Wonderful . .
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@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@emad-r said in I am going to start an ISP:
Best of luck, if you pull this off, you will be your own boss.
Thanks. My only concern is I will be trading a much shorter commute for more working hours. Will I even see my kids during the week besides when they are already in bed?
Working from home has been great - yet not. during the summer we have had a sitter for the kids, most days they get out and do things. bad weather they stay in,.. and here lately as we end out the summer - they are going less and watching videos. This week is odd since we have a temp sitter while the other is doing training for classes. School starts next week.
When Ison was sick in November of 2017, it was great to still work, but take care of him here at home - and then the two weeks he was in the hospital..my working vacation.
While down time is few some days, I take the time to grab then and hug them, fix them lunch, tickle them and talk to them... so it's been a win.
Next week I'll be so thrilled to have to go back to school... but I will be extremely disappointed at the same time.
With all things, there are Pros and Cons...
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@bigbear said in I am going to start an ISP:
@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
Yes, that is correct. I am going to start an ISP.
In my town, we have a highway running through it. Half of the town has good Internet, and the other half is just terrible. The current BIG ISPs have had enough time to come in and either upgrade what is already there or to replace. It looks like they are not interested in providing rural people with decent Internet because of population density per sub. Its not economically advantageous for them to expand out that way.
Therefore, I am going to start a WISP. I have already been talking to other WISPs out there and have been getting tips. I am also going to take @scottalanmiller's advice on inappropriate coupling of services. Therefore, I will not be offering email, VoIP, AV, or storage for my customers. Just Internet and a side retail of products that the customer could buy from me in order to establish their own private network. I am also planning on expanding into consulting for the community after the ISP is already established and running.
Internally, I am going to go all Vultr for the servers necessary with Debian 9.1 and Fedora as appropriate and FreePBX.
I believe @JaredBusch said one time that WISPs are worth while if they are done right. I was hoping he can expand on that a little bit if possible.
While I just watched @scottalanmiller's video, and agree from the perspective of not buying bundled services especially where the ISP hosts a softswitch in their local data center, as a business you definitely want to bundle and sell Hosted PBX.
To be clear... If you like money, and want to make some as a WISP targeting commercial businesses, you have to offer Hosted PBX.
Right, what is bad for the consumer is good for the vendor. And loads and loads of consumers actually like being taken advantage of. Don't disappoint them.
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@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@emad-r said in I am going to start an ISP:
Best of luck, if you pull this off, you will be your own boss.
Thanks. My only concern is I will be trading a much shorter commute for more working hours. Will I even see my kids during the week besides when they are already in bed?
I think at first you will be busy, but one bonus is that if you succeed, you can bring your kids to work, and they will mess with the employees and the employees will have to take it and be nice to them.
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@scottalanmiller said in I am going to start an ISP:
@bigbear said in I am going to start an ISP:
@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
Yes, that is correct. I am going to start an ISP.
In my town, we have a highway running through it. Half of the town has good Internet, and the other half is just terrible. The current BIG ISPs have had enough time to come in and either upgrade what is already there or to replace. It looks like they are not interested in providing rural people with decent Internet because of population density per sub. Its not economically advantageous for them to expand out that way.
Therefore, I am going to start a WISP. I have already been talking to other WISPs out there and have been getting tips. I am also going to take @scottalanmiller's advice on inappropriate coupling of services. Therefore, I will not be offering email, VoIP, AV, or storage for my customers. Just Internet and a side retail of products that the customer could buy from me in order to establish their own private network. I am also planning on expanding into consulting for the community after the ISP is already established and running.
Internally, I am going to go all Vultr for the servers necessary with Debian 9.1 and Fedora as appropriate and FreePBX.
I believe @JaredBusch said one time that WISPs are worth while if they are done right. I was hoping he can expand on that a little bit if possible.
While I just watched @scottalanmiller's video, and agree from the perspective of not buying bundled services especially where the ISP hosts a softswitch in their local data center, as a business you definitely want to bundle and sell Hosted PBX.
To be clear... If you like money, and want to make some as a WISP targeting commercial businesses, you have to offer Hosted PBX.
Right, what is bad for the consumer is good for the vendor. And loads and loads of consumers actually like being taken advantage of. Don't disappoint them.
As long as the services are not proprietary to the internet offering, network or connection I dont see the issue here. I see where scott is coming from but no serious ISP would leave out a voice offering. And I am talking about IP PBX not trunks or home service.
Even if you have to partner out to offer it, there are a million options. There are ways to do it where its not "coupled", even if you allow the customer to cancel internet and keep voice.
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I probably will do that as separate services, but none of that "bundle and save" bs.
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@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
I probably will do that as separate services, but none of that "bundle and save" bs.
I bundled my car, life and boat insurance and saved enough money to kill a tree!
Edit: because of the huge ass paper bill that they send you. . .
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I wonder if you could only supply paperless billing, or would you have to give people the option?
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@dustinb3403 said in I am going to start an ISP:
I wonder if you could only supply paperless billing, or would you have to give people the option?
I would try to keep the business itself as paperless as possible, but would give the sub the option either way.
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@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@dustinb3403 said in I am going to start an ISP:
I wonder if you could only supply paperless billing, or would you have to give people the option?
I would try to keep the business itself as paperless as possible, but would give the sub the option either way.
So then you'd need a way to print their bill, once received scan and record the payment, mark it as paid and then recycle the bill. Which means you'd likely want to shred the bills to protect customer information.
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@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@dafyre said in I am going to start an ISP:
@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
and email (again, internal to company only).
Why not just go ahead with O365? It's cheap enough.
That's definitely a possibility as I don't want to put all of my eggs in one basket.
Going back to thinking about this, I would need to do a dedicated email server because I would have too many email addresses needed to make O365 worth while, such as DMCA complaints, sub questions & issues, my email, outages, notifications, etc.
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@dustinb3403 said in I am going to start an ISP:
@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@dustinb3403 said in I am going to start an ISP:
I wonder if you could only supply paperless billing, or would you have to give people the option?
I would try to keep the business itself as paperless as possible, but would give the sub the option either way.
So then you'd need a way to print their bill, once received scan and record the payment, mark it as paid and then recycle the bill. Which means you'd likely want to shred the bills to protect customer information.
And I'd be looking at a NextCloud instance to manage all of the companies bills & other important documents along with sub's bills.
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Which if you were going "paperless" you'd likely want to arrange some kind of recycling program with your paper supplier.
