It seems that most ISP's will soon be implementing caps on their standard residential accounts. Comcast already has a 250gb cap and Time Warner is experimenting with a 25gb cap in Texas.
Would it be practical for neighborhoods to build their own wireless ISP's using WiMax?
I'm looking into the possibility of building a small, non-profit ISP for the benefit of my neighborhood of about 10,000 people. Is this doable?
How much money do you have?
From the site
The high end cost of $4,000 divided by 10,000 users is only $.40 each.
I'd like to know roughly what it would cost per user when you factor in everything (initial cost of the equipment, power usage, phone company charges, etc...) Is something like this worth doing? Can a non-profit group compete with the phone and cable companies?
Has anyone done this?
That was only for the "backhaul".
"Obtaining a license to deliver multi-point services in the US, especially in the 2.5 GHz range is extremely difficult---largely because there is not much spectrum available. Most of this spectrum range is controlled by Sprint/Nextel and Clearwire (and soon primarily Clearwire)---leaving only about fifteen percent of either BRS or EBS spectrum obtainable. The cost is not insignificant."
WISP - well, someone has to pick up the bills - There have been several attempts at muni rollouts, and most have failed. We have large ones in our area - the cans are up on the lightpoles, and it was running, but then the realization kicks in - can't make enough money, or even pay for itself without the muni backing it with their mobile usage... it has been shuttered.
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