Need help... Becoming A WISP/VOIP provider

[merwe]

Now I quickly joined up, because i need advice. One of my top clients asked me two days ago to consider an offer. They want to build big WIFI towers in our local area, get bandwith direct from the source e.g. direct from ?seacom?,

Now here is the issue, how do i get the bandwith, and what else will i need, i need to learn quickly how to design the system. And what network access servers are available, and how do you implement devises like that in a wifi area.

I feel overwhelm currently because i've never had so much data going to be available to me and i have no idea how i will implement things...

 

[daffy]

This is not something that you do "quickly" and these are not skills that you "learn quickly".
Get someone who knows what they're doing to do it. There are many companies out there that will be happy to do it for a fee.

 

[Xarion]

Time to get out the wallet and hand it over to Icasa

 

[ambo]

You are going to need to find a bunch of skilled people that have done this before. This kind of thing requires years of experience.

This is not the kind of thing that you can just do after reading a few pages on Wikipedia. That is of course if your don't want your network to fail after a few months and lose you lots of money

 

[merwe]

I fully understand this... I do not presume the ignorance that you quickly need to learn this, but i want to thrown into the right direction. I have done satelite systems between congo and rsa aswell as between rsa and zimbabwe, but i have never done ISP related work... I will of course be getting help, but what i need is the initial direction. Not go contact someone for now.

 

[ambo]

but what i need is the initial direction.

Well you first step is to visit our friends at ICASA and get yourself ECS and ECNS licenses.

 

[merwe]

Ambo thank you so much for that bit of information... I was wondering whether there will be licenses involved... Busy checking out all the Microtek routers and aswell busy started studying the basic cisco stuff... heavy work. I think i'll post the updates of the project on here... There is no choice anymore... I'm going to do this.

 

[portcullis]

The first thing you need is to go to ICASA and apply for an Class ECS or a Class ECNS. I'm never sure which one.

You then need to secure the high sites. A WISP is nothing without high sites.

You then need to decide where you are going to put your servers. Considering that you want to use mythical bandwidth, I'd recommend Neotel's data centre in Mindrand.

You also need permission to put an aerial on the roof of the data centre.

You'll need a couple of servers for DNS, email and web stuff.

It would be better if one DNS server and mail server were on one IP subnet and the other DNS server and mail server were on another IP subnet. Even better if they are in different cities.

Once you've got the licence from ICASA, contact AFRINIC in Mauritius and get some IP addresses. The smallest you can buy is a /23

You need a fat chequebook to set one of these businesses up in this day and age. I'll have to confirm this with our accountant, but those IP addresses are something like US$1,750 a year. Our last freestanding tower came in at R10K per meter. Today a lattice mast cost R12K per 6m length - excluding installation.

One or two servers doesn't cut it. If you're going to do this right, you will need more. Each of our network cabinets is insured for R250K. We have 8 of the things in various data centres in Cape Town and Gauteng.

Now it's time to build the wireless backbone and to then connect clients to it and to fight for your slice of a saturated market.

 

[merwe]

portcullis thank you for your advice. I do not yet know the whole story as what we will be doing, but i know it is not your conventional internetworking provisioning. But thank you.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Are you planning on providing Internet access via this network?

What type of redundancy are you looking at?

What size checkbook do you have access to for this "opportunity"?

How much of your life can you dedicate to it?

 

[rebel998]

On what scale are you going to be doing this?

 

[merwe]

Toxic Bunny answering the question:

We will be giving internet access via this network. But as far is know there will be other industrial applications for this, the internet provisioning will just be on the side line.

Redundancy we'll talk about latter... let's me first get the whole project details, that'll be next week.

The initial checkbook for this opportunity is inbetween R 5-10 mil (as far as i know), we do already have property and we will be building the initial tower site on this property mostly ourselves, since this company already has taken on mining ventures and other engineering projects (unfortunately i am not able, due to security reason, to reveal which projects or company names).

Dedication: I'm willing to take this project as far as i have to... Dedication = leaving all my other projects and business ventures to get this to become the best.

Obstacles are there to instruct not obstruct...

REBEL998, the majority of the project is for industrial usage, but: the Internet service provisioning i recon will cover pta-east, part central, and maybe pta-north...

 

[kilos]

Its certainly a big undertaking with alot of risks if you do not get the right people to assist you.

On the Wireless equipment side - there a variety of manufacturers to look at:
Mikrotik is quite popular with WiSP's but the Telkom and others look at more carrier grade class equipment ie Alvarion, Wavion, Radwin +++

What about security cameras ?

Techonologies:
802.11a/b/g/n or Wimax

 

[merwe]

I'm unsure what band will be used, as far as i know one of the close knit companies associated with my client (soon to be partner)is doing wimax somewhere in africa, i think mozambique, and from the last meeting i had i have the feeling that will be the direction we will be moving... Could be wrong though as anything is possible at this stage...

Security camera's is no prop, we are linked up mobotix, and have been using there ip based camera systems for a long while, and routing ip cameras and doing provisioning like that is a dream.

 

[kilos]

Mobotix excellent choice, as a fun project Midafricam we have one at the Vicbay webcam and an old one at JBay (quality not too great), been running for 6 years

Also look at Arecontvision IP cameras

 

[rebel998]

From the majority of replies here I'd gather this is a mammoth task ahead but go for it and keep us posted!

 

[ToxicBunny]

Sounds interesting to say the least...

I would say probably double your currently "budget" and you might get closer to the mark of what you'll spend initially.

 

[kilos]

Sounds interesting to say the least...

I would say probably double your currently "budget" and you might get closer to the mark of what you'll spend initially.

Yeah it does sound interesting, budget will depend on what technology ie WiMax
and manufacturer (could be speaking under correction but the Navini Wimax Base Station is R250K) and the amount of Subscribers too

 

[daffy]

Yeah it does sound interesting, budget will depend on what technology ie WiMax
and manufacturer (could be speaking under correction but the Navini Wimax Base Station is R250K) and the amount of Subscribers too

Don't even go there. Navini... its a swear word in our company now.

 

[portcullis]

I've always though Alvarion was the way to go with Wimax.