Starting up a small WISP

The_Ogre

The_Ogre

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So, after being asked by a buddy for advice on WiFi around his yard (thread here: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/594803-What-equipment-needed-to-cover-this-area-with-WiFi), I started pondering about a small WISP in my area.

To the guys who have experience in this sort of thing, what's your take on covering an area of around 1.6 square k's with wiffi - I did a guage on google maps and my neighbourhood is roughly 400 x 400 metres, really small.

This is mainly for providing access to the net to friends and school kids in the area since I'm living in a sort of medium to lowish income area and most people do not have internet access, but do posses a laptop and or PC.

Added to that, most of the kids bug me on an almost daily basis to search things for them on the net.

I currently have 2 Telkom lines, but only one has ADSL active (4Mbps).

At this point, its not really a business venture, but if I can get a minimum of say 10 to 20 people on board I'd have to start charging :D

I take it I'd have to register for an ECNS license, but what equipment and software does one need for this sort of operation?
 
I don't think you need to register for an ECNS license, but I can be mistaken.

Look at Microtik routers/equipment. I know several WISPs who uses that.

I'd charge them for the internet usage from the get-go because of your investment in the equipment (and time/energy/upkeep). So maybe do a survey locally and ask people if they're interested/and how much they're willing to pay.

Based off of that you can active the other line for ADSL as well/invest in the equipment and work out the ROI time. Once the equipment is paid for, the rest should cover your ADSL lines/ISP costs and you can take the profit you make and buy PC's or laptops for underprivilaged families around the area or even donate to the school (if there's one close by). That's to say if you don't want the extra bucks :)

I'd also suggest perhaps saving up the cost of equipment in case of failure so you can replace before that.
 
Thanks for the info and advice thus far. I'll bug you guys agaib as and when things pop up in my head :)
 
I have some advice, but perhaps not what you are looking for. (it may help when explaining the size of the area you want to cover though). 400x400m = 0.16km^2 not 1.6km^2.
 
ElecEng said:
I have some advice, but perhaps not what you are looking for. (it may help when explaining the size of the area you want to cover though). 400x400m = 0.16km^2 not 1.6km^2.
Click to expand...
Oops, its a 400 by 400 square metre area with about 30 or 40 houses :o

Thanks for the correction :)
 
How much time do you have spare to administer?
What do you think your "clients" expectations is going to be regarding speed/throuput/ping times?
 
wetkit said:
How much time do you have spare to administer?
What do you think your "clients" expectations is going to be regarding speed/throuput/ping times?
Click to expand...
About an hour or two per day.

Expectations? Well you can't expect much if you have nothing and struggling. I'd rather provide them with the means to use their phones or PCs to do research themselves, then to wake me up from my sunday afternoon nap to find something for them on google...
 
Eish :(
Thing is, if you expecting somebody to pay for a service, you need to be able to supply said service.
So you have 4M ADSL at home, and sharing that with 10 other users, so how much of that 4M you going to give each user?
 
wetkit said:
Eish :(
Thing is, if you expecting somebody to pay for a service, you need to be able to supply said service.
So you have 4M ADSL at home, and sharing that with 10 other users, so how much of that 4M you going to give each user?
Click to expand...
Well I'm not really expecting them to pay, only once they starting abusing bandwidth! :)

The MSAN for my area is going live by 01 June so bandwidth will be less off an issue.
 
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