I am going to start an ISP
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I'm going to ask for a MOD to fork this topic as it relates to the idea, but is not directly tied to this.
I plan on doing a LOT of installations of CPE equipment. I plan on utilizing U Mobile for aligning CPE with the tower, along with day-to-day managerial tasks, and a VoIP extension. It needs to be rugged with a camera. I don't really care if it is Android or iOS, but would probably prefer Android as that is what I am carrying for a phone right now. Big screen is probably more of a need, battery is not as I can charge it while driving around or in the office.
Anybody have any suggestions?
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@tim_g said in I am going to start an ISP:
Never use hyphens in URLs.
In your company name, sure. Not in a URL though.
tri-county-wifi.com is what I would go with. Looks great!
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@dashrender said in I am going to start an ISP:
@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
After thinking it over the weekend, I think I'm going to stick with Wifi, because other companies using "wireless" gives the connotations of a cell phone company.
Examples:
"Verizon Wireless"
"AT&T Wireless"
"Sprint Wireless"In this company, I am still using wifi technologies (IEEE 802.11ac technologies to be exact) in order to operate this company. Therefore, the "wifi" is staying. This may take some customer re-education but I do believe that it is an important differentiator to make.
Interesting - I've never used a WISP before, I just assumed the communications to the tower was something other than typical WiFi frequencies.
How does using WiFi like this affect network saturation in an area?
Frequencies are licensed at millions of dollars per year. The only WISP I have ever known to have done this is Clearwire, who's parent company technically owned the spectrum.
In the white space you are just competing with local HAM guys. Newer gear allows the multiplexing of multiple CPE's on a single frequency. I think even UBNT has done this for a while. So that generally solves the problem.
Bigger issue is always weather moving CPE around. If you use the best mounting gear its less frequent.
There are plenty of WISPS that offer dedicated internet and charge premium prices i.e. 100mb up/down for $2,000 per month with a financially backed SLA.
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What's the latest?
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@scottalanmiller Currently working on the finance part. Not really my strong suit, but diving into it head first. I have figured out the capacity of my network (even with oversubscribing by 4:1) and, with my offerings, how much I could be pulling in gross monthly.
I am still trying to find out all of my overhead expenses, such as the bulk Internet, business insurance, payroll and business taxes, etc. I'm going to need a calendar and a to-do list for all of this.
I am also currently writing up my business plan. I have taken the general outline provided by the Small Business Administration's long form and am filling out each subject within the Business Plan. Then plan on getting that business plan in front of as many smart people as possible without making it public. I have also considered adding another subject to the Business Plan as to how the company is going to operate in order to generate revenue.
Trying to boot strap this company and get it off of the ground by Jan 1, 2018 and profitable by end of Q2. Best case scenario, I'm profitable by the end of Q1. Worse case scenario, I won't make profitable until sometime in 2020.
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@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
even with oversubscribing by 4:1)
That sounds low for oversubscription.....
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@storageninja said in I am going to start an ISP:
@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
even with oversubscribing by 4:1)
That sounds low for oversubscription.....
@StorageNinja & @bigbear, what would be recommended oversub rate? I've heard of anywhere between 15:1 to 5:1, depending on the system.
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AT&T oversold DSL between 12 and 20 to 1 back in he early 2000’s.
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@jaredbusch said in I am going to start an ISP:
AT&T oversold DSL between 12 and 20 to 1 back in he early 2000’s.
In early DSL days I knew a local ISP that put a 3mb bonded T-1 out to a DSLAM in your local telco closet where there were over 100 subs in a suburb. You will hear "overutilization" referred to more as "breakage" as you follow the rabbit down the Telco/ISP hole.
Once you have some usage, you will be able to make decisions about turning up bandwidth as you move along. There are customers who use very little in the evening, and evening streaming is what its all about these days. All of your decisions will be made based on 6pm to 11pm downstream usage.
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So what is the latest on this project? Lots of interest, needs constant news!
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@scottalanmiller said in I am going to start an ISP:
So what is the latest on this project? Lots of interest, needs constant news!
I have numbers from both the tower and down-stream companies, know my offerings, and know how many subs that I need so far to make it profitable. However, I am still missing numbers for insurance ($5 million umbrella policy for the tower company, general business insurance, vehicle insurance for the vehicle that I need to buy), tower climbers (I don't know any so recommendations would be welcomed), and other taxes to put into overhead expenses.
Here is what I need to start up:
- $25k for startup costs
a) $1k for LLC licensing ($300 to Texas Secretary of State), rest to LegalZoom for documents and fees
b) $8k for a dedicated truck with wrap and necessary equipment.
c) $13k for Ubiquiti equipment to put on tower to operational status along with 50 CPE radios to get started. Current calculations shows that, at 4:1 oversubscription, I could support 400-800 subs with just this tower. My bottle neck would be at the tower transmitters as all they can handle is 1GB each. It would be nice if Ubiquiti could figure out a way of putting SFP+ transceivers directly into the APs. Then, my bottle neck would be the fiber coming down the tower. Another growth problem is wireless backhaul links, which are currently at 1GB for long hauls (greater than 1 mile), and 10GB for short hauls (1 mile and less). But that seems to be more of a physics problem then a technology problem.
d) $3k for other materials, tablet, cell phone, etc. - Enough line of credit to become profitable within 1 year, at most.
a) Current monthly expenses would be close to $11k (currently number could still go up) with most of that going to bandwidth.
b) I would work part time at $20/hour until company became profitable while continuing to work my current salary job.
I would be using Debian 9.1 for both UCRM and UNMS, hosted in Vultr in Dallas and linked to 2 routers (Ubiquiti Infinitys) stacked at the tower shack. IPs to the subs would be IPv6 (no need in starting with IPv4 and then moving to IPv6 later on). Both sub traffic and management traffic will be VLAN'd off of the default VLAN. My phone would be through voip.ms as there would only be about 1-2 extensions as of right now. As we grow, we would add FreePBX into Vultr in Dallas Email would be at Zoho, DNS is at Namecheap, registrar is at domain.com, and website is at Wix.
I already have a small list (4 right now) of subs that would sign up. As things starts up, I know that there will be some word of mouth, but I would supplement that with the wrapped truck, social media ads, and venue demos at local events with a CPE antenna, an EdgeRouter, and a UAP with a splash page for visitors.
My 5-year plan would be for this company to be totally self-supporting of itself and me as a full-time employee, with a number of other employees, the footprint expanding from the current city through microPOPs to neighboring cities that are suffering the same problems, and then diversifying into solar equipment and installations.
- $25k for startup costs
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Anybody want to invest?
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$1k to start LLC seems very expensive. You can do it in Florida for $100 and it takes less than 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork...
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@irj said in I am going to start an ISP:
$1k to start LLC seems very expensive. You can do it in Florida for $100 and it takes less than 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork...
Like I said, its $300 for Texas. But yours seems expensive in comparison to @EddieJennings's $50 fee for Georgia.
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@irj said in I am going to start an ISP:
$1k to start LLC seems very expensive. You can do it in Florida for $100 and it takes less than 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork...
I think I had a lawyer help me and it was still less than $1000, but the $300 fee might be what's killing you here.
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@dashrender said in I am going to start an ISP:
@irj said in I am going to start an ISP:
$1k to start LLC seems very expensive. You can do it in Florida for $100 and it takes less than 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork...
I think I had a lawyer help me and it was still less than $1000, but the $300 fee might be what's killing you here.
$535 total including the fee. if you need someone to do the paperwork for you.
Yes the $300 fee is much higher than other states
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@nerdydad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@irj said in I am going to start an ISP:
$1k to start LLC seems very expensive. You can do it in Florida for $100 and it takes less than 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork...
Like I said, its $300 for Texas. But yours seems expensive in comparison to @EddieJennings's $50 fee for Georgia.
It's $50 here, plus online filling fee, but if you wanted to do it offline you could technically do it for $50. The state of Florida puts everything together online so you cant screw it up. That costs you like $100 total.
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@irj said in I am going to start an ISP:
$1k to start LLC seems very expensive. You can do it in Florida for $100 and it takes less than 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork...
Ya I don’t think it’s even that high in Taxylvania.
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@stacksofplates said in I am going to start an ISP:
@irj said in I am going to start an ISP:
$1k to start LLC seems very expensive. You can do it in Florida for $100 and it takes less than 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork...
Ya I don’t think it’s even that high in Taxylvania.
High tax states often have cheaper fees. Low tax states often make money in other places, like this.
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@strongbad said in I am going to start an ISP:
@stacksofplates said in I am going to start an ISP:
@irj said in I am going to start an ISP:
$1k to start LLC seems very expensive. You can do it in Florida for $100 and it takes less than 10 minutes to fill out the paperwork...
Ya I don’t think it’s even that high in Taxylvania.
High tax states often have cheaper fees. Low tax states often make money in other places, like this.
Maybe in some cases, but remember Florida has no state income tax just like Texas.
