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Comment by cr0sh | Hacker News Reader

> "Here's a box, a wire, and a map of other customers' locations. Plug into their jack, and if you can convince others to plug into yours, we'll give you a discount on your monthly bill based on how many you sign up."

How would that break any laws? It's essentially doing a commercial mesh-net of sorts, like many are already doing in Europe and elsewhere.

If instead, they gave you a box and a map - and that box supported wifi - then a mesh network or something would be feasible. Wired could be done by running the wires along the fence or trenching inside the property line (neighbor to neighbor - if your neighbor is willing).

Otherwise, point-to-point mesh wifi (or maybe even free-space optical - like the Ronja system).

Not sure where any of that would be illegal as long as no other carrier's TOS was infringed or such...

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The box wouldn't be WiFi. That doesn't have enough bandwidth for the target results. It would be a wire or optical fiber, and it probably won't be a continuous stream of direct neighbors: people would run it across the street through storm sewers, string it up on utility poles, bury it an inch deep across the local park or unknowing intermediate neighbors, or even renting a trencher or pipe layer and installing it like a utility would... However they can get it. The data finds a way. Legally, those require permits.

And that's _exactly_ why Google didn't go that route! I'm all in favor of sticking it to Comcast/Time Warner/whomever, but I very much do _not_ want my neighbors taking it upon themselves to try and run homebrew fiber through the city park by my house, or under my backyard without my knowledge or permission. If I owned utility poles, I would presumably have some opinions about people climbing up to install their own cables, and if I didn't, I'm sure that whoever I buy liability insurance from would!

Look, there are reasons why cities have permitting processes. Those reasons sometimes do include regulatory capture, etc., but generally they have to do with making it possible for large numbers of people to make productive and stable use of shared resources and infrastructure in an organized manner. I'll be the first one to agree that some permitting processes in some areas are imperfect, but that's not a reason to ignore them whole-hog.

> How would that break any laws? It's essentially doing a commercial mesh-net of sorts, like many are already doing in Europe and elsewhere.

I believe—depending on the municipality—if you knowingly and explicitly share internet with others you open yourself up to the sorts of regulation ISPs have to deal with.

For some reason that was the most depressing thing I've ever read about the future of the internet.

Wouldn't surprise me if there are some local regulations about how wires or cabling can be run and who can do the installation, but I'm not aware of any specific laws.

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