I'm in NYC. I know a few people who played with it. It barely works.
I'm all for this kind of tech solutions, but for crying out loud pretending that this is a replacement for ISPs in NYC really discredits techies.
I'm all for this kind of tech solutions, but for crying out loud pretending that this is a replacement for ISPs in NYC really discredits techies.
I had at&t in one of SF's typically old buildings and I can tell you, the internet there barely worked - i had to reset the router about once a week, plus hour long downtimes not uncommon. Even now, when I'm in a brand new 3 year new townhouse, I still have a reset the router once or twice a year and I get half the speed I'm paying for on a DSL broadband plan, not to mention that I get stuck in a 12 month contract anytime i want to switch plans.
Considering that there are currently no other options than the att/comcast douopoly, I would think people would give a little more credit for providing alternatives, even if it's not perfect yet.
The reason why I'm negative about it is that it gives people incorrect perception. The perception is that my neighbor does not need to pay Optimum or Time Warner or Verizon for internet and he or she can watch Netflix. And that's simply not the case because as soon as five of my neighbors get this WiFi chokes because in a regular Brooklyn block it is going to add another 40-50 wifi access points. Negative perception from folks who own their houses is a death to community ISPs.
This kind of wireless is not a solution. A solution is to wire as much as possible, including wiring between the buildings of my neighbors who own their houses and if needed terminating a single high bandwidth wireless or fiber link into a node that carries entire block.
P.S. I reached out to these guys about a year ago offering to help them when I read another piece written about them. Maybe it even was on HN. I did not get any response.
Does VoIP work?
What if I want to run a server at home?
Actually scratch that, I tried getting a 1 gig cross manhattan link. Cost more than 1g to London.
Unfortunately, the building owner where I used to live wasn't interested -- it turned out most of the building was empty, people keeping apartments for occasional visits or as an investment :-(
https://www.hyperoptic.com/how-hyperoptic-works/ or https://www.hyperoptic.com/map/
And the sewers a) aren't human-travelable like the old ones in Paris or parts of London; and b) overflow in heavy rains. You probably don't want to run electrical wiring through them.
But in general, go to a decent building and order Cogent. That gets your building on the net. Cogent eats fiber extension charges left and right. Plus you actually get 1Gbit/sec for $500/mo. Now you take that 1Gbit/sec and wire to neighboring buildings by running ethernet or standard yellow fiber. That's how ghetto ISPs get stuff done. It was done for years because it works. There's incentive for those who own building to form a community ISP or provide an access to a community ISP because those that own builds want the same product and they know they can share some of the costs.
However GTT offered me 1gig from New York office to London Docklands for $2400! Under $2k for p2p to office in Washington DC.
If local internet is $500pcm , get two lines into the building for $1k/month, charge 50 people $30 a month and give them 1 gig and 25:1 contention ratio, plus the cost of dropping the fibre and a router, leaving $6k a year. It's not going to give you a full time job, but will give you some decent internet and a bit of pocket money to look after it.
Order an SDI video circuit from VZ to one of the interconnect buildings. That's $1.5K/mo but it is delivered as a point to point single mode fiber with VZ gear being plugged in. After they install it and leave unplug VZ gear. Plug in your 10G. You just got yourself a 10G transport for $1.5K/mo.