| In the US, most of the people have one or more | | | | Personnel Insurance, Asset Insurance, and |
| broadband access services to choose from - | | | | Process and Procedure.* Revenue and Profit - |
| variations of DSL from multiple vendors and cable. | | | | Covers where and how to create your income |
| That is if you're in a metropolitan area. For more | | | | including installation, basic monthly service, custom |
| rural locations your choices are limited....if you have | | | | access service, volume or corporate pricing, other |
| any at all. Therein lies an opportunity for those | | | | services, business partnerships, usage based |
| willing to pursue it.In the rural areas of the | | | | service, civic service, and tower leasing (or you |
| country, the selection is limited. Satellite is available | | | | could build and probvide your own).* Security |
| to anyone (at high cost), but between dial up and | | | | Issues - There's much to consider in this arena. |
| T1 there are no options for many residents. | | | | Don't overlook it.* Bandwidth issues - The access |
| Satellite suffers from latency, making it unsuitable | | | | line to your tower(s) is likely the critical factor to |
| for VoIP and some other real time Internet | | | | success. Whether it's a T1 or a DS3 line. First off, |
| services. Some applications that should not be | | | | it probably represents your single largest |
| sensitive to latency (email, Web forms) will | | | | operational cost. Next, it determines the |
| perform poorly or fail due to the increased packet | | | | maximum quality of service you can |
| time.The traditional carriers (RBOC) and resellers | | | | provide.Quotes you receive for bandwidth will |
| face a cost issue in bringing broadband service to | | | | probably be very different in terms of cost and |
| outlying areas. Without a concentration of users | | | | performance guarantees, and should cover |
| the per user cost at published rates causes either | | | | Performance Standards, Service Availability, Mean |
| a poor or negative margin. The way cost | | | | Time to Respond, Mean Time to Repair, Latency, |
| accounting is done in larger corporations makes | | | | Packet Loss, and Jitter. To help you search for |
| the business case worse for a large carrier. Cost | | | | the best match provider for your bandwidth |
| allocations between departments for such things | | | | requirements....I recommend utilizing the services |
| as floor space, personnel, and backend support | | | | of an unbiased independent broker by submitting |
| end up as added costs rather than leverage | | | | a RFQ request to Here are some additional |
| opportunities. Traditional wired service will not | | | | resources that may be of benefit to those |
| reach outlying residents unless mandated by law, | | | | developing a WISP....or thinking of |
| and the trend is against this happening in the near | | | | it.StartAWisp.comWISP CentricThere's also an |
| future.So the opportunity is open for a business | | | | excellent forum for discussion of ideas and issues |
| offering Internet broadband access service to | | | | between WISP owners and potential developers |
| outlying residents.Therein lies a tremendous | | | | at Final advice....think strategically taking care to |
| opportunity.Now....just how do you go about taking | | | | consider the business areas hilighted above. Do |
| advantage of this opportunity, filling a need, and | | | | make use of an independent unbiased broker for |
| building a wireless ISP network?To assist you with | | | | the bandwidth decsion. Also, apply the resources |
| working through the planning and execution of this | | | | shared here as well as any others discovered |
| effort here are some insights and resources you | | | | from your own research.Michael is the owner of |
| should consider:* Business Continuity Planning - | | | | FreedomFire |
| This isn't the technical side of the business, the | | | | Communications....including Michael also authors |
| backup systems, redundant pathing, fail-over and | | | | Broadband Nation where you're always welcome |
| restore, or alternate location stuff. Here you're | | | | to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand |
| looking at subjects such as Legal Structure, | | | | news, tips, insights, and ramblings for the masses. |