That's sort of the thought process I was headed towards. With my preference to not entering that already way too crowded market. There are already three vendors that I know of in that space, and I don't feel like trying to compete with the vendors that have way more volume than I could attain.
On Sun, Oct 5, 2014 at 3:35 PM, Keefe John via Af <[email protected]> wrote: > The only way to make this price doable is if it is a router too like > Netonix's new device. > > Keefe > > > On 10/5/2014 4:08 PM, Forrest Christian (List Account) via Af wrote: > >> Following up on the previous email about product ideas, I have an idea >> for a product which at least I think would be really cool, but I also think >> would likely be a big flop, just because of the apparent cost sensitivity >> of installs. >> >> It seems to me that it would be nice to replace the power injector at >> customer sites with more of an intelligent device. One that provides >> functionality like traffic metering, cable diagnostics, customer-location >> speed tests, and so on. The unit would have jacks for the radio, the >> customer equipment, and power. It would also have a display which shows >> real-time usage data for the customer to be able to determine for >> themselves what their current internet consumption is. There are a lot of >> natural outgrowths from this such as watchdog reset of the radio itself, >> automatic problem notification to the WISP, etc. My goal would be to >> instrument this as much as possible. >> >> If you think of this as a 'smart power meter' for internet, with >> diagnostic tools built in, then you've got the basic idea. This is not >> intended to replace the customer router/nat device, and will only be a >> Layer 2 device as far as traffic goes. There will likely be some limited >> traffic shaping possible based on the underlying ethernet swtich chipset. >> >> Unfortunately, these can't be a $20 device. $75 might be doable for >> higher volumes, but $100 is more in the comfort zone for the volumes I >> typically move. Of course, this is a CPE device and I'm not even sure how >> many I'd sell so these prices are guesses at best - but more likely to go >> down instead of up. >> >> Although I suspect most people would love to have one of these at each >> install, I have a hard time believing that most people would swallow adding >> even $75 to the cost of each install, let alone the $100 which might be the >> price I'd have to hit for lower volume. Is this a fair assumption? Would >> you add such a device to each install? >> >> >> >> >> >
