Nic My initial reaction to your questions is to plan out what your broadband needs will realistically be OVER TIME so that you can strike the right balance between controlling your expenses and delighting your members. Planning your technology infrastructure roadmap can be a little tricky. Its easy to be sold (by friendly, well intentioned broadband sales reps) on committing to more than you need upfront. And, since broadband contracts are generally multi-year committments, you need to be careful, so that you aren't wasting money on excess capacity upfront. It is always easier to add additional capacity as you grow that it is to negotiate your way out of a 3yr contract. The other complication is that technology is advancing at Moore's law rate (doubling every 18 months) so its likely that whatever you commit to at the start of a 3yr contract may be obsolete before the end of your commitment period.
A few questions: * where are you located? * what type of user community are you building? * how many individual memberships do you plan to issue? * what is the max # of concurrent users that you are aiming for? (ie max number of people at your site at any given time) * what types of workers are you hoping to attract...broadband needs will generally vary by type ? (ie, software developers, consultants, writers, etc). * Do you have a ramp-up plan for your membership growth (this can be a simple excel spreadsheet)? Another consideration, is what your business model is with your members, ie how you price and package your memberships? This can influence how you think about your internet infrastructure. For example you might consider having a lower bandwidth WiFi capability that is available with a "Basic/starter" membership at your facility. You can then offer a higher bandwith "Premium" for members who value higher bandwidth AND are willing to pay a little bit more for it. You could launch your facility with a limited number of these Premium memberships to test demand. (This may also spur interest, since people often will react to the notion of scarcity). If you get a strong response, you could then add more bandwidth in controlled steps as you sell more "Premium" upgrades. We had good success with this strategy at our facility. Starting to ramble now... so I'll cut this off for now. Happy to elaborate more if you like. Mark On Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 8:01 AM, Nic Rosental <nicrosen...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi All, > > I'm trying to get the place open soon but one of the stumbling blocks > is making sure we have good internet access. I contacted pretty much > all providers I could think of and here are the results. > > No cable available > No fiber available > DSL up to 1.5 mbps max > 4G wireless for offices (up to 6mbps) > T1 > > At this point I'm considering mixing up DSL and 4G, or two DSL lines, > but no solution seems very tempting. Does anyone have an option I > haven't explored yet? > > Nic > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > -- Mark Gilbreath PO Box 2830 Ketchum, ID 83340 mobile 208-720-8107 skype mfgilbreath twitter markgilbreath -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
