Mike Cherba wrote:
Steve,
[...]
Can you explain for us here the reasoning behind wanting to take on the
project of building out a whole WIFI network for public consumption?
I'm curious what made you decide to go this route.
-Mike
Yes, particularly since Clearwire is doing just exactly this (for a fee,
of course), and they are one of the 800lb gorillas of the wireless
industry. I've thought of building a WISP for the London Rd. area, south
of Cottage Grove, where I live. The options here are satellite or
dial-up. I've gone as far as counting mailboxes and doing shadow map
studies given I put a transmitter on a small tower at the highest point
on my property. It all comes back to some basic economics: equipment
costs money, backhaul links cost money, my time costs money. I've talked
to both the front office people and some engineers at Clearwire and the
claim is that they're extending their Eugene market as far south as
Cottage Grove (and not extending it much farther north from Roseburg).
The only logical place for the transmitter will cover the densest part
of London Rd., as well as Cottage Grove proper. I just wouldn't be able
to compete with them and break even.
I guess the point of this is to say, good luck, but I think it's a very
expensive proposition, and that if you do get something going, people
will be happy to use your network up until the point your upstream
provider takes an interest in the amount of traffic going over your
connection and cuts you off, or insists that you pay a business rate,
and you find you have to pass that on to your users. YMMV.
Plus, Springfield is largely a suburban setting with a modest population
density. Even if you had 3 linux/wifi geeks on each block running
repeaters, I don't think you would get useful coverage with consumer
wifi equipment except in the downtown area. Downtown Portland, the U of
O area, maybe. Springfield or north Eugene with all those ranch houses,
I don't think so.
J. Toman
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