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Quick question - anyone here operating or working for a WISP?
This may not be directly related to LEB's, but it's a web-based service as well, that may be add value to existing LEB services.. So I would just like to know:
- If some people here run a Wireless ISP (WISP) or a hotspot business as well
- Where are you located?
- What is the current infrastructure/device setup?
- Do you offer LEB's as an added value?
- How long have you been operating, and how many subscribers?
Comments
I am offering free wireless access in my area.
I am located in Bucharest.
I have a panel 10 db antenna on the house PoE, signal is good enough for normal devices to access it for some 200 m through obstacles, much more on line of sight, after that you can use antennas and amplifiers. I am thinking to add a repeater at my other home close. Standard 2.4 Ghz, 54 mbps. So far everything is routed over Tor but I plan to give clear access in the future. Apart from Tor latency I do not impose any speed limit other than the 54 mbps "wire" speed.
It is up for a few months, probably from late summer/early autumn. I see traffic all the time, some 3-4 connections are almost permanent, many more from time to time, seen at most 29. Judging from signal strength and speeds, some are located far or have very crappy gear.
Just found out how to locate you. NSA alerted.
Yes, send the drones I just renewed house insurance after the small earthquake this morning
Sounds like a good insurance tagline right there: "Send in the drones, I'm insured" ~Maounique
Lucky neighbors. A free service is often a good first step to running a commercial business later on :P . But I'm just curious -- what is the average internet service package (speed/ bandiwdth, etc.) there in Bucharest?
I am trying to setup a Wifi Hotspot business. Almost finished, doing debugging and testing right now.
Using the following:
Having some issues with clients logging in (sometimes it works at one go, sometimes the user needs to enter username & passwords multiple times for it to login)
If you are asking what i can get on the market, my current main connection is 1gbps pppoe best effort for some 12 Eur. You can get clear channel 1 gbps fiber MAN and 500 mbps external for some 75 Eur.
There are many offers inbetween, all more expensive per mbps,
However, there are many people which cannot buy Internet because are not registered at that address, it is a very wide problem here as paperwork is big and once registered it is not easy to kick the tenant. So, they are either happy with 3g/4g or use neighbour's connection or some wild-cat semi-legal "neighborhood ISP".
I offer it free because I can, and plan to offer direct access because it should not be illegal. For that will need a special contract in company name though, residential customers are not allowed to share. I will just put a website with an ad and name the AP(s) with that url so I will say I am advertising my company offering free service.
Change website's Adsense ids with your Adsense id.
That would drive you directly into jail.
wow. i know it is not a good intention but what is the legal basis? is it described in laws?
Yes it's called privacy of correspondence, posts and telecommunications and is a criminal act in any European country.
@drukpa First, change your router to a Mikrotik one. That's more professional even if it's very cheap.
Well good luck in the new business. The WISP industry is booming right now, especially with a lot of content companies moving from cable to the web.
-- very good recommendation. Mikrotik is affordable, and is reliable for these types of setup. Plus a lot of software for ISP management work great with Mikrotik.
@Drukpa, how big is your market by the way? Where are you starting your business, and how many subscribers in your area? Any competition that you know of?
By the way, were you able to resolve your issue with the customer getting booted out now and then?
Lastly, billing will be a big issue for a wifi hotspot model. Once income starts pouring in, and once you have a sure customer-base, then go with an ISP billing software you're comfortable with. I'm not sure if WHMCS has a feature that could adapt to a wifi hotspot setup, but I'm currently using and am a fan of UBO 6. They have a 90-day free trial. You can give it a try.
Thank you for the suggestion/advise. My market is small and is mainly aimed at hotels/restaurants/cafes who are planning to offer internet to their users. Hoping to get about 50 clients to start with, with each paying around 150-200$ per year for around 20 users/vouchers for each client.
Have been playing with Linksys routers with dd-wrt firmware(Chillispot), and it seems chillispot is quite limited and prone to errors and bugs.
Which microtik router would you suggest. My clients would not be eager to shell out large sums of money upfront. The linksys router model I have been testing on costs around 100$.