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Re:Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is do... by sbr464 on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @03:45AM (#18013326)
Just a side note while I was reminiscing about the pain of being an ISP. Here's a couple photos of the tower for this project. I got frustrated with satellite internet, and bought a 140' tower from the scrap yard before it was chopped up for about $2k. Got a good deal on some Tranzeo 5.8ghz equipment from a cable company and the learning experience commenced. I think I was 23 in that photo.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yoBltbqtUWMN-cHMsHTd...

Re:Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is do... by benbristow on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @04:25AM (#18013480)
Sounds like an interesting story. You should write an article or something. I'm interested and I'm sure some other folk here would be too!
Re:Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is do... by sbr464 on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @04:37AM (#18013511)
Thanks, I do need to!

Funny thing, it was located on the same road where Tabasco sauce is made. I'm sure a tour bus passenger or two randomly caught me standing on top doing the (Brazilian) Christ the Redeemer (statue) pose.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_the_Redeemer_(statue)

Re:Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is do... by pathseeker on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @04:42AM (#18013536)
>Got a good deal on some Tranzeo 5.8ghz equipment from a cable company and the learning experience commenced.

Did you have to get a license to operate on 5.8ghz in your country? If so, what was the process like to get one with permission to offer commercial service?

Re:Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is do... by sbr464 on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @04:51AM (#18013573)
I didn't have to (USA). You were able to offer 900mhz, 2.4ghz, 5.8ghz without a license. There are regulations on total output power of a device, which comes from the antenna's dB gain and the output power of the wireless radio inside. I believe there are other higher bands that are unlicensed, but I didn't use those. I built a lot of the equipment using m0n0wall/soekris/pcengines gear.
Re:Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is do... by pathseeker on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @08:14PM (#18020560)
>I didn't have to (USA). You were able to offer 900mhz, 2.4ghz, 5.8ghz without a license.

Ah, sorry brainfart on my part, I didn't realize you were doing standard wifi. I always think of 802.11A(C) space as just 5GHz when it covers basically all of 5-6GHz. (For anyone interested: this has a nice list of channels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels )

Re:Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is do... by sbr464 on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @04:53AM (#18013586)
You can find a lot of info online, since it's one of the easiest way to start an ISP in a rural location. Google for WISP forums.

If I did it again, in a very rural area, I would look into licensed 4G/5G vs traditional wifi.

Re:Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is do... by pathseeker on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @08:10PM (#18020536)
>If I did it again, in a very rural area, I would look into licensed 4G/5G vs traditional wifi.

I was looking into this same thing (rural with low subscriber numbers) a few years ago. The costs of 4G and equipment for it were obscene compared to putting up ubiquiti equipment on 5g band.

Re:Research shows that nearly every U.S. cell provider is do... by sbr464 on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @09:06PM (#18028944)
Have you checked out LimeSDR? There are a few software defined radio platforms that also have an open source community. I was thinking along those lines.