LebGeeks

moecharanek

Member

starting small Internet reseller in a village

hello guys,

I would like to ask about opening a small wireless internet reseller business in a village. anyone is into this business? how about it? how about the equipment needed? cost? maintenance? subscribers? best ISP to get from ? detailed equipment solution to receive internet from an ISP and transmit it or broadcast it in the village

please if anyone can help it would be great!

vlatkozelka

Member

Re: starting small Internet reseller in a village

Well do you know how these networks work in the first place? If not then get someone to do it for you, because most of these businesses die out cause their owners/technicians cannot maintain them. I'm talking from experience because I used to work at an ISP.

You also need to make sure, as always with Lebanon, that you aren't crossing someone else's territory.

What we used to do, is receive Internet from the ISP by cable to a server, at a high up building. On the roof of that building you'd need to put access points.

Access points come in many shapes, and they each serve a different purposes. They mainly are formed of a board, a wireless controller (a sort of chip you insert to the board), and an antenna.

Example: a Microtik + Ubiquity wireless controller  + a Grid as an antenna.

The board and chip will determine mostly the bandwidth than they can handle, the features , etc... The antenna will mostly determine the range, how much interference can be tolerable (you usually need direct line of sight), the angle of propagation (Grids I think are the narrowest, the signal comes out in a very narrow angle)

Some access points come in a compact shape, meaning all 3 components in a compact "box", say like the Ubiquitti Nanostation.These work great for the receiver end => you customer.

To sum up:

- Get internet connection to a high up building
- Build a tower on that building, unless not needed (if your building is higher than anything else in the village, you're in luck)
- Put high end access points on top of your building/tower, and connect these to your server
- Connect users to the network by placing another access point on their end, which can be a lower end one cause it won't need to transfer as much bandwidth as the source.
- Now that you have a network, you can create accounts using your server (how is up to you, there are multiple software that can do that)

good luck

nuclearcat

Member

Re: starting small Internet reseller in a village

- Get internet connection to a high up building
- Build a tower on that building, unless not needed (if your building is higher than anything else in the village, you're in luck)
- Put high end access points on top of your building/tower, and connect these to your server
- Connect users to the network by placing another access point on their end, which can be a lower end one cause it won't need to transfer as much bandwidth as the source.
- Now that you have a network, you can create accounts using your server (how is up to you, there are multiple software that can do that)

good luck

You are giving dangerous advice that might lead guy to jail/heavy fines.

If anybody will complain to ISF and they find wireless equipment operating on your tower without license (license costs more than village by itself), they will fine you ~$10k per each device. Operating outdoor links require DSP license. I said that probably several times on forum.
There is questionable loophole for ISPs to use "unlicensed band", but again it require ISP license, and no new ISP licenses issued anymore.

And worse. Even if you hang ethernet wire from land plot to another land plot - you are violating this outdated law too, and can be fined too, but in this matter there is not much raids (but they happen).
Most of cable providers operating illegally, and their jacked up prices is result of such laws.

So if topic starter can make profit to cover possible fines - worth to do it. He should expect also his compatriots from village will curse him,calling greedy and etc, comparing with ogero, and all that because only way to do it - jacking up prices, to cover possible losses and/or paying DSP to install links.

And last nail - Ogero installing huge amount of LTE across country, and the day they will turn them on (most in such villages) will be last day of business for operators in such villages.

vlatkozelka

Member

Re: starting small Internet reseller in a village

- Get internet connection to a high up building
- Build a tower on that building, unless not needed (if your building is higher than anything else in the village, you're in luck)
- Put high end access points on top of your building/tower, and connect these to your server
- Connect users to the network by placing another access point on their end, which can be a lower end one cause it won't need to transfer as much bandwidth as the source.
- Now that you have a network, you can create accounts using your server (how is up to you, there are multiple software that can do that)

good luck

You are giving dangerous advice that might lead guy to jail/heavy fines.

If anybody will complain to ISF and they find wireless equipment operating on your tower without license (license costs more than village by itself), they will fine you ~$10k per each device. Operating outdoor links require DSP license. I said that probably several times on forum.
There is questionable loophole for ISPs to use "unlicensed band", but again it require ISP license, and no new ISP licenses issued anymore.

And worse. Even if you hang ethernet wire from land plot to another land plot - you are violating this outdated law too, and can be fined too, but in this matter there is not much raids (but they happen).
Most of cable providers operating illegally, and their jacked up prices is result of such laws.

So if topic starter can make profit to cover possible fines - worth to do it. He should expect also his compatriots from village will curse him,calling greedy and etc, comparing with ogero, and all that because only way to do it - jacking up prices, to cover possible losses and/or paying DSP to install links.

And last nail - Ogero installing huge amount of LTE across country, and the day they will turn them on (most in such villages) will be last day of business for operators in such villages.

I'm terribly sorry!
I mentioned the thing about "territory" which matters most in Lebanon. But forgot about the legal side of things... thought he only wanted to know about the technical side.
But to be honest. Like you said, not many raids happen, they usually do when another ISP complains.

Thanks for completing the answer

nuclearcat

Member

Re: starting small Internet reseller in a village

Not when other ISP. In some village several ISPs got raided and severely fined, because some old guy didn't liked antennas on roof and thought they are bringing "radiation" to him, so he sent complaint to ISF, and ISF did their job.
That costed "cable providers" who ran antennas illegally lot of time in courts and approx $30k+ in fines.