Newbie Intro - Rural Broadband

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linbug

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#29526 10-Jan-2009 15:52

Hello all. I'm not actually especially tech-savvy, so maybe I don't belong in this forum. However I thought nothing ventured ...
We are interested to find out if it is feasible/possible to supply broadband to our future rural neighbours. The property is about 500m above sea level, and has quite wide line of sight views. Any chance we can stick an antenna/dish up somewhere, and make some money from it? Your feedback welcomed.

nate

6473 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 458

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#188669 10-Jan-2009 22:15

Welcome!

In answering you query, if you have broadband, you could set up a line-of-sight wireless link between your home and your neighbours. They would then share you connection, this will be expensive though (better than nothing). You may also want to start this as a new topic to get more ideas from our GZ members (not everyone watches this particular forum).

MacDude123

20 posts

Geek

#188711 11-Jan-2009 07:36

Welcome to Geekzone! I too am a newbie. I have some experience at computers and most other tech stuff. I agree with the last reply. Wi-Fi (Wireless) You can be the administrator of a mini network and just have about 3 or 4 wireless hotspots to share around your neighbourhood. Possibly have file sharing and maybe a shared printer. If you spend wisely you could get a few Wi-Fi bases and a couple of Ethernet cables to connect the hotspots. And possibly a satellite dish to get hi-speed broadband.

linbug

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#188733 11-Jan-2009 10:11

Thanks Nate and Mac. I obviously haven't given enough info, in that I'm reasonably sure that there will be no adequate broadband service up there. In other words I'd be using some sort of satellite link, would I?
Anyway, I'll follow your excellent suggestion, and open it as a separate topic. Thanks again.

alexx

867 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 291

#188750 11-Jan-2009 11:29

If you are going to offer broadband to your neighbours, then you need to cost the entire project, including capital costs (mast, radio equipment, standby power, resource consent, etc) and operating costs (electricity, maintenance, payments to your upstream provider, legal and accounting costs, etc) and consider how many customers do you need to connect to your system to make it viable.

You might want to consider how much your own time is worth too... especially when the neighbour rings up at 2am and complains they can't get the streaming video to the football match they were watching.

Then you need to make sure you can offer a better deal to your neighbours than any other option available, because unless your neighbours are living in a cave, Satellite plans are an option for them too.

http://www.nzconnection.net/Internet_Plan_and_Pricing_Comparisons:_Satellite_plans