Why won't a West Coast ISP work?

Hammerer:
quickymart:
DonGould: Why would a west coast based ISP not work?

The biggest issue is the low population density, spread out over a vast area, and highly rural. Yes, I know wireless might work - but you would need to cover an area the distance from Auckland to Wellington, with only around 30 000 people: the population of Timaru. It's not all flat smooth land either - quite hilly and mountainous in parts - so another difficulty for wireless service. The setup costs alone would be extremely high - and most people in the towns can already get a reasonable ADSL service.

I'll up the population to at least 37,000 people which doesn't change the economic and topographical challenges.

If you think the west cost has topographical issue with regards to an ISP then save yourself and dont look at Northland.

The west coast has some difficult challenges but the land isn't really one of them, Atleast not to any WISP or Network Operator that has dealt with other parts of the country, The biggest challenge will be the temp's.

Ideally to keep opex cost's down you'd build your own back hauling infrastructure along the coast which can involve transmission at 3000ft, Given Westport has an average low of 4-7 degree's in winter at 3000ft this would be -2 to +1 degrees before wind factors. Cheap wireless like UBNT wouldn't last in this environment when you consider the temp, rain's and wind's involved, As such there would be a higher than normal capex cost due to transmission sites requires aircon and greater battery backup systems, If the site has no mains which can be expect in many sites then larger than normal solar installations with complex mounting systems would be required.

Higher than normal rainfall means any wireless links would have to be shorter than you would otherwise be able to do with the same gear elsewhere, Normally a CPE to AP link could be up to 30km in length while still providing a wire-speed of 20+mbit. I personally wouldn't want to do a link longer than 15km in this environment for the CPE to AP, Backhauling link's could be normal but would require special considerations to counter for icing conditions that would occur.

National backhaul would be the main opex cost involved in providing better than RBI level services to clients in and around the main towns/settlements along the west coast but this would change since UFB services into Greymouth would require a decent backhaul to CHCH anyway. This should drop backhaul prices into the area but by how much I'm unsure.

The viability of the entire project would pretty much hinge on the price of getting data out of the area, The challenges in doing a wireless service aren't too extreme but I would want to walk into such a project without $1-2million in my pocket and the idea of a 3-6 year ROI.

This isn't my employers view and I'm not saying my employer has any desire to move into the West Coast, It's just a realistic viewpoint from someone who's built wireless networks to provide internet into areas much, much more challenging than the Westcoast

Hammerer

insane

Beccara

wjw

DonGould

Beccara