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Man who built ISP instead of paying Comcast $50K expands to hundreds of homes

(arstechnica.com)
1135 points carride | 3 comments | 10 Aug 22 13:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.428s | source
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samwhiteUK ◴[10 Aug 22 13:45 UTC] No.32411821[source]▶
I'm going to put my hand up and say I have absolutely no idea how an ISP works. He runs cables to each house in the area... now where does the other end go?
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wil421 ◴[10 Aug 22 14:19 UTC] No.32412399[source]▶
Depending on how close they are he could run cables (ethernet) or fiber. Single mode fiber can go 10km according to some Ubiquiti spec sheets I found on google. Ubiquiti also sells AirMax products that can do PTP or PTMP over the air, although some will be affected by rain. They could even rent space from a radio/cell tower. There are probably a decent amount of other products out there I am only familiar with Ubiquiti.
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nixgeek ◴[10 Aug 22 14:29 UTC] No.32412590[source]▶
You can shoot light over SM at distances up to 200km (several important caveats at this distance) and it’s very usual to see spans of between 50-80km.
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1. wil421 ◴[10 Aug 22 14:41 UTC] No.32412785[source]▶
Looking further you can get a UFiber OLT Terminal for $1,799 that can run 20km and support 1024 clients or 128 ONU CPEs per port.

How much would a 200km switch run?

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2. Nikbul ◴[10 Aug 22 15:39 UTC] No.32413814[source]▶
At this distance you would want a good repeater at about half point instead. Don't forget that data has to travel back and other side might not have such a strong signal
3. iptrans ◴[10 Aug 22 18:48 UTC] No.32416721[source]▶
The switch does not care what kind of optics you use. You can use a $50 switch is you like.

The 200 km optics, however, cost about a grand each.