How do I get into ISP business?

Volitics

Hello;

Can anybody tell me how I can make a little extra money selling user dial-up Internet access services?

Would I need to buy my own equipment or would it be best to sub contract equipment from a company.

What I'm doing now is just starting to research the idea and need information.

I would appreciate any information that anyone would provide.

Thanks.

drawmack

Big initial investment in that here's some of what you'll need:

t3 (at the minimum)
email server
modem rack (with as many modems as you want customers)
radius server

and some other stuff too like a bunch of phone lines set up on a roll over for your dial up number.

Volitics

That's what I was thinking.

Do you have any suggestions about where I might go looking for companies that would sell the equipment - or where I might could look to find used equipment?

Also, in order to have the t3 connection I would have to have a location near a trunkline. I live in a medium-size city (Knoxville, TN). This city is not exactly a communications hub. How would I go about looking to find an Internet trunkline?

I know that there's at least one small-time ISP in this city. Understandably, they would not tell me anything.

Thanks.

drawmack

For the t3 contact your local phone company.

For the other stuff you'll have to do your own research, sorry.

Volitics

I did a search on the eBay. There are used Lucent modems there.

From just looking at it briefly it would take BIG $$'s to get into.

Thanks for the help.

LordShryku

If it were cheap, you'd have small time ISP's everywhere :p

Consider though, that the modems are a one-time purchase, beyond replacements/upgrades. The bandwidth is where the money will be drained. Plus, dial up is really coming close to outdated, so it's a risky investment anymore.

drawmack

Now if you really want bleeding edge then get a contract with your municipality to provide wireless internet access to a section of town and then charge people by the minute for the time they spend accessing it. Set it up somewhere where there will be alot of people with wireless capabilities.

Volitics

That's another option that I've been pondering.

I've got a small Internet local news portal that I'm developing.

http://www.theknoxvillelibertarian.com

I started learning PHP a couple of years ago. I've been chipping away at my web site for about a year. LordShryku may remember me. I've been asking questions here for a long time. He has been kind enough to help me a lot.

I've got a backend user management system just about complete.

My next problems are: 1). how do I get folks to visit my news service web site? 2). how can I make a profit off of all this hard work that I've done?

That's what has got me to thinking about Internet access. If I were to have ISP customers then I would have a captive market for my news service.

Eventially, I want to add video news reports for my web site so the wireless and broadband options might be a natural progression.

drawmack

You get visitors the same way any brick and mortar business gets them, advertise.

You make money by selling advertising once you've got good traffic ratios. You can also charge for portions of the site, like the video feeds you were talking about.

BuzzLY

Originally posted by Volitics
If I ere to have ISP customers then I would have a captive market for my news service.

Careful with this... I wouldn't think of them as a "captive" audience. But at least you can make them aware of your service when they sign up, and you can make your news portal their initial home page. Other than that, you don't want to force your news site on them.