[trafficlight]

I feel you. I started a small ISP in Montana a few years ago. We're getting into laying our own duct and fiber.

Once I get the machine running, I want to focus on providing tools and information to others looking to do the same thing.

I've been running a Slack channel called ISP School for about a year now to bring together other interested people. Email me at [e-mail] if anybody wants an invitation.

[pyvpx]

is TSI a CLEC?

[trafficlight]

Nope. We argued that we were providing data services under the FCC definition of utility. The only real person who got in our way was the city attorney. He said that internet didn't qualify as Montana Code (circa 1950) only mentioned telephone and telegraph.

So we registered with the PSC as a telegraph provider...

[tetha]

I mean you have telephony via IP, and I'm sure there's an RFC to telegraphy via IP. So it's not wrong to say you're providing telegraphy. You're just choosing a very ... deep and expensive tech stack to do so.

[MichaelGG]

Awesome. Do you actually have to sell telegram services?

[trafficlight]

Legally, I don't think so. But we did build a little Raspberry Pi based machine with a telegraph key. It needs some more work, but there are people who are legitimately wanting to buy the service.

[neuland]

There are people that want to buy telegraph service?

[trafficlight]

Surprisingly yes. I think it falls into two categories: nostalgia and hipster.

[pyvpx]

I was going to ask about the telegraph part of the name...hah. very interesting!