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FCC official broadband number is 25Mbs per household. I, personally, think a good number is whatever is enough to sustain productivity, entertainment, and education - so about 5 down/2 up a person (obviously, more is better). In a household with 5 people, that is 25/10, which does fit into the FCC's definition. WISPs are popping up left and right that can do 1000/1000 per access point, which can be shared with all customers within about a 500ft radius. That's definitely doable with the above definiton of broadband. Basically, it's one wifi-based access point that has a uplink, and each household has an externally mounted wifi antenna that then redistributes to a conventional home router. On the other hand, I personally have a WISP in a dense urban area. I pay $45~/mo for guaranteed 100/100 - usually, my sustained speeds are closer to 200/200, or 300/300. It's an antenna on our building that is the backhaul for about 50 households. WISPs are viable in rural areas - they bring broadband to those who can't get it. WISPs are viable in urban areas - regions where installing new copper or fiber would be prohibitively expensive, they allow upstarts to challenge the duopoly. Just about the only awkward middle ground where the economics get a little tough is in spread suburban areas. |