[adamcharnock]

After 15 years as a freelance developer I’ve started a rural wireless ISP. It hasn’t entirely displaced my freelance work, but allows me to help people in a way that being a developer didn’t (tangibly, at least).

Now I install internet access for people, on infrastructure I have built, and I see how happy they are when they go from 2 to 100mbps (this is often in a field in the middle of nowhere). This means they can talk to their families, actually do the work that pays their bills, and just generally entertain themselves.

It is very rewarding. And I know all these people as they are essentially my neighbours.

[civilized]

What an awesome and fascinating thing you're doing! Could you possibly explain at a high level what you had to do to start the ISP and make it accessible in these areas?

[liketochill]

Check out http://dslreports.com/forum/wisp

It is a forum for wireless isps and they talk a lot about the equipment and business of it

[rasengan]

You might find this guide [1] useful as well as the experiences of the poster. Also, I agree, what he does is absolutely amazing.

[1] https://startyourownisp.com/

[tomarr]

Do you expect Starlink (or equivalent) to radically alter this space?

[rubyist5eva]

Congrats, if you don’t mind me asking where do you get the capital to do something like this? Other than “wage slave for a decade and live like a student”.

[spaetzleesser]

That’s the nice thing about a lot of small businesses. The fruit of your work is much more tangible than working at a corporation.

[bahumbug]

I know some people who made millions working the Universal Service Fee system, getting paid gobs of subsidies to provide DSL / wifi to hillbillies in West Virginia. It's like digital gold if you know how to really work the system.

[tata71]

are you friends with 90s-00s Verizon?

Jokes aside, "hillbillies" are people too.

[gremlinsinc]

I've thought of doing something like this in southern Utah ... but we've got 1 gig fiber even in some smaller communities... but there probably are certain places that don't have good coverage..

[barbazoo]

That sounds extremely gratifying, congrats on finding a passion that's so beneficial to the people around you.