Tentative discussion about possible SMME centred and WFH ISP

[Paul Hjul]

I cannot overstate how tentative this is but I am looking for brains to pick on a possible starting up of an ISP. Some of you might recall that I was roped into a previous project...

There are a lot of moving parts to this but in essence what I am looking for is some real time present insights. This project while associated with Crystal Web (Pty), which has the licence, will be a different brand and different focus - its actually kicking off from a project that was shelved from the CW plan in early 2017 in favour of the boondoggle that came to be EvoNet.

Within the mantra of an ISP for SMMEs and WorkFromHome what key services are wanted?
Proper bloody email service and Owncloud easy spin up two of the three on my list and the third I am advised can't legally be done.

 

[Paul Hjul]

@Thor I told you I'd let you know if I was thinking in this vain...

 

[slayer]

Static IP address would be a good add on service..

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[Paul Hjul]

Static IP address would be a good add on service..

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Interestingly the provisioning of dynamic public Ipv4 addresses is discounted entirely in the plan - CW has a /18 - and strongly pushing to get away from current inefficiency problem so carrier grade NAT and charged static public Ipv4 is in my thinking.

 

[biometrics]

Personally I just want my ISP to supply me the bandwidth they sold me and then to stay the hell out of my way.

Rain is an example of a shit ISP.

 

[Paul Hjul]

Personally I just want my ISP to supply me the bandwidth they sold me and then to stay the hell out of my way.

Rain is an example of a shit ISP.

by which you mean a big pipe though?

on vuma or OFB you'd be happy to pay for seriously low contention?
similarly on fixed wireless would you be keen on having 100Mbps of international transit provisioned?

 

[biometrics]

by which you mean a big pipe though?

on vuma or OFB you'd be happy to pay for seriously low contention?
similarly on fixed wireless would you be keen on having 100Mbps of international transit provisioned?

No fibre, DSL here where I am. Only WISP and LTE. I'm on Telkom LTE. Most of the time it performs well. When it's contended I get 15-20 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up. When things are quiet I can get 70-80 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up. Either case it works fine for me most of the time.

 

[Thor]

/enters

 

[Johnatan56]

No fibre, DSL here where I am. Only WISP and LTE. I'm on Telkom LTE. Most of the time it performs well. When it's contended I get 15-20 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up. When things are quiet I can get 70-80 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up. Either case it works fine for me most of the time.

Your issue is the tower, not really an issue that exists on most fiber installs.

@Paul Hjul I expect dividends once profits are paid out.

For home stuff, you could probably try "add-on" service, e.g. the static IP thing tied to a DNS, make it easy to get a domain name tied to it for people who want to set up a game server for friends (so their subdomain.yourcompanyaliasdomain.co.za, don't pick your own domain name for that due to ranking, use a e.g. crystalwebgaming or crystalwebhome).
Or quick VPS' that can be spun up for a LAN gaming session (think hamachi) and then discarded afterward (can also tie into subdomain thing).
These all don't really tie into ISP though, since 95% of people just want their home ISP to give them net; they're able to access their e-mail, netflix and youtube and that's enough.

 

[Paul Hjul]

once profits are paid out.....
....
Sure

Once...

 

[biometrics]

Your issue is the tower, not really an issue that exists on most fiber installs.

Sure, I understand radio is limited.

They are installing fibre in Her*anus but they started at Markus Jooste's side of town. Will likely be another 2-3 years before I get. In the mean time LTE works quite well. You can even get 1TB from Telkom for R899 (no multi sim in that case though).

 

[Paul Hjul]

Are you in the CT metro area?

Wireless is a bit of a crap shoot in being undercapacitated and used as a shortcut without using the shortcut as a path to actually get broadband going properly. Telkom for example are being outright regressive with LTE, it's a great long term evolution towards high level broadband but a pretty shitty substitute for fibre or even functioning copper.

Fair disclaimer: if I go the direction of launching there will be instances of 802.11 based fixed wireless in use
Second disclaimer: I've designed and planned several plans for a fixed wireless strategy with indications of the constraints - such as "don't fucking call it fibre" and in one instance after somebody butchered my strategy and removed the warnings they tanked a plan so disastrously that its a shit show.

 

[Paul Hjul]

Okay parts have continued moving, financing (really capital raising) is the biggest challenge. The good news is that a fairly good secured asset has been sorted out - it's been a bloody nightmare of a road but such is life - the question is still largely open (as is the search for investment of no more than 500k but that is a whole different story for an NDA)

What Internet related services that are "local" from a service provider do you think are needed for ordinary SMME/WFH types and power users which are not well served.

 

[Paul Hjul]

Personally I just want my ISP to supply me the bandwidth they sold me and then to stay the hell out of my way.

Rain is an example of a shit ISP.

Had a rather interesting counter rant from a tinkerer in the US on LinkedIn the other day.
ISPs tend to fall into the trap of either wanting to sell a dumb pipe and have the user buying in home hardware without having the ability (or responsibility) at the ISP to do anything or they want to sell a totally locked down walled garden.
Staying out of somebody's way is easy if you are giving them a dumb pipe but they are also then either going to buy a much bigger pipe than they need (paying far too much) or getting an unreliable (contended) pipe. Rain offers the later - they don't get in your way per se they just don't capacitate you.

Anyway feedback (or better yet somebody with the pockets needed) is always sought. Things remain tentative and having spent sporadically the last 3 years playing the long game I am hopeful to be bringing something to the market early next year and to be launching more stuff in March 2022.

 

[SauRoN]

I’ve found “business sponsored” internet connections for home users to be a major problem that no single entity offers and I end up scrambling around between providers to make a plan or end up using consumer products for a lack of options.

It would he really nice to have one party to turn to with a good management console with billing and activation solutions in one place.

It should be as simple as me plugging in an address (via API even more win) and then being shown I can get Fibre/DSL/5G/LTE for X amount and press a button to make it happen.

 

[Johnatan56]

I’ve found “business sponsored” internet connections for home users to be a major problem that no single entity offers and I end up scrambling around between providers to make a plan or end up using consumer products for a lack of options.

It would he really nice to have one party to turn to with a good management console with billing and activation solutions in one place.

It should be as simple as me plugging in an address (via API even more win) and then being shown I can get Fibre/DSL/5G/LTE for X amount and press a button to make it happen.

Afrihost does fiber and DSL AFAIK:

5G you can check Telkom/Rain coverage, same for LTE.

DSL you basically can't install at a new premises for a while now, so can ignore that.

 

[SauRoN]

Afrihost does fiber and DSL AFAIK:
View attachment 28912
5G you can check Telkom/Rain coverage, same for LTE.

DSL you basically can't install at a new premises for a while now, so can ignore that.

You are missing my point.

I want it all under one umbrella without chasing providers myself.


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[Johnatan56]

You are missing my point.

I want it all under one umbrella without chasing providers myself.


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Issue is that the use cases are different and those providers will not get together and help clients there, you'd need a third party query those API's and the chance of the provider allowing it once they get wind of it is pretty low.

 

[SauRoN]

Issue is that the use cases are different and those providers will not get together and help clients there, you'd need a third party query those API's and the chance of the provider allowing it once they get wind of it is pretty low.

You see the likes of Liquid Telecom and Vodacom even come pretty close but then they can’t help in those extreme cases where they don’t have coverage.

Like you say you just need a third party “ISP” that can cover all networks and connectivity types but have a business orientated focus.

I don’t even need bundled pools and all that stuff they love to sell you, I just want easy management and one place to control it.


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[Y2K]

Did anything become of this?