Re: Googlie Wifi - expanded

>>  Google Muni Wireless, Mountain View, CA, 12 square miles, 15,000
>> users/month, # of Mesh Radios: 400+, my estimate of hardware and
>> installation costs $2,500,000 (this does NOT include any back office,
>> monthly recurring, planning and design or other costs).
>
> Wow.  So it costs $6,250 just to buy and install a mesh radio?
> Wonder how much of that is related to getting power?

That depends very heavily on the radio and where you're mounting it.  
Installing an outdoor meraki mesh radio on a roof would probably cost  
about $300-$400 if you include cost
of hardware and labor. The radio being only $99 of that. If you where  
to mount it on a light pole, you've got to hire a licensed and bonded  
electrician that's approved by the pole owner (city or power co),  
rent a boom truck, and figure out how to get the AC power from the  
cobra head into the unit....

A proxim mesh radio install would likely be closer to $2500-ish to  
install.

Installing a Tropos, SkyPilot, or Cisco mesh radio would be closer to  
Rick's estimation. Considering that Portland is using Sky Pilot and  
Google is using Tropos, it's likely pretty close to the actual cost.  
The other cost to figure in here is the backbone and other  
infrastructure that goes into a network of this size. You'll need  
significant fiber or microwave assets to push your data around (the  
mesh simply won't handle it all).

> During the Bubble, ISPs were valued on a $/subscriber basis.  I'll  
> have
> to look up the old numbers and see where MetroFi would stack up.

We still use very similar numbers and that value/customer depends  
highly on what income they bring you every month and how long they're  
contracted.
If it's a residential user, it's not likely to be valued much higher  
than $100-$200. Business customers are obviously worth quite a bit more.

>>  Having PTP assist the city of Portland in providing free WiFi  
>> coverage in
>> selected areas of Portland, as was done in the Mississippi  
>> project, would
>> and should be an option worth discussing. It would also require a  
>> larger
>> commitment on the part of PTP and volunteers.
>
> Very much so.  I'd imagine it'd actually take paid staff.

Or a handful of VERY dedicated volunteers (eg. Clones of Russell/ 
Caleb/Michael/etc)

Tyler Booth // President
ph. 503.548.2000 | fx. 503.548.2002
921 SW Washington St, Suite 224
Portland OR 97205

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