Something that I may want to look into sometime...

I stumbled upon this. Speakeasy actually supports sharing your broadband with your neighbors giving them it for a low price and reducing your price in the process. The only type of connection they have available to me is T1. Their T1 costs $359 a month (around half of what I thought it would be). I think I was actually thinking of Bonded T1 (more than one line combined into one) when I was thinking of the price before. This actually sounds more attractive than getting a WildBlue Enterprise account ($200 for 38GB a month download and 10GB a month upload).

I would need to get gear from a place like here. Question is.. would a single 1.5Mbps T1 line be enough to share with a few neighbors? I'm thinking it's probably a more reliable and consistent 1.5Mbps and it's also probably synchronous with the uploads. If I charge 9 people $40 a month I should be able to make $360 a month.

Now only if I could find 9 people and get money for the initial investment in the line and necessary hardware.... it wouldn't work to invest in it and not have enough people to sign up. They advertise in their brochure that the user can get broadband for as low as $20 a month. I'd have to sign up 16 people other than myself to cover the cost of the T1 line at that price. That means less bandwidth per person. I'd rather go with $40 x 9 (including myself if I have to). They say they handle the billing. If they charged each user just $20 when using a T1 line making their part be $180 and stuck me with the rest (the other half) that wouldn't work out as well.

Of course with $40 x 9 people I'd pretty much only break even so it wouldn't be good as a business. Hmmm.....

Something that I may want to look into sometime...

I stumbled upon this. Speakeasy actually supports sharing your broadband with your neighbors giving them it for a low price and reducing your price in the process. The only type of connection they have available to me is T1. Their T1 costs $359 a month (around half of what I thought it would be). I think I was actually thinking of Bonded T1 (more than one line combined into one) when I was thinking of the price before. This actually sounds more attractive than getting a WildBlue Enterprise account ($200 for 38GB a month download and 10GB a month upload).

I would need to get gear from a place like here. Question is.. would a single 1.5Mbps T1 line be enough to share with a few neighbors? I'm thinking it's probably a more reliable and consistent 1.5Mbps and it's also probably synchronous with the uploads. If I charge 9 people $40 a month I should be able to make $360 a month.

Now only if I could find 9 people and get money for the initial investment in the line and necessary hardware.... it wouldn't work to invest in it and not have enough people to sign up. They advertise in their brochure that the user can get broadband for as low as $20 a month. I'd have to sign up 16 people other than myself to cover the cost of the T1 line at that price. That means less bandwidth per person. I'd rather go with $40 x 9 (including myself if I have to). They say they handle the billing. If they charged each user just $20 when using a T1 line making their part be $180 and stuck me with the rest (the other half) that wouldn't work out as well.

Of course with $40 x 9 people I'd pretty much only break even so it wouldn't be good as a business. Hmmm.....

Something that I may want to look into sometime...

I stumbled upon this. Speakeasy actually supports sharing your broadband with your neighbors giving them it for a low price and reducing your price in the process. The only type of connection they have available to me is T1. Their T1 costs $359 a month (around half of what I thought it would be). I think I was actually thinking of Bonded T1 (more than one line combined into one) when I was thinking of the price before. This actually sounds more attractive than getting a WildBlue Enterprise account ($200 for 38GB a month download and 10GB a month upload).

I would need to get gear from a place like here. Question is.. would a single 1.5Mbps T1 line be enough to share with a few neighbors? I'm thinking it's probably a more reliable and consistent 1.5Mbps and it's also probably synchronous with the uploads. If I charge 9 people $40 a month I should be able to make $360 a month.

Now only if I could find 9 people and get money for the initial investment in the line and necessary hardware.... it wouldn't work to invest in it and not have enough people to sign up. They advertise in their brochure that the user can get broadband for as low as $20 a month. I'd have to sign up 16 people other than myself to cover the cost of the T1 line at that price. That means less bandwidth per person. I'd rather go with $40 x 9 (including myself if I have to). They say they handle the billing. If they charged each user just $20 when using a T1 line making their part be $180 and stuck me with the rest (the other half) that wouldn't work out as well.

Of course with $40 x 9 people I'd pretty much only break even so it wouldn't be good as a business. Hmmm.....