Wireless Internet Service Providers

In addition to providing Internet service just to the Marquess residence, Telegia has also proposed using my tower to create a "micro-POP", by adding additional antennas on my tower to provide 2.4GHz Wi-Fi service to the immediate neighborhood. 2.4GHz is the traditional "Wi-Fi" frequency band, and the standard configuration of three sector or panel antennas in what is called an "ABC" configuration would occupy all three independent channels within the 2.4GHz band. That may well conflict with other local Wi-Fi usage, in particular current customers of the incumbent WISP.

The "ABC" configuration of three sector (panel) antennas would provide up to 360° coverage at a range of up to a mile, thus including the houses along Mount Ephraim Road, the half dozen or so houses to the north-east of us (the ones on Stewart Hill Road), and at least some of the houses on Ira Sears Road. Those really close (like Kristen & Orlando, Sarah & Didi, the Lapsas, the Dankos) probably can get a good connection right from their Wi-Fi client devices (laptops, access points, etc.) and won't need any CPE gear ("Customer Premises Equipment", i.e. a radio+antenna unit on the roof or outside wall). Those further away will need the CPE radio, just like they have now with the incumbent WISP, but still be only one hop from the micro-POP. Further than that will mean bouncing the signal through multiple hops, from the tower to one CPE to another and so on as is currently done. Those extra hops inevitably degrade the quality of the Wi-Fi service, as do obstructions (foliage) between any two nodes.

BTW I'm a little skeptical of the one mile estimate, even though Telegia has been here and seen the terrain and as a WISP should be in a position to know. 2.4GHz will do fine for 1/2 mile or more in clear air (direct line of sight), but I don't think any house 1/2 mile away is going to have that in this terrain. I think that was the primary reason I found the incumbent WISP Wi-Fi inadequate; they tried linking to both the Lankfords node and Kristen's, but we didn't have unobstructed line-of-sight to either even 60' up my current tower.

Note the WISP managing the micro-POP doesn't have to be Telegia and I have no particular affiliation or affection for them beyond a favorable impression from some research and our interactions to date. Unfortunately, the incumbent WISP has confirmed that they have no interest in filling that role. That leaves Telegia as the WISP of choice for my Wi-Fi service and for the micro-POP.

So, that leaves an open question for the neighborhood. We'll all be better off using the same WISP, but will all of the neighbors in near proximity to this tower want to use Telegia as their WISP? Some minimal level of community consensus is necessary because neither Telegia nor us will want to host a micro-POP that isn't wanted. I won't need it for my Internet access. Telegia claims they're not interested in picking a fight with the incumbent WISP, and that our micro-POP won't be hugely lucrative for them in any event. If they don't think they have a good chance of signing up at least a half dozen customers they probably won't be interested in installing the additional hardware needed for the micro-POP. They could of course install the micro-POP antennas at any future point in time after the tower is up, but only if that tower has sufficient capacity to support them.

Would it make more sense to put this tower somewhere else?

Quite possibly, and I'd be thrilled if someone else wanted to install a tower that would give me solid line-of-sight Wi-Fi service. If anyone's interested I'll be happy to share everything I've learned about towers over weeks of in-depth investigation. But, I suspect I'll be the only one determined (or foolish!) enough to build a suitable tower, for several reasons detailed elsewhere.

Will we have better service than now?

That's hard to say in general. Those half dozen or so houses that will have direct line of sight to the WISP antennas on the new tower will definitely see better performance. I think we'll find another half dozen will have only minimal obstructions and a solid signal. The 2.4GHz Wi-Fi signals degrade rapidly when obstructed with foliage, which in this area is a major problem. Telegia claims that the micro-POP should be usable for anyone within a mile radius of the tower. For those without clear line-of-sight visibility we won't know for sure until the new antennas are operational. However, those far enough away from the tower for that micro-POP to be marginal or unusable will also see correspondingly less interference to their current incumbent WISP service.

What do you (the Marquesses) get out of a micro-POP?

There are pros and cons for us.

On the pro side: It's traditional for a WISP to provide discounted service to the owner of a site used for a micro-POP, so we might save on the $100 monthly cost of our service. However, Telegia has made it clear they consider a micro-POP of only a dozen or so customers economically marginal so that is far from guaranteed. We are cost-justifying construction of the tower on the basis of the T-1 savings and not assuming any rebate on our monthly Wi-Fi cost. We'd have the satisfaction of providing our neighbors with a better opportunity for internet access. I know we're not the only ones dissatisfied with the status quo.

On the con side: The extra antennas that would be needed for this "micro-POP" service collectively add up to a significant portion of the total wind load on the tower. That tower is custom designed for the site and specific antenna load, and the cost is a direct function of that load; the 2.4GHz "micro-POP" antennas will increase the cost by a grand or two over the cost of a tower sized to support only the 5GHz antenna needed for our Wi-Fi service.

With just a 5GHz antenna providing us service our neighbors will be unaffected by any changes we make, from switching to another WISP to decommissioning the tower entirely. But, once a micro-POP is operational we're effectively stuck with it. Suppose, for instance, we find a better deal for us with another WISP; if we switch the backhaul link to that WISP then the micro-POP has to switch with it. A better deal for us won't necessarily be a better deal for the micro-POP customers.
Coordinating with the entire neighborhood and Telegia for a micro-POP is going to take time. Now that we have a permit and a clear understanding of what's involved in building a tower we have a financial incentive to replace our T-1 service with Telegia Wi-Fi sooner rather than later.

No good deed goes unpunished: we may be blamed if anyone ends up with worse service than before, or if anything at all goes wrong anywhere, or just because. On the other hand, if we put up this tower to get high quality internet access for ourselves and didn't host a micro-POP for a WISP willing to provide it we could be blamed for that too ... it's a bit of a lose-lose situation so we'll try to do the right thing even if that means more complications.

Note incidentally that we will have no part of managing the micro-POP; that will be entirely the responsibility of the WISP and any neighbor who chooses to become a customer will deal directly with that WISP (we won't even know who those customers are unless they tell us). A WISP necessarily incurs multiple obligations in that capacity, such as responsibility for what their customers do with their Internet access (DMCA take-downs, legal service, NSLs, and so forth). We will very deliberately have no involvement beyond hosting the WISP managed antennas on our tower.