Community Internet
Discussion
ideas for Rodmell (possibly including Piddinghoe & Northease)
To give you some ways how we can help you to get wireless
broadband up and running rapidly... a few alternative funding methods. We
build our own kit and at the mo can get gateway nodes up for around £90-£100.
Standard price £140 but at mo have managed to secure some cheaper one off
stock... so can do pc/card and aerial for £100. Cables, poles brackets etc
on top... depends on how we have to fit.
So for each node or repeater need approx £140
for each box of tricks. Erection of mast allow £70-£95. End users
depending on proximity and their laptop/pc may need to spend £20 to £60 for
cards/small masts to actually connect.
End club users pay £6.95 a month to surf. £5 goes
back to the node owner
How are boxes funded? Either if the club buys, then
the users subs will all go to the club to pay for the box ... or
Various models exist ... in some areas we supply
both boxes and internet connection. All you supply is the electricity,
telephone line, location and moral support. Club takes all the fees.
Another more successful way is each gateway owner
buys own box for £140 or £175 for a 2 card
box and supplies internet him/her self. If with a directional arial on the
second card the cost for a 2 card box with 2 aerials without fittings will
be about £225. A half decent line will
be costing about £25 a month. Can buy annual deals from people like E7even.com
for a lot less....
This gives node/hotspot owner incentive to gain users!
If he/she can get say 6 users a month, 6 x £5 is £30. Internet costing him
£25 for example ... so he will pay for initial set up in 10 months.... However
there are other ways to look at it. Some businesses want advertising so pay
costs to erect the hotspot... or as a community gesture. I personally put
up several nodes locally myself just to get the venture off the ground! I
wasnt thinking of financial reward... same has happened in other areas. Maybe
in Rodmell there are 1 or 2 generous villagers who would support such a project?
We are not talking of a lot of money
Could be a village project, even a grant from parish
council of say £300 could get 3 hotspots up using existing broadband locations.
You could have 3 spots this week end if you wanted!! Owner of existing broadband
line would then gain £5 for every user of club using his line a month... All
is automatic, users sign up and pay all automatically....
My/our time.... we are all unpaid volunteers but we
try to make a little on building/supplying the equipment if we can. We build
the pc's ourselves and we can provide local IT support if necessary afterwards.
Our system allows all users/owners access rights to
surf off any of our SussexNetShare nodes. If you have a laptop/pda you can
use in Hastings, Lewes, Chailey or any of our node locations. Our furthest
one is in Colchester, but some are going up in
Regards,
Ian Salmon
Co-founder SussexNetShare.net