How Much Does a WISP Cost?

   Developing a cost model for broadband wireless system is affected by a lot of variables, the three most important ones being:  the existing RF environment, the line-of-sight conditions in your area and the distance between your customers and the base station.

    There many types of equipment that can be deployed to provide broadband wireless service. On the lower end of the price scale is the equipment that doesn't provide a lot of interference management capabilities or noise filters. This type of equipment is used in rural environments where the population density is low and the airwaves don't have a lot of wireless signals traveling around.

    As the noise level increases, however, we will need to use more sophisticated equipment that has the ability to filter out other RF noise and keep your customer's connections robust and reliable.  If you'd like to learn more about the technical details of designing broadband wireless systems you can do so in the BWE Tutorials section.

    Another factor that will impact your network's cost is "line-of-sight." Unlike a car radio or a cell phone, most RF systems that provide broadband wireless connections above 1 megabit-per-second, need line-of-sight.  This means that there needs to be a clear path between the sending antenna and the receiving antenna so that they can "see" each other.  

    However, there is a new crop of equipment manufacturers that have introduced "near line-of-sight" gear that uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) or "mesh networking" to get around obstacles located between two antennas.  Many of these products can be mounted in a window and installed by the customer, which greatly reduces a WISP's customer acquisition cost structure.

    Another important factor is how far the customer is located from the base station where the transmission gear is located. The further out a customer is, the more power and more sensitive your equipment will need to be. Specialized equipment always costs a little extra, so be prepared for higher costs if your customers are located more than 5-10 miles from your base station.

    Based on these variables, a broadband wireless system that supports 100 customers can range from $50,000 to well over $100,000.  The first step is always to get a spectrum analyzer out and see what type of RF traffic already exists in your location.  Once you have determined what type of interference might be in the area, then you can pick out equipment that will provide the best performance in that type of environment.

    BWE's Turnkey WISP packages consist of several baseline pricing and equipment plans for the customer that we use to begin our evaluations.  Our entry level system starts out at $50,000 for a network that will support 60-100 users. 

    To facilitate an open dialogue with BWE about building a WISP, you will be required to execute a Confidentiality Agreement and submit a non-refundable processing fee of $1,000.  If you end up signing a contract with BWE to build out a WISP, you will be credited the same amount back toward the construction of your network.

    Not sure if you want to invest this kind of money? If not, it might be helpful for you to do some research on businesses that have launched broadband wireless systems successfully. A good source for this information is BWE's customer success stories, which are submitted to BWE by leading equipment manufacturers to publish on our web site.  They will give you a good idea of what others have built with broadband wireless technology.

    If you'd like to see a list of WISPs and where they are located, please check out our National Wireless ISP Directory.

    For more information please send an e-mail or call (480) 218-4441 . We would be glad to chat with you about the benefits of bringing high-speed wireless Internet connections to your town or city. And if what we say sounds good, we would be more than happy to work with you on building your first broadband wireless ISP.

   Financing, equipment leasing and government grant writing assistance are available for a fee.

   All manufacturers, consultants, and system integrators are encouraged to join the BWE WISP team.

<= Previous Page |  Next Page =>

Home

What's a WISP? What's in a WISP Package? How will I find customers? Any Support after the Sale? How much?
Consulting Services Point-to-Point Systems  Point-to-Multipoint Systems Wi-Fi HotSpots
Timeline to build a WISP  Approved Products List  Bill of Materials  Top 10 Tips Top 10 Mistakes