Comment

Comment by mildlyclassic

90% of the cost of being an ISP comes from laying the core underground fiber network that serves as the backbone of the system. This usually costs anywhere from $30k - $50k per kilometre to lay because it involves digging trenches, getting permits, etc. It takes about $50M to deploy a basic network in a city like Bangalore for example - we know from our existing ISP partners that this is a reasonable figure.

The fact that we are using FSOC to replace the underground fiber is what creates the 10x in savings. It only takes a few hundred FSOC units to do the job of the fiber as the core network and is much, much cheaper.

I've added a reply further down the page that addresses why we'd like the public to be involved, I'd be happy to elaborate more if you've got more questions.

Discussion

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton