How to start a broadband company india??

Hello Friends, I am also planning to start WISP in Bhilai Chhattisgarh Area Covering whole Bhilai Durg District so can anyone provide me good detail about costs of setup and license with infrastructure, i want to become full WISP where i can generate my ISP bandwidth not by leasing someone which force me limited to a boundary,
Thanks AMIT

@asingh601

The cost of infrastructure and setup depends upon how many customers you would want to serve and how far they are spread out. I do not understand what you mean by generating your own ISP bandwidth.

By the way I have lived in Bhilai and Dalli Rajhara when I was in school. I have lots of memories from both the places.

Also depends upon the quality/brand of the hardware and software you use.

Originally Posted by Admin

@asingh601

The cost of infrastructure and setup depends upon how many customers you would want to serve and how far they are spread out. I do not understand what you mean by generating your own ISP bandwidth.

By the way I have lived in Bhilai and Dalli Rajhara when I was in school. I have lots of memories from both the places.

wow i am living from birth in Bhilai and Dalli Rajhara is about 20 km from Bhilai i have went more than 3 times 2 times for picnic and 1 time for brothers wedding.
I want to serve whole district of Bhilai Durg which is about to 30 KM range(Approx may be up or down) on both way towards Raipur and towards Rajnandgaon and By mean of Generating own ISP bandwidth like BSNL Reliance does they make their own bandwidth instead to get rent from another to provide internet service on region.
customer base is about minimum 500 and maximum unlimited.

To plug into the national backbone you would need to spend a lot of money and also the initial investment on different permissions and licenses would make it prohibitory unless you have the funds it would take to get such a project up and running.

My friendly advise to you and all other budding entrepreneurs is to wait until Reliance 4G is launched and to see how competetive the broadband market gets. My own understanding is that Reliance 4G would not have the latency problems like we see on 3G networks and bandwidth capabilities of 4G are also pretty good.

From what I understand the profit margins of local ISP's would shrink in areas where Reliance 4G would be rolled out because of competetion. Monopoly of a cable broadband operator or WISP operator will work until customers dont have an alternative and I see that alternative in Reliance 4G. The amount of funding Reliance has gathered in USD is just mind blowing and they have loads of cash on their books aswell. This gives them a lot of head room as far as price war is concerned.

In my humble opinion this is a time to wait and watch. I may be wrong on this but this is what I believe right now.

If the ROI in broadband business gets lower then what you make by investing in the Nifty index funds in the long run then whats the point?

I hope I make some sense.

Originally Posted by Admin

To plug into the national backbone you would need to spend a lot of money and also the initial investment on different permissions and licenses would make it prohibitory unless you have the funds it would take to get such a project up and running.

My friendly advise to you and all other budding entrepreneurs is to wait until Reliance 4G is launched and to see how competetive the broadband market gets. My own understanding is that Reliance 4G would not have the latency problems like we see on 3G networks and bandwidth capabilities of 4G are also pretty good.

From what I understand the profit margins of local ISP's would shrink in areas where Reliance 4G would be rolled out because of competetion. Monopoly of a cable broadband operator or WISP operator will work until customers dont have an alternative and I see that alternative in Reliance 4G. The amount of funding Reliance has gathered in USD is just mind blowing and they have loads of cash on their books aswell. This gives them a lot of head room as far as price war is concerned.

In my humble opinion this is a time to wait and watch. I may be wrong on this but this is what I believe right now.

You are right Admin sir, Reliance 4G is one of the very and best alternative by peoples after launching but in market there is some expects which may be or may not be cover by 4G that's because of High number of Money invested by Reliance on 4G then the tariff also be higher in starting to coverup their whole investment within next 2yrs, i appreciate your concern & follow your voice but i also waiting for 4G, i have just written the Msg to know about investment which i have to do to start my own full WISP my intention to start this business but not asap as there is lot of factors which can fail my mission and intention peoples are waiting for 4G tariff, i am also start my work after 4G tariff announcement and start service in our area, i am preparing my self to a big movement which i have to take within next 1yrs.

Originally Posted by Admin

If the ROI in broadband business gets lower then what you make by investing in the Nifty index funds in the long run then whats the point?

I hope I make some sense.

I think ROI it less from Nifty but peace of mind to get good service to customers and which peoples who are really want internet like me from home but not avail a good tariff as non availability of good WISP's in our area the most is beacuse Landline company limitation Airtel, Reliance, Hathway they are not got license to provide internet in BSP area as BSP not want to get became BSNL market lower but i and many know BSNL have how much stable net ( on an average 10 days down time and 10 days lower speed then guaranteed no complains entertain by officials). Thats my Intention i want to provide stable net in those area where no net availability because of Cable limitation, and BSP BSNL collaboration.

What is your total budget. How long do you think you can keep going without making a profit. Do you have assets that a bank likes for loan purposes?

I can provide a over view of aprox costs for covering the whole Chattisgarh if you want but me providing a plan for 500Crores capital expenditure is not going to be of any use to you if your budget is only 5 crores and nor would it help if you are working with 5000 crores.

Your question needs to be more specific to get specific answers.

If you are only after a 2.4Ghz BTS then those cost anywhere between 50k to 1.5Lakhs and some even more per peice and you would need atleast 4 for every tower if you want to cover 180degrees. These only when there is line of sight. CPE costs vary depending upon the brand and quality. You can get one for even 500Rs but decent ones would cost anywhere between 1.5k to 7k. Prices also vary a lot depending on how much you buy and where you buy from.

If you are looking for say more then 10k quantity then give me a shout I can help you find people who would give you a better deal.

Cost of the tower will depend upon the height and material you use. Anywhere between 2Lakh to 5 Lakhs or may be a little more if you build on ground as opposed to building on top of a building.

Originally Posted by Admin

What is your total budget. How long do you think you can keep going without making a profit. Do you have assets that a bank likes for loan purposes?

I can provide a over view of aprox costs for covering the whole Chattisgarh if you want but me providing a plan for 500Crores capital expenditure is not going to be of any use to you if your budget is only 5 crores and nor would it help if you are working with 5000 crores.

Your question needs to be more specific to get specific answers.

If you are only after a 2.4Ghz BTS then those cost anywhere between 50k to 1.5Lakhs and some even more per peice and you would need atleast 4 for every tower if you want to cover 180degrees. These only when there is line of sight. CPE costs vary depending upon the brand and quality. You can get one for even 500Rs but decent ones would cost anywhere between 1.5k to 7k. Prices also vary a lot depending on how much you buy and where you buy from.

If you are looking for say more then 10k quantity then give me a shout I can help you find people who would give you a better deal.

Cost of the tower will depend upon the height and material you use. Anywhere between 2Lakh to 5 Lakhs or may be a little more if you build on ground as opposed to building on top of a building.

total budget yet not decided and also no loan problem my father is working on BSP Plant so loan about 40Lakh from Banks will be granted and from Ispat Karamchari Bank 30Lakh will be there so total is about 70lakh maximum loan available but it will be taken after full knowledge, about spending's i can manage without profit for as long as my fathers job (which is about 8yrs remaining) but i want to start within a city; i have a bit small question what about mobility like MTS if say CDMA band 800MHz EVDO 14MBPS BTS license what about its cost will it be on 70Lakhs? i heard that mostly providers have to bid and pay license 10% after that EMI?

You cannot operate with 800Mhz as that spectrum comes at a cost and even the caution money to participate in that bidding process is a lot more then your total budget.

Madhya pradesh and Chattisgarh are both under one circle and the cost of 8ooMhz spectrum runs into few hundred crores.

With the budget you have I would not recommend spending more then Rs10Lakhs on setting up your business (Excluding the premises which can be rented). Getting your own bandwidth and then reselling by making your own plans sounds all rosy and doable but when you have a 10Mbps or a 20meg line you will have a fixed cost to pay every month. Your capacity wont be utilized enough to make you money in the beginning.

WISP sounds all high tech and problem free with no cables running to the customers place but to tell you the truth cables are a lot more stable and reliable provided you know how to water proof the joints and use a good quality cable. Cables will also cost a lot less as compared to setting up your tower with BTS on top.

I am a very shrewd business man when it comes to making financial decisions and to me the romance of enabling people while making money and providing opportunities and all those romantics sound idiotic. When you are out in the market to make money you gotta leave the romance at home.


I have helped a few people in Himachal and Uttrakhand to set up wisp with only a very few customers using cable but that was due to hilly terrain and setting up a tower on one hill top covers a massive area as properties that are on slopes facing the hill top with the tower on would always have a clear LOS and it works very well. The costs are high and margins lower as compared to some cable broadband providers I know so I dont understand your fixation with wireless.

--------------------------

Having said all the above, You are looking for the price and know how so here it is :

For wireless your only option in that budget is 2.4Ghz which does not require any license. With the budget you have you wont be able to buy a 1Gbps fiber running into your premises get a franchise from the likes of Hathway or Worldphone. Worldphone is better in my opinion but a little costlier.

It would work out a lot cheaper to work with only cable even if you hire someone to keep network maintained who would run around with ladder to repair any broken cables or joints.

You want wireless so please let me know where do you want to set up the tower on ground or on top of a building and how tall the building is. BTS would cost you less then 5Lakhs for all 4 of them for the first tower that will cover about 750-800 metres with clear line of sight. CPE would cost you around Rs900-1500 per piece for a local no name brand. Franchise business will cost you less in the beginning but once you have say 800-1000 customers then you can switch by buying a dedicated line from two ISPs (you cannot operate a reliable business with just one provider so you need two atleast) and start selling your own plans.

To find out how much it would cost to join the franchise network give a call to Hathway or Worldphone and they will let you know what they require in your area.

Do let me know if I can be of more help on this.

Appreciate your post and knowledge ; Few Hundred Crores that was so so so much... My first local then circle is a good decision, I can setup WISP antenna to two or more different homes first is in Ruabandha houses which is two floor height and one 2nd floor room i can take from my Brother to make base station where i can operate the WISP so totally i don't have to spend more for base station as BSP and Ruabandha Residential colony has no bounds to use their top floor base as antenna i think the building is about 20feet top from earth and if we make antenna more 5 feet then it is good to cover up 1Km around range..

Franchise business i think a new comer WISP named SpeedZone in Bhilai is using this model as their price was starting 899 5MBPS till 10GB then after 512KBps which is not so worthy after 10GB 512Kbps is work like Puncture truck which can go 1 km in a hour and also they are charging booking order amount 2500INR which is non refundable and Installation charge 1490 extra, and only in 4999 per month which is yearly plan charge 55000 INR (service Tax Extra on all price including booking amount and installation charge)

They mentioned in ## scheme with smaller size font on brochure installation cost of price is Cat5/Cat6 Wires(Max upto 20 meters), 10feet pole and related mounting accessories and including vat thereupon,,,The Cost is non refundable,

if we take this then which i also have to install the wires, i have some more spaces because of local residency.

On previous comment i have described all things about building position and all things i have contacted Hathway as Hathway is near about to my house they told me a quote that 2000 for 5MB, 5000 for 10MB 10000 for 30MB? so My question is what is that ?? is 2000 for 5MB?? is not that lower may be i have not understand-ed? what the thing is that?

Rs2000 is for a connection with 5Mbps bandwidth and for a 10Mb/sec speed it is 5000 and so on.


Lower as compared to what?

Originally Posted by Admin

Rs2000 is for a connection with 5Mbps bandwidth and for a 10Mb/sec speed it is 5000 and so on.


Lower as compared to what?

oh sorry actually its typo mistake i am trying to say that is 2000 for 5MB?? is not that higher( i mistakenly wright lower instead of higher :P) may be i have not understand-ed? what the thing is that?
If i buy 5 or 10MB Bandwidth how much person i can sell with full speed of 750KBPS UL Plan and 1MBPS UL Plan?

Hello sir, i am bit confused about licensing fees of DoT first they telling 15K in form of DD along with Registration Form and after that they written 3 amount first is Entry Fees of 15Lakh Performance Bank guarantee (PBG) 20Lakh and Financial Bank Guarantee 1Lakh please guide me how i get the license and what is a procedure to get Bank Guarantee? and when have to pay 15Lakh of Entry fees?

Which cat license are you talking about? The fees and every requirement is listed on the official website.

Originally Posted by Admin

Which cat license are you talking about? The fees and every requirement is listed on the official website.

i am talking about Category B, C registration is canceled by government in 2007. actually my thing is what is FBG and PBG and how i get it from bank and when i have to pay them to DoT ? also when have to pay entry fees on starting or after license issued.

For Cat B you need to pay Rs15 Lakhs as entry fee and Rs20Lakh bank guarantee and there are a few more charges.

That entry fee is for 20 years if I remember correctly. It must all be mentioned on DoT website. Do a search.

@ asingh601

As I have mentioned many times before that your budget is not enough for getting a license yourself and setting up all the infrastructure. I have done an indepth analysis on this broadband business thing back in 2007 and in 2012 and on both occasions I found that ROE is no more then 7-8% in very densly populated areas of Delhi. This is for people who dont know what to do with their money and dont mind loosing it.

I personally do not invest in a project that has a ROE of less then 25% and a year on year growth potential of atleat 20%. This broadband ISP model is no where near that mark. You are better of investing your money in a set of decent mutual funds and you wont even have to do any work and still be making more money then this broadband adventure.

Originally Posted by Admin

@ asingh601

As I have mentioned many times before that your budget is not enough for getting a license yourself and setting up all the infrastructure. I have done an indepth analysis on this broadband business thing back in 2007 and in 2012 and on both occasions I found that ROE is no more then 7-8% in very densly populated areas of Delhi. This is for people who dont know what to do with their money and dont mind loosing it.

I personally do not invest in a project that has a ROE of less then 25% and a year on year growth potential of atleat 20%. This broadband ISP model is no where near that mark. You are better of investing your money in a set of decent mutual funds and you wont even have to do any work and still be making more money then this broadband adventure.

Thanks sir for detailed info and suggestion i am dropping this idea after your suggestion. Thanks Again.

Please dont drop the idea just because I said it. Take a pen and paper and start writing the upfront expenses and you will see that things dont add up.

Originally Posted by Admin

Please dont drop the idea just because I said it. Take a pen and paper and start writing the upfront expenses and you will see that things dont add up.

Prevention is better than cure so your experience will given me a chance to prevent my money to be in waste so i dropped the idea i will not take any loan as because i don't have even knowledge about any system any Guarantee which is being taken as a step to get license better to drop idea and the loaned money which can be loosed is now save and if i start there is most of chances to loss as why some one take my internet BSNL is providing a good speed net which even in loss they bear because they are government enterprise they afford loss where i'm not.

hello everyone,
I am ISP of Bhilai, CG. even i will loving to hand few more hands to work along with, anyone interested in taking up franchisee for bhilai durg or rajnandgaon, kindly contact. will provide training and business structure, such that the isp can serve better.

Hello Guys, Was reading all of your ideas and considerations, I am also looking forward for the same WISP business, fortunately I have got my hands on great technology now days. I am considering to use Open Mesh Routers for end customer connectivity, and i will be using same routers as gateway on specific distance for internet connectivity and traffic management.

About Costing, I tried very hard to convience smaller ISP businesses located in city near my village to provide me bandwidth so i can create my own plan and can sell them, but none of them showed interest in same, They wanted me to sell their predefined plans and for that they was willing me to provide unlimited bandwidth.
For E.g. They was selling 1Mbps plan for 460Rs per month to me and was asking me to sell it to my customer for 800 or 900 rs so difference between the prices will be my margin.
but what they did not understand is that there are many number of competitors who have already settled their business in my area, but fortunately they don't have any idea of WISP or Wifi Hotspot concept. It was the only idea i could have gathered upto 1000 customers easily.

So i decided to continue my search for Service Provider and i got one person who just resigned from a very well known ISP business having class B license. Fortunately with this help and his identity in DoT, He made me Class C license holder in exchange of small (not that small though)fee,. (Approx 1 Lakh Licence cost + 60000 his profit) in this extra 60000 he made a Fiber line available till my village, which is currently being deployed.

Now i can have my own company which provide franchise for ISP business and i am having my strong hand in WISP business in my area, Plus i have my hands on greater technology for distribution of WIFI,
I have attached below rough design of my WiFi network, I have many of my customers approx 60% (600+ persons daily) in single location of a mall sized campus, so not such great investment required on hardware.

I bought 2 High end Computers, one is working on Mikrotik Roter OS which is handling Firewall, Radius Authentication and other basic things, where other machine is prepared with Hotspot Billing Software where i actually manage my customers, plans, billing, networks and settings. after that PC i have Gigabit Switch which directly provides internet to 4 Access Points + Omni directional antenas, each Access Point willl have Link of 10Mbps (for startup purpose) which will further distributed to Gateway routers with the help of CPE. (See network design in images) hence keeping almost 80% of network Wireless.

Total costing was
1.6 Lakh for Licence
50 Thousand for Private limited registration and documents
1.5 Lakh for Office rent. deposite and basic furniture like tables and chairs (12x15 shop)
50,000 for Cabling and CPE devices (not more than 15 devices i purchased)
4 Lakh for 30 Open Mesh Routers + Access Points + Omni directional Antennas
50,000 for 40Mbps bandwidth per month.

Total - 8,60,000 Rupees (9 Lakh Round figure) for complete WISP Business.


Network.png

Any suggestions, ideas and flaws in my design are welcome, I will further purchase more quality hardware and Software required for same.

What would you do if Reliance JIO comes out with a 4G plan of Rs400-500 with a 30GB data allowance? It looks highly unlikely but we dont know yet, have you thought about the data price war that is coming your way? 4G technology is almost as good as cable and yours is wifi which has its own flaws and gamers wont like it.

Originally Posted by Admin

What would you do if Reliance JIO comes out with a 4G plan of Rs400-500 with a 30GB data allowance? It looks highly unlikely but we dont know yet, have you thought about the data price war that is coming your way? 4G technology is almost as good as cable and yours is wifi which has its own flaws and gamers wont like it.

You look too confident about reliance Jio, let me tell you, my area does not have coverage from many main operators, reliance is not even in my city (Pune, Maharashtra) when will it come to my rural area? There is not a single tower in my area of reliance.

My area don't even have 3G yet, Only airtel, Vodafone, idea and DoCoMo networks 2G networks are available. I can't see any infrastructure near my area for reliance Jio.

This thread started a year ago almost, you have been asking people to wait since then for reliance Jio to announce their plans, a year after i m still looking for its presence in my area but it's not there.

Plus i did some research, their estimated plans are 1000 per month for 30GB data + some Voice calls, try Google for their plans

For gamers, if i get requests in future, i will try to implement wired bandwidth between routers, currenty 1Mbps internet seems ok for mobile gaming.

JIO plans will be announced very soon in like less than a month because they have sold handsets with 90 days free data so when that 90 days term comes to an end for those who were first to get those hand sets they would need to have an option to carry on right? It wont be right to guess what the tariffs would be on my part but I can assure you that it will be a game changer.

I am guessing 15th of August we should have the price plans and everything.

I would be surprised to see areas where another service provider's mobile signals are present but JIO is not. If you scan it wont show as JIO and Reliance communication's signal show up as Reliance but it is not what we are looking for.

Originally Posted by Admin

I would be surprised to see areas where another service provider's mobile signals are present but JIO is not. If you scan it wont show as JIO and Reliance communication's signal show up as Reliance but it is not what we are looking for.

Believe me, there is no reliance or JIO service yet even announced in my area, and if though they come, i m pretty sure they will at least take 6 months to complete their setup in my area, and as you are saying that announce date could be in august, means i have 6 months to become a great competitor for them, People here will have experience in my service and my network till then, they will have reason to believe in my service at that time. I will try to search more sponsors with help of revenue generated from them, i will make internet available at more cheap rate and fast speed.

For 1000 Customers if i calculate to daily 30 Rs unlimited 1-2 Mbps Topup ( I have daily limited/unlimited, weekly limited/unlimited, half monthly limited/unlimited and monthly limited/unlimited plans created but considering only daily unlimited plan for raw calculations)
My monthly revenue goes to 30x30x1000 = 9,00,000 Rs per month, deducting loan and internet prices + recovery of my hardware cost which i calculate to 50,000(internet recharge) + 50,000(loan installment) + 4,00,000 Rs (Hardware cost) = 5,00,000 Rs. I still have 4,00,000 rupees monthly to pay my employee, to advertise the business and to purchase more hardware for covering other areas nearby.

Considering available 6 months 6 x 4,00,000 = 24,00,000 I will have enough money to setup high density network with relatively fast internet than 2G (which is current one available there)
Imagine increasing number of customers (because of quality service, cheap rates and high speed), profit benefit rises in multiple of increased customers

- - - Updated - - -

One more thing i noticed, JIO have amazing speed, with the download speed of 10mbps for how much time do you think 30 GB data will last? Are Reliance Jio offering any unlimited data offer?
What are your view on Village based customers monthly spending on data recharges? as per my survey in my area, they will not pay more than 500 Rs per month for the data, and if this data is going to last for only 1500 minuts (25 Hours rough calculation based on JIOs speed) they will get roughly 1 hour of internet use daily. Which i don't think is very good idea..

Where i can sale vouchers for both data and validity, if your data is remaining you can extend validity with validity vouchers at cheap price, if your validity is remaining you can extend your data at cheap price.. works both ways.
Plus my unlimited monthly plans could be reduced to 550 Rs per month for mobile users (Unlimited 1 Mbps for 1 Month or 700 Hours)
What do you think?


Available Networks in my area
400a5133-b984-4b84-9fc2-990f878bfbb3.jpg

That screen shot you have taken, is that using a 4G enabled handset? Was network preference set to 4G LTE while searching for available networks?

If I was you I would find the nearest LYF phone store and go talk to them if JIO is going to be available in your area or already is before jumping to conclusions.

If indeed there is no 3G or 4G network in your area then your business plan looks viable to me.

JIO would show up as Ind-JIO 4G if it is available but it would only show up on a 4G enabled phone.

Already did searched for LYF phones, none available.. of course i have took this screenshot from 4G LTE phone - Coolpad Note 3, Using Airtel 4G in Pune city whenever i need (I have my current business in Pune City, where i want to start WISP is my native place 60 Km from city, at my parents home so i can come live with them

I even searched if they are selling normal Reliance recharges or SIM cards (CDMA/GSM/3G/4G), they are not available for sale.

What i am stuck at is Technology i should use to distribute WiFi, i am confused between Open Mesh or Ruckus Wireless Which one i should use? any guide here will be really helpful.

My comments stay pending for moderators approval, may be because it contains links

Hi Admin,

I am from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. I would also like to start my own local cable provider's internet (broadband services). I am a Network Engineer in Ericsson India limited.
And have a proven experience in Juniper & Cisco Routers & Switches.
Kindly provide your suggestion, how can i start this, how much it will cost, what is the process?
And also share your contact detail.

//
Br
Nitesh