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Starting a Cable Company?
prec asks: "One of my goals for my post-university life is to start my own High Speed Internet provider. The plan is to find a decent sized residential area that does not currently have such a service available and start my business there. However, one major problem presents itself - How in the world could I start my own cable company? Would I actually have to lay my own cable lines and everything or do the big companies (such as Comcast) have services set up for people to start their own 'Comcast Franchise' type businesses? All feedback is appreciated."
First, realize that you will need to find a town or berg with no cable franchise. A franchise is the right to be the only cable company in an area. Start lookin for very small towns, or large when wide spots in the road. Everywhere that was worth developing was developed when AT&Tstarted buying cable companies for 5k per sub. Note that you will probably have better luck buying part of Adelphia, than rolling your own. Should you happen to decide to purchase assets on the secondary market, try to pay about $2000 per subscriber, you might not be able to find anything at that price, but don't pay more than $3000 per sub.
If you go the build your own route, make sure that you have some estimates on the density of housing in the areas you have to serve. (Most of the time the town will require you to roll cable out to areas that would not be profitable on their own in exchange for being the exclusive cable provider to the area, also for the easments.) You will need a lawyer to at a minimum look over the contract before you start, I suggest that you go to work for a cable company to learn somehting about how the business works. This is to learn how much it costs to lay a mile of cable, and how much the channels charge for their access. (You didn't think all your money would come from broadband access did you? That will probably be a small part of your earnings.) You will also want to go to work for your schools network services division, if you really want to have a chance at success with broadband. This way you will get hands on experience at running a broadband company, especially with very network happy users.
Once you have secured the town you plan to serve, you will need financing. This will probably be the hardest part of your job, as geeks are generally pretty poor at selling things. (For starters go buy a good suit. Try Penny's if your cheap, they sell a good suit for probably the least amount new. Try to find a classic black or navy, nothing too fancy or wierd and it will last quite some time.) Now you get to go begging for funds. You can try a bank, but they are generally not interested in loaning money to a recent grad who is looking to start a business. You can try to find a grant or jobs program in your state. Most states provide subsidized loans to businesses that will agree to create a number of jobs. The SBA might help in this part, as well, with loans, advice, or co-signing. Failing this you will have to pony up your own money, find investors, or seek family money. Not that I condone looting your grandparents' retirement but they might be willing to invest some in your business. If no financing is readily available, get a job and buy a house, save all you can, and when you are ready, use the equity in your house, your savings, and your experience to secure a loan.
Finally, if this isn't a troll, and you might be interested in providing cable to a small town in Montana, send your resume and business plan to me. If it looks like you are serious I might be able to put you in contact with a potential funding source.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
If you're going to be physically wiring up the neighborhood, I'd strongly recommend using fiber. If you want to be a CABLE COMPANY, supplying TV service as well as internet, you should look into set-top boxes with fiber inputs; you might wind up laying coax, but do yourself a favor and LAY FIBER TOO.
For wireless, 802.11 (not B) will supply a fairly decent amount of bandwidth to a pretty wide area -- so long as the weather is good. I live in a desert area, so it's decent here, but if you get a significant amount of rain, I'd recommend against it, both for you and your customers.
For permission to lay cable, contact your local government to see what permits and requirements there are for underground or above-ground cable runs. Some cities and counties are pretty lax about it; some can get quite anal. Knowing someone in government may help you.
There may be other local conditions you need to know about before you start work. High ground water may make long-term cable emplacement problematic. A low water table may make equipment grounding a serious expense. You might want to snoop around in the cities near you to figure out if you need anything special.