this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2025
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AskACanadian

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How could we kickstart a 5th telecom across Canada? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by Sunshine@lemmy.ca to c/askacanadian@lemmy.ca
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We could start fundraising to do the legal paperwork and buy a tower in a provincial capital then start the plans. Anyone who funds and/or works gets a share and the right to vote in the cooperative’s affairs.

The plan could be basic at first for a low price of $3 that includes wifi calling nationwide for anyone outside of the city. Then we could expand the cellular service across the province then maybe bring it the rest of the country to rival the competition and bring down prices for everyone.

Our cooperative would be focused on providing high paying jobs and providing good benefits.

We can use Mastodon, Friendica and Lemmy.ca to deliver service updates.

It’s just a fun thought experiment ;)

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[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Alternative proposal, fund the creation of an MVNO through the same means, then provide ROBeLUS'es services at the MVNO cost plus cost of overhead.*

Skim some revenue to build out infrastructure.

Use massive automation to keep overhead as low as possible.

* See how fast ROBeLUS'es cronies in the CRTC clamp down on MVNOs. 😂

[–] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I suppose but owning the infrastructure outright allows us to have more control over the cost, service and working conditions. As the big players currently charge way more than they need to at the current rates and the government is likely on their side. Though it would be an much easier launching point into the market.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 months ago

but owning the infrastructure outright allows us to have more control

How deep are your pockets?

The last time I was involved in the industry, each tower (and the equipment associated with it) was around $400K each. And that will service a few hundred customers in a small geographic area.

Plus you need the central office equipment (In the hundreds of millions range) to service those towers (about 200 towers per)

And you need to buy licences for the RF spectrum you expect to use.

And that's just capitol costs before you hire staff or get your first paying customer.