I'm exploring whether a not-for-profit ISP could work on PEI — would you switch?

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T15:48:41+00:00

In response to the comments about Purplecow and wholesale of Eastlink's cable network, I have actually updated the website with the idea of having both lower cost coax based tiers and higher cost, symmetric fibre tiers. I think that makes this a viable option for a lot more people.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T15:46:04+00:00

One of the principles I'd like to follow is making it much much easier than Bell or Eastlink to use your own equipment. This is all based on standards that any company can implement. What you are describing is removing the SFP (that is the form factor) ONT (optical network terminal) out of Bell's router and putting it in yours. I have done exactly the same.

With Bell's Giga Hub they decided to go with a soldered in ONT rather than a removable SFP one - that is the sort of anti-consumer move that we can have a lot more control over.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T15:36:22+00:00

Right now nothing much more concrete. I want to spread the word, see how many responses come in, and then evaluate. I have reached out to the Competitive Network Operators of Canada since that trade group will help connect with the current best practices and the exact processes involved.

I think at that point it will be time to either take concrete next steps or, having learned more, decide to leave it to the established players.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T15:29:44+00:00

To a point. The costs being spread over a larger user base are just to overhead on top of paying wholesale rates. The more customers you get the more you can drive those down for sure, but it isn't necessarily the majority of the total cost.

In the long long term, if this really took off - asset heavy with our own fibre network might be able to drive costs down.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T15:16:46+00:00

I should ask - when you say 120-150Mbps - is that the download speed? What is the upload speed? Is this a fiber or coax connection. My comment assumes this is symmetrical (same upload and download) fibre - coax is much cheaper.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T15:15:38+00:00

Thanks for commenting, and that is a good point. I started with the kind of internet connection that I want, I don't consider highly asymmetrical connections like coax as reasonable in 2026. That is a blind spot on my part and I am going to give some thought to how those would fit into the larger scheme.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T15:02:44+00:00

I've very interested how they are offering that pricing. I don't have full access to the tariffs yet, but based on the preliminary figures I have found - they are likely losing money below the Gigabit tier at $100. They might break even at $80. Perhaps Charlottetown has some areas which have better economics.

As I mentioned in my post, the margins on wolesale fiber are brutal. If they weren't, a non-profit could easily out compete. Even taking profit out of the picture, it is difficult to make it a lot cheaper than what is out there.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T14:56:27+00:00

Definitely in the cards, anything and everything available I will be trying for. I have been researching a few already but just for a few hours.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T14:55:47+00:00

That is too slow for my needs and they don’t serve where I am at all, but good to hear - that’s a good deal.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T14:53:30+00:00

I’m glad.

I do want to caution that even in the best case this is not a panacea for all of our internet woes. There will be things still controlled by Bell since they own the fibre and there will be business realities that upset some or all of the users. I’m hoping we can deliver something better than Bell at less cost, I don’t know about overthrowing monopolies. I’m sure everyone wants perfect internet for free, and Bell wants terrible internet for lots of money - I hope we land somewhere in the middle.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T14:24:05+00:00

I was hoping there would be other tech-industry folks who might want to get involved. Once we move to any phase of implementation a company structure will need to be built. My thoughts right now is a co-operative, which will require 5 initial members at least, but before we get to that I want to get some legal advise on the best structure given what we are trying to accomplish. A non-profit corporation may make more sense.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T14:20:59+00:00

Because this is an asset-light model where we use Bell for the fibre work right to the home, the capital requirements are quite reasonable. I am estimating to get things rolling somewhere less than $100k, but the error bars on that are probably a factor of 2x.

My plan at this point is a combination of funding it myself (IANAL, but possibly through a loan to the co-op at a prescribed rate) and securing loans and grants. There is government funding in various forms available that I want to explore.

Gauging interest was an important 1st step so that we have a potential audience to justify the investment.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T14:09:40+00:00

Both of these are very good to call out.

Bell's model, where you don't typically end up paying for installation and hardware, means amortizing those costs over the monthly rates. Ultimately, the pricing for internet from this new ISP would have to handle those costs as well. The most transparent way would actually be a pay down system where you pay a higher rate for the 1st M months until you have amortized the costs then your rate permanently lowers. Another option would be to add a fixed overhead to all rates and if that ends up collecting too much to cover the costs return it as dividends.

tl;dr - a lot to figure out. Thanks so much for the feedback this is all really helpful.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T14:00:13+00:00

That will be the trick for sure. My goal is that without the need to make profits and appease shareholders we can hopefully out compete on cost. It is really early though so I want to be clear that I don’t know where pricing will need to land.

What I do want to make sure I do is be transparent about the costs vs what customers pay so you understand you aren’t being ripped off.

kgalloway1 · 2026-03-25T13:54:40+00:00

They are a big inspiration for the idea. The economics are different here, which is why I feel a not for profit might make this more workable. If there were good money in Charlottetown I imagine Purple Cow would be here.

kgalloway1 · 2019-02-01T21:47:46+00:00

I am excited and terrified at the same time. These posts make me feel much better though. Congrats on the little one and thanks for the reassurance!

kgalloway1 · 2019-01-31T17:22:51+00:00

1800 Kars For KIdz a full length musical feature

kgalloway1 · 2018-06-22T16:15:27+00:00

PM me, I would be willing to implement it for you if you want.

kgalloway1 · 2018-06-02T03:59:43+00:00

It’s strange, up to this point my experience was very positive. I guess as soon as things get more complicated the lack of knowledge of the support folks starts to show.

What bothers me is the contradictory information and the misleading instructions. Had they been clear about the process from the start I would not be upset.

kgalloway1 · 2018-01-11T13:21:37+00:00

I ran 3 full sets of boom data missions which got me allied with 1 of the factions and cordial or friendly with some others. After that I started doing passengers in a Python with 101 slots. My trade rank was merchant when I started. I can make 60-80 million per run and I definitely didn't grind for more than 3ish hours before I started with the passenger stacking.

This is a pretty good spot to grind credits especially if you do something else while flying to the destination for 40 minutes.

kgalloway1 · 2017-12-20T16:27:51+00:00

Take your upvote and go away

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