Telecommunications operator. 12 years of evolution

This opus is a free art on the topic of our own (since 2002) experience in the provision of communication services (mainly Internet access), as well as the experience of many other companies from other cities and countries with whom we had the opportunity to communicate. Some of the events are fictional, some are not.

Instead of the preface:
The Internet has become an integral part of the life of a huge number of people in ex-USSR-space. The computer literacy rate of the population has increased significantly over the past 10 years. This is largely due to the reduction in the cost of computer equipment, which allows you to have 2-3-4 computers at home and no one remains offended. However, when entering your favorite “Classmates”, almost no one of people reflects on how it functions, how it is provided and few people know and remember how it all appeared ...

2002. The hard thing is the beginning

Boy, have you decided that the future for broadband Internet !? In your hometown there are only a couple of companies that provide dial-up Internet. It is slow, inconvenient (the phone is constantly busy) and expensive. But after all, there is a technology that allows you to turn people's computers into a single network and inside it to give access to the Internet! With great speed! You are now practically unemployed with a lot of free time.
')
You have internet at home. You set yourself a radio Internet and you get crazy 128kbps. It costs a lot. Very expensive. In dollars. It’s good that they managed to barter them a couple of sites and give them an advertisement on the channel through an acquaintance.
You conduct consumer demand studies in your city. You print ads in which you praise the advantages of new obscure things and paste them in different areas. By collecting statistics from various districts, it becomes clear where to start building your “network”. You have the first application.

Having borrowed money from your girlfriend, you go to the neighboring regional center in a shuttle bus and drive it back, holding your 300-meter long bay of UTP cable with your feet. Copper. In your city they do not sell it. They also managed to buy “snap” and “jacks”.
Attracting a neighbor you connect the first two subscribers. Connection fee: 60 dollars. For $ 20 a month, you give them a crazy 100 MB at 32 kbps. This is a lot, given that the average page on the Internet weighs 40-60 KB. There are practically no audio compositions. Video? Do not make me laugh. In RuNet almost nothing to do. Your subscribers also do not quite understand why they need it, but this is cool and fashionable.

Billing for Windows 2000. "Billing" .... no one knew such words before. But this is almost a real billing that can do something. You have a website and there is a forum on it. Already not bad.

2003. Whoever first got up - that and sneakers

Together with your neighbor, you crawl in a pigeon's litter in the attics of "pyatikhatok", "nineteen" and "four" and turn on new subscribers. Residents look at you with interest, ask a lot of questions, help solve problems and want to connect themselves. The chairmen of the cooperative houses are following you with a request to connect the Internet in their house. Out of the corner of your eye, you begin to notice strange people on rooftops with similar habits. You got competitors.
Inclusion only from the roof. At the entrance is simply impossible to throw the cable. All low-current channels are clogged with debris and cigarette butts back in the 80s. From the roof to the roof is the same UTP-cable, which is wound with wire to the steel cable that you fix between the houses. Of course, the cable is frayed, the roofers burn it with torches and trees fall on it. But you're not working the first day. You take two pieces of cable, a soldering iron and on the roof in a freezing cold - you solder the wires of the cables between you. On the roof of your switch rolls on the floor. The usual 5 and 8 port "shuriki", "harpsichord", "long". Buy them too easy and need to order.

Your network is growing. You already have 200 subscribers. You start to create a grid of tariffs. You enter flat rates for speeds of 64 and 128kbit / s. After all, you took the channel from an upstream provider at 2 Mbit! Some penny starts to move. It is very inconvenient that your network is scattered and located in different micro-districts, which had to be connected by separate radio channels, which converge to your provider. And this is also a cost.

On the network, you start to enter some services. Internal video archive (a friend from the market begins to give you CDs, movies from which you upload to your computer) , Counter Strike game server, static pages with flash games

2004. Bad to be stupid

It turns out it is not necessary to solder the cable. Twist is even nothing. The main thing is to roll the tape well so that the water does not flow. Managed to get a little military cable, "peshki." Thanks to him, he manages to connect houses that stand at a distance of 150-200 meters from each other, which was previously impossible.

That billing for Windows begins to die, which should have died even earlier, but miraculously reached up to 300 subscribers. You do not understand anything in Unix, so there is another billing under Windows, which you, reluctantly, buy for the recently appeared WebMoney. Pay money for software? Mind is incomprehensible!

You have two more employees. It's comfortable. You pay everyone $ 5 a day and now they climb roofs and throw cables. You can finally sit in a room that you took under the “office”, monitor the network (there are practically no monitoring tools yet) and accept payment from subscribers who simply bring their money to you.

New trend. Exchange magnet links. DC. You raise this service. Finally, subscribers can exchange files within your network at high speed, and not “stack” your outgoing Internet channel, which, frankly, is not enough. But for more you simply have no money. You are holding a campaign and offering subscribers to drop off to purchase new hard drives for the video archive. This is a lot, but many agree. Subscribers are gradually forming in the community. They gather for meetings, actively communicate in your forum. For most - the Internet is new. You consistently bring beer.

2005. The die is cast

You take two loans in the bank and buy a new server and laptop. You will pay them all year, but it was worth it. You have a sharp dislike of spring and autumn. Because thunderstorms. Because of thunderstorms (cable guidance) , your switches are burning down. Dozens of burned. And to get new ones is often nowhere and there is nothing. As a result, some pieces of the network stand idle for 5-7 days. Subscriber discontent. Well, though, and competitors have the same trouble. It is much worse when the switch does not burn, but it starts to flood and drives network trash, clogging the communication channel. You can search for it for weeks.
Many subscribers pay off with you for the Internet "barter". Someone gives you mobile top-up cards, someone has jeans on the market, someone has some network equipment, and students are not averse to picking up or leaving cable in the summer. Somewhere near the ghost of communism, where life does not need money.

2006. Hedgehog - a proud bird

With you, your friend stops communicating with the bazaar, which traded in disks. His business is crumbling. The whole area downloads movies from the Internet.
Optics. New incomprehensible word. You buy a drum (1000 meters) of fiber-optic cable and roll it from the delivery service to the trailer through the snow. Finally, you can put your separate pieces of the network together. Where it was impossible to connect the houses directly with each other (the restriction on the length did not allow) - there, finally, you will put the optics. Although the pleasure is not cheap, because you need more and equipment.
You have an accountant. It is necessary to somehow make ends meet in the papers.

2007. Sold - had fun

Your network grows and thrives. I exchanged 1000 subscribers. You already have 10 people and 2-3 cars. Up to 20 new subscribers are included per day. You already know which months in the year are the “fattest”, and when it will be “tight.” You understand the structure of your income and expenses.
You introduce new services in the network. Internet TV - two dozen channels that can be viewed directly on your computer. Cool!
You already buy large quantities of good equipment. Old switches are not thrown away, and will be carefully put on new points. You're still not all at home covered his attention.
A new equipment appears on the market - for the radio Internet. It is interesting. You can cover remote areas. For starters, on the left channels and, of course, without permission, you start the radio. Very bad, although there are new unknown features.

2008. The farther into the forest - the thicker the partisans

In the city there is a major competitor. He works across the country, and now he has climbed into your city. New technologies. All on optics. At the sites only managed equipment. The worst is very low rates. Highly. Competitor what? He has an almost unlimited incoming channel, and you have to pay 4 thousand dollars for the channel (which is not enough) . But in conversations with subscribers it becomes clear that they will not run anywhere. They like it here. But new subscribers are connecting to a competitor, because people have more and more computers. These new subscribers ... they ... not like that ... they do not know what a network forum is, they do not understand the pleasure of communicating with other subscribers of the network, did not make new friends at meetings ... For them, the Internet is simply a means of obtaining information, downloading music and abstracts.
The chairmen of the cooperative houses are beginning to look at you. A competitor, it turns out, began to pay them rent or personally give free internet. Your " mandrazhram to editors" no longer give the keys to the roof. Everyone is starting to want money.

2009. We were born to make a fairy tale come true

You already have 25 people working. You have a whole system administrator and there is a 24-hour person on the phone. You, in principle, can do nothing and engage in a pleasant pastime. But not yet out. Much still does not work by itself. Your idlers can walk behind each other, fiddle twice on the same repair and in that spirit. The organization is lame.
In general, frames - this is trouble. You pay them 10 dollars a day. But who are they? Students are on summer holidays ... PTUshniki-planokury ... someone is drilling a hole for a cable in the wall and dropping a subscriber's plasma TV, someone is caught by the police for past services. It seems that they drink Bratosis every day. The lack of personnel. And nowhere to take them.
You expel your employee who was caught stealing. After all, subscribers continue to carry money to your office in cash.

Competition. Like mushrooms after rain. It seems to have no place under the sun, but everyone rushed into this business. With money. Well, the part will be bent, so normal and not unfolded.
Thievery flourishes. Someone is stealing your switches. Actively. Homeless people cut copper cables. Plait them and smelt copper. Previously, the theft of switches did not make sense - they had nowhere to go. And now there are many who wish. You are actively starting to buy boxes, because earlier your switches were just lying on the floor. True boxes also break.

New era. Despite the fact that you just bought a new powerful server - your billing for Windows has died. Colleagues networkers, listening to you, pull your eyes to your forehead - how did this billing live to your number of subscribers? Your sys.admin puts FreeBSD and billing under it. You are slowly starting to learn Linux.

2010. Roof is, mind is not necessary

Your first search. And how do you want? Lenin bequeathed to share! Of course, this is a shock to you. Of course, you were not a virgin law-abiding, but you were very frivolous about the possibility of raids.
Further events pass in a terrible dream. Although in general, everything looks good ... If you do not sober. Decrees on the initiation of criminal cases, seizure of equipment (you still have everything in one place - it was more convenient for you) , more searches. Attempts to restore network ... Competitors are not asleep, and while you are trying to do something they switch 50-70 subscribers per day. YOUR subscribers. Finally, you “solve” your problems, but you will be thrown back almost 2 years ago in development. It is sad. Almost all employees are being driven out. No one has faith. But instead of the stolen equipment and cut lines you put a new one. It will work more reliably than the eight year old.
Innovation - payment terminals. You can remove the endless stream of subscribers to the office that carry money. Remove the risks. You enter into an agreement with the payment system and the money starts to drip to your current account in the bank. It's nice, but there are nuances of taxation.

2011. Fight and seek. Find and hide

Subscribers completely gone crazy. All are drawn for huge numbers in advertising. Everyone wants to have 100Mbps Internet. What for? They do not understand that 90% of them will not allow all bottlenecks to accept more than 50 Mbit / s, which they do not need either. To download a movie? Not in 5 minutes, but in 2? The current average subscriber demand on the Internet does not exceed 5-7 Mbit / s, but marketing is such marketing ...

Innovation - to reach over the roofs, you see, not comme il faut. We leave from the roofs to the basements. Previously fought off bats in attics - now from rats and clouds, fleas and mosquitoes. You can already solve something with the rent of underground cable channels. In the hallways you start to drill overlaps and put risers. Of course, not everywhere it goes smoothly. And with axes chase your guys and dogs down. “You kicked up with your internet! Who needs it? ”Say tenants. They hang new locks and do not give keys. Do not let in the porches. You have many competitors whose employees are several times worse than yours. Residents do not care - they see only a mess, trash, mate and neighing.

Private sector. All these huge areas of one-story buildings, to which no one has ever been concerned. But today, when on each multi-storey building with 7 providers - everyone is starting to try to make money in the wild lands. There are much higher construction costs, but also higher average revenue per user. Yes, and paying a relatively high price for the inclusion - the subscriber is unlikely to switch somewhere.
On some roofs in the corner, your employees find someone's old switches. The memory of competitors, which is already a few years away. Surprisingly, these switches still work. They are powered by left-hand paths to electricity, and non-working subscriber cables stick out of them.

2012. The Adventures Continue

Ten years. Damn it, man - you launched this network a full ten years ago! Having covered the glade, in the team you remember the past, share professional secrets with newcomers, make plans. How many were unique cases that do not pull on your head. After removing the nightclub, you call all the subscribers and hold a party. A lot of old acquaintances come. This is one of the first subscribers. You are a little drunk, happy and you feel that this is the family.

2014. Epilogue

You did a lot and understood a lot. You know how much in this life. You know the price of friendship, betrayal and human meanness. Sometimes you smile, remembering your beginnings, mistakes, achievements. You know everyone you need, everyone knows you. Your company already has more than one office. You spread your network in a huge area. Every day tens of thousands of subscribers including a computer and going into another reality are not aware that it was you and people like you who made an information breakthrough in your country.
You have highly qualified specialists. Someone you raised and chose yourself, someone attracted from the side. Your company, for the most part, uses modern and reliable equipment. Several enterprises have been opened, between which subscribers are separated, cash flows and responsibility. Where is the "core" - your server - knows only a few trustees. Something is distributed, something is buried, something where no one can find. You remember the lessons and are always ready for new searches and visits. The word “diversification” is not an empty sound for you. You survived and move forward with your head held high.

Instead of an afterword:
In 2007, we began developing software primarily for ourselves, since a huge number of processes was not taken into account and was carried out "on the leaves." Already in 2008, we started selling these products to other telecom operators. We are currently working with hundreds of operators in seven countries. A lot of interesting experience and useful information flow to us. This is a real storehouse of concentrated knowledge that we accumulate and share with our customers. Some of them can be combined and put on Habré.