Advice for renting a tower or somewhere to put my antenna (I'll explain)

iKingRPG · October 13, 2019

So for a year since I moved, I've been stuck on the situation of having 10mbps download speed and 1mbps upload, while 800 feet away there is AT&T and Xfinity gigabit internet. I could just live with it, but frick that.

So I want to get 2 either ubiquiti nanobeam ac gen2s, or Litebeam ac gen2s, (haven't decided yet) for a point to point network. Meaning I get internet somewhere, like at a tower location, and run a Ethernet cable from my router to my 1st nanobeam antenna. Then I aim it like 1 mile or so away, twords the 2nd antenna at my house, that goes into my house into a switch or a.2nd router. I'm hoping to get around 400mbps.

My problem is finding somewhere to put antenna 1, when I have only $3000 and can't afford to pay monthly for renting part of a giant cell tower. I don't want to put one on someone's house, and there are no small businesses that are close enough and aren't surrounded by trees.

I was wondering if anyone has experience renting a tower before, thanks in advance.

Just for some background, from my house I have clear line of sight of 5 towers. I don't know how to contact these people, they don't have signs with a name or something. Also I am 14 and can't just mount something on someone's roof. I honestly doubt I could get a tower even if I had $10k, because I am a kid, and my parents don't understand this stuff.

And no, my parents can't just pay at&t to bring us fiber, they tried lol.

JB25304 · October 13, 2019

Well, no matter what, you are going to have to get your parents involved. US states have laws that state that you, as a minor and not being declared legally emancipated, cannot enter into a contract solo and have it hold up in court. Most businesses will not even talk to you once they find out. The other thing you have to consider is that if your goal is to rent a spot on any utility tower, you are going to run into the various public utility laws for the state you live in as well as any federal laws too. Utilities are highly regulated and there can be a ton of red tape, which again would require your parents.

The easiest thing would be to place it on a building, but you still are going to have to get your parents involved there too because a utility is probably not going to install a service for a 14 year old, again because of contracts not being legally binding with a minor.

I don’t mean to rain on your parade, but just wanted to point out the uphill battle you are going to have and having your parents not understand or be involved will make it that much harder.

iKingRPG · October 13, 2019

13 minutes ago, JB25304 said:

Well, no matter what, you are going to have to get your parents involved. US states have laws that state that you, as a minor and not being declared legally emancipated, cannot enter into a contract solo and have it hold up in court. Most businesses will not even talk to you once they find out. The other thing you have to consider is that if your goal is to rent a spot on any utility tower, you are going to run into the various public utility laws for the state you live in as well as any federal laws too. Utilities are highly regulated and there can be a ton of red tape, which again would require your parents.

The easiest thing would be to place it on a building, but you still are going to have to get your parents involved there too because a utility is probably not going to install a service for a 14 year old, again because of contracts not being legally binding with a minor.

I don’t mean to rain on your parade, but just wanted to point out the uphill battle you are going to have and having your parents not understand or be involved will make it that much harder.

Don't worry, I am aware about me not being able to do anything until I turn 18. My parents kind of understand, and also really want faster internet.

I just meant they don't understand things like frequency, internet speed measurements like megabits per second, things like that.

I will try to get one put on a building, but hopefully having a lot of trees around won't be a problem. I've heard for areas with trees I can use 2.4ghz antennas, but I probably won't because everyones WiFi is 2.4GHz. losing half the speed will still leave 200mbps, anyway.

I've been inspired by people on YouTube like rmp5s and Crosstalk Solutions.

Thanks for replying.

Edit: also about the Red Tape, unless I wanted to put an antenna on a stop sign or something, I probably have nothing to worry about since these Ubiquiti antennas use unlicensed and open frequencies like 2.4ghz and 5ghz.

Donut417 · October 13, 2019

11 hours ago, iKingRPG said:

Just for some background, from my house I have clear line of sight of 5 towers.

Id expect a decent amount of rent for a tower. Thats if they are not owned directly by the cell cariers, because I highly doubt any of the carriers would share their tower space with you. Also installing service at a location might be an issue.

12 hours ago, iKingRPG said:

And no, my parents can't just pay at&t to bring us fiber, they tried lol.

Just because AT&T said no, doesnt mean Comcast will. Though, Id expect Comcast would want a pretty penny. Ive seen quotes as high as $50,000. Because you will pay for each foot of cabling used and any equpment they have to install and Labor. Optical nodes, Fiber and Amps are not cheap. The cost will be determined by what they have to install. Just because they are 800 Feet away doesnt mean they can just install 800ft of Coax. They might have to install new Fiber and a node, then install the coax. That can be a costly affair.