On May 31, 2016, at 4:16 PM, William Herrin <bill@herrin.us> wrote:
On Tue, May 31, 2016 at 2:14 PM, Lorell Hathcock <lorell@hathcock.org> wrote:
Our owner has hired a consultant who insists that we should have an ISP license to operate in the United States. (Like they have in other countries like Germany and in Africa where he has extensive personal experience.)
Howdy,
There is generally no license required to be an ISP.
If you wish to own physical infrastructure located in the public right of ways or use licensed radio frequencies, there are various licensing and regulatory requirements.
We call those "cable companies," "telcos," "LECs," or "CLECs" even if they also provide ISP service.
If you lease your long-haul cabling infrastructure (from folks who are licensed) or implement physical infrastructure only on property you own or lease, you need not address licensing yourself.
In some cases it’s very simple to do something, in Michigan (for example) you can run fiber and place items in the right of way by meeting the standards of a Metro Permit, eg: http://www.michigan.gov/lcsa/0,5798,7-333-23730-221070--,00.html For most places, you just need to pay the state or local licensing fees. You can generally do this for low cost, setting up a new C-corp or LLC is $50 to file in my area. Well worth it if you just want to establish yourself as a legal entity. Then you can do business with that and usual minimal paperwork. You can pay hundreds to nearly infinite money to establish your structure(s). You do need to have some sort of TIN or EIN. This gets complex and imposes requirements, consult an accountant, CPA or lawyer as well in this area. It shouldn’t be more than $1k to establish the legal entity unless there are very complex situations involved. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-e... Unless you are offering certain regulated services, the bar is quite low to establish a company and maintain yourself. I’d say when possible avoid complex programs, they tend to come with high reporting and auditing costs. - Jared