Starting up a WiMAX ISP

Tue Apr 27 14:00:38 UTC 2010

Looking for advice...

I live in central / western New York state (think villages and farms). There are a good number of hills but no mountains. I have solid LAN experience and experience facing a smaller network to 
the Internet. I was network admin for a medium size enterprise network (I.e. design and implementation including LAN, Internet connectivity, VPN, routers, DNS, mail, webservers, physical servers, etc). I would like to build a local ISP that can serve high speed internet access to the more rural areas whose only option is dial up access, well away from the CO. It would also be nice to compete with the cable company and DSL for customers in the villages.

I have been researching information for design / implementation of WiMAX, equipment suppliers, contractors to help with installation of tower equipment and acquiring tower space, but have been coming up empty handed.

What resources are available to help me bridge the gap from where I am to what I need to know to get started and what specific technologies would you recommend I bone up on? I know beyond the WiMAX specific information, I will probably need to cozy up to BGP, maybe MPLS for traffic between the core and towers? Also do you have any suggestions on where I can find suppliers and service vendors in this field? Networks are my passion and am willing to dig in, but I need some direction.

Thanks for you help an insight.

 Charles Bronson