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Comment by kevinqiu1 | Hacker News Reader

I am familiar with NYC mesh(https://nycmesh.net/faq/), one of the linked networks in the article, and it answers many of your questions.

To answer your most salient question(about whether it provides internet connectivity)

>We provide internet through peering at an internet exchange point. If you have line-of-sight to this “supernode” in downtown Manhattan you can have a fast, reliable connection with suitable hardware, and replace your ISP.

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> If you have line-of-sight to this “supernode” in downtown Manhattan

Isn't the point of mesh networking that you only need line of sight to someone else on the network who has line of sight to someone else (etc) who has line of sight to the supernode?

No, mesh networks can have different tiers the primary supernode network can be fully meshed but the individual clients are not.

If we take a standard network for example then all your routers can be meshed for each router the primary backbone switches can also be in another mesh but the edge switches that say connect individual users are not meshed.

This would still count as a mesh network despite having 3 tiers with different fault tolerance / handling characteristics for each tier.

the implication here is that the net neutrality issue is primarily the last mile ISP. I agree that comcast in particular is going to be a problem, but the assumption that the larger transit carriers will not be NN problems in and of themselves seems quite off.

I don't honestly think transit providers (other than comcast) are going to cause NN problems. They've been doing their thing for a while and have a clear model: the more bandwidth you use, the more you pay (either usage or connection size). Every once in a while, there's a peering dispute about weather Cogent qualifies as a peer. Someone who is connected to a transit provider can likely switch to other providers (or use multiple) much easier than a residential customer. There's also an array of providers that give you virtual presence at major peering points.

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