Doing side projects are fun because they keep you active and thinking when the routine of normal work starts to get boring and repetitive. Sometimes we start side projects knowingly by planning what we want to do and setting out goals to achieve before we start. However sometimes side project start and it doesn't occur to us that one has started until we are at the deep end . This post is about one such time a *side project* crept up on me totally unexpectedly.
During my stint working in south-east Asia as a systems engineer for a telco startup I had a chance meeting with someone at a bar when having a night out with some work mates. I have no idea what grab his attention our way except possibly for that fact that some of us spoke english very well (very aussie non indonesian accent) even though we looked indonesian. He joined our group and asked me where i was from and what i and the rest of the team was doing in indonesia. I described to him that we were all expats working for a telco startup setting up systems for messaging, billing and parts of the SPN mobile network.
One discussion led to another and at the end of the night he got my contact details and told me that he knew someone who was interested in setting up networks for parts of indonesia that were currently still *back on technology*.
A few weeks later i had a chat with his friend and soon found myself at the head office of urban development Jakarta office. At the head office I was introduced to the deputy minister of urban development and told him about what i did. He then started to make conversation about extending the reach of telephony and internet to communities that were still very behind on technology and I explained to him that this was achievable through VSAT communications. I knew a little about VSAT because of the discussions i had with the RF team from the telco startup i was working for. The RF team dealt alot with BTS's , antennas and satellite comms.
After discussions he asked me if i would mind doing a presentation to a small group of people about how it could be done, describing it all at a high level. What the technologies were and how much the whole exercise was going to cost. I wrote a small paper on the technologies required, the benefits , the expected cost in capital and operations and did a little presentation on the topic.
At the end of the presentation they asked if i could do a demo site and at the completion of the setup they would pay for the setup and any additional costs i would charge. I put a little price plan together and upon agreement i began to look for a team. It was at this point that i thought to myself "what in gods name am i *FREAKIN* doing ?!?" Previously it was all soft stuff, talks, presentations but now i actually have to set something up ?!?. I thought, yes i will give some ideas, help out with some technical aspects and someone else would be contracted to execute the idea, NOT ME, I was just there to do a job at my company I was working for, not to setup a company and do something i had never tried before !
During my stint working in south-east Asia as a systems engineer for a telco startup I had a chance meeting with someone at a bar when having a night out with some work mates. I have no idea what grab his attention our way except possibly for that fact that some of us spoke english very well (very aussie non indonesian accent) even though we looked indonesian. He joined our group and asked me where i was from and what i and the rest of the team was doing in indonesia. I described to him that we were all expats working for a telco startup setting up systems for messaging, billing and parts of the SPN mobile network.
One discussion led to another and at the end of the night he got my contact details and told me that he knew someone who was interested in setting up networks for parts of indonesia that were currently still *back on technology*.
A few weeks later i had a chat with his friend and soon found myself at the head office of urban development Jakarta office. At the head office I was introduced to the deputy minister of urban development and told him about what i did. He then started to make conversation about extending the reach of telephony and internet to communities that were still very behind on technology and I explained to him that this was achievable through VSAT communications. I knew a little about VSAT because of the discussions i had with the RF team from the telco startup i was working for. The RF team dealt alot with BTS's , antennas and satellite comms.
After discussions he asked me if i would mind doing a presentation to a small group of people about how it could be done, describing it all at a high level. What the technologies were and how much the whole exercise was going to cost. I wrote a small paper on the technologies required, the benefits , the expected cost in capital and operations and did a little presentation on the topic.
At the end of the presentation they asked if i could do a demo site and at the completion of the setup they would pay for the setup and any additional costs i would charge. I put a little price plan together and upon agreement i began to look for a team. It was at this point that i thought to myself "what in gods name am i *FREAKIN* doing ?!?" Previously it was all soft stuff, talks, presentations but now i actually have to set something up ?!?. I thought, yes i will give some ideas, help out with some technical aspects and someone else would be contracted to execute the idea, NOT ME, I was just there to do a job at my company I was working for, not to setup a company and do something i had never tried before !
Anyway, I had promised to have something working, a demo that was a self contained unit that we could deploy easily anywhere and i hadnt the first idea about setting up a satellite comms system using VSAT, i had the pricing of equipment (roughly) but that was about it! I knew all about the IP side, the VOIP side but the main back-haul was a total mystery to me.
I rounded up some of my friends from the RF side and they told me a little about what was needed for the VSAT backhaul. After a quick run through over a few days i understood enough to know what i was looking for (brought some memories back from UNI days). I was even put in contact with the sales director of one of the local VSAT providers who one of my colleagues in the RF side had worked with. I met up with the sales director and told him what i needed. He provided me details of a VSAT supplier that could provide the dish, LnB, antenna and all the housing.
After totaling the cost of the VSAT system, the networking equipment, the computers , the wiring required and the man labour required to setup the VSAT system the total was about 9000AUD. Even though i knew i was going to get that back (should i get all this setup) it was to much for me to invest alone so i asked a friend of mine to help fork the bill. He trusted me so together we invested 4500 AUD each. I hired 3 VSAT engineers to help with the VSAT modem configurationg,bought the computers and the networking equipment second-hand and closed of the required deals with the VSAT comms provider. After negotiations with the sales director we were able to get 6 months free connectivity for the pilot site.
The team spent 5 nights in total setting up the VSAT system facing multiple different problems, misalignment, tripod that didnt fit the VSAT dish as expected,malfunctioning oscilloscope , leaving the laptop cable at home so after the battery ran out no more work could be done and so on. After working through each of the problems we eventually got the system functioning and were able to do the demo on time. Calls could be made and we could surf the internet. To the people of the area this was a great leap to what they currently had.
At the end i couldn't believe we had got it done. What was initially just an idea and a talk, turned into a fully fledged implementation that was totally unexpected, something we were totally not ready for but something which i learnt alot from! We didnt make alot of money but it was a good little profit and we did it 2 more times (each time easier then the first). After the 2 sites *money* had ran out to build more sites and next years budget would be needed to futher progress the project but my stint in indonesia had finished so i didnt continue.
When i think back on this i think im very lucky in many different ways. Lucky that i got the experience to learn about VSAT and the technology in detail, lucky that we actually got it working and lucky that this opportunity even fell into my lap in the first place. After this experience i approach things with a more positive attitude and i tell myself we did it before, we can do it again.
So this side project sorta crept up on me, but at the end it was an experience i would never forget. Below are some of the pictures and documents i wrote from the setup. Enjoy:
I rounded up some of my friends from the RF side and they told me a little about what was needed for the VSAT backhaul. After a quick run through over a few days i understood enough to know what i was looking for (brought some memories back from UNI days). I was even put in contact with the sales director of one of the local VSAT providers who one of my colleagues in the RF side had worked with. I met up with the sales director and told him what i needed. He provided me details of a VSAT supplier that could provide the dish, LnB, antenna and all the housing.
After totaling the cost of the VSAT system, the networking equipment, the computers , the wiring required and the man labour required to setup the VSAT system the total was about 9000AUD. Even though i knew i was going to get that back (should i get all this setup) it was to much for me to invest alone so i asked a friend of mine to help fork the bill. He trusted me so together we invested 4500 AUD each. I hired 3 VSAT engineers to help with the VSAT modem configurationg,bought the computers and the networking equipment second-hand and closed of the required deals with the VSAT comms provider. After negotiations with the sales director we were able to get 6 months free connectivity for the pilot site.
The team spent 5 nights in total setting up the VSAT system facing multiple different problems, misalignment, tripod that didnt fit the VSAT dish as expected,malfunctioning oscilloscope , leaving the laptop cable at home so after the battery ran out no more work could be done and so on. After working through each of the problems we eventually got the system functioning and were able to do the demo on time. Calls could be made and we could surf the internet. To the people of the area this was a great leap to what they currently had.
At the end i couldn't believe we had got it done. What was initially just an idea and a talk, turned into a fully fledged implementation that was totally unexpected, something we were totally not ready for but something which i learnt alot from! We didnt make alot of money but it was a good little profit and we did it 2 more times (each time easier then the first). After the 2 sites *money* had ran out to build more sites and next years budget would be needed to futher progress the project but my stint in indonesia had finished so i didnt continue.
When i think back on this i think im very lucky in many different ways. Lucky that i got the experience to learn about VSAT and the technology in detail, lucky that we actually got it working and lucky that this opportunity even fell into my lap in the first place. After this experience i approach things with a more positive attitude and i tell myself we did it before, we can do it again.
So this side project sorta crept up on me, but at the end it was an experience i would never forget. Below are some of the pictures and documents i wrote from the setup. Enjoy:
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