Starting Your Own Personal ISP?

Hi everyone,

I'm new and this may be a dumb question but here it goes anyway.

Is it possible for me to start my own personal ISP?

This is my situation... I live in a small town and we only have one ISP provider who not only price gouges us ( https://www.azci.net/order.htm )and gives us crappy service, but he also moniters what we do on the internet. I have actually recieved phone calls in the middle of the night from this man threatening to shut me down if I didn't stop viewing the page I was viewing on the internet. Let's just say he's rather "conservative".

Right now I'm paying $50 per month for download speeds ranging anywhere from .07-.17 kbps (once in a rare while at 3am I can get almost 500 kbps) and according to my ISP I can get "UP TO" 3 megs, which I've never been even close to. The guy blames the speed on my computer, which is complete crap because when I go to a friends house in another town my computer gets download speeds of 10 megs and up!

I don't want to start my own ISP company to compete with him or anything of that nature, I just want to have it for my own personal use. I am willing to make an investment if it will last me a lifetime. I do not wish to move to the big city, we like our small town because it is the perfect place to raise our son. What I don't like is my privacy being violated and being ripped off.

I'm a chick that can turn a wrench and I'm always looking to learn new things... So if anyone has any suggestions it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you.