> ... you’ll need to purchase an AS and become a BGP-peering sovereign citizen cutting deals with backbone networks
Which is doable as an individual. One of my very best mate did just that: granted he's got quite the networking skills but he did that entirely on his own.
He'll even get 256 IPv4 addresses but for these he was put on a long waiting list (I think in one to two months he'll get them but he's waiting since about a year): IPv4 addresses are the actual scarce landlordy Internet resources!
Your buddy probably still has to pay for internet exchange with the backbones, they only give it for free if you're also a tier 1 ISP (i.e. see Lumen's requirements[1] and the others'[2]). Even massive ISPs like Comcast still have to pay for internet access[3] because they're not big enough to be a "peer" to the tier 1s.
PS. I think you're shadowbanned since this and your last 7 comments all showed up as [dead].
Which is doable as an individual. One of my very best mate did just that: granted he's got quite the networking skills but he did that entirely on his own.
He'll even get 256 IPv4 addresses but for these he was put on a long waiting list (I think in one to two months he'll get them but he's waiting since about a year): IPv4 addresses are the actual scarce landlordy Internet resources!