> i never understood why not setup your own personal base station network.
You can, and that used to be common. Some years ago most farmers sold their personal base stations to the local dealer because by doing that the dealer gave their far fields access to a different RTK base station, while before the signals from their personal base station didn't reach the distance fields at all. Plus the dealer maintains the base stations - they are best placed where they are likely to be hit by lightening so someone else taking that risk is overall worth it.
You can, and that used to be common. Some years ago most farmers sold their personal base stations to the local dealer because by doing that the dealer gave their far fields access to a different RTK base station, while before the signals from their personal base station didn't reach the distance fields at all. Plus the dealer maintains the base stations - they are best placed where they are likely to be hit by lightening so someone else taking that risk is overall worth it.