Slashdot is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
The Internet United States Technology

Man Who Built ISP Instead of Paying Comcast $50K Expands To Hundreds of Homes (arstechnica.com) 108

Jared Mauch, the Michigan man who built a fiber-to-the-home Internet provider because he couldn't get good broadband service from AT&T or Comcast, is expanding with the help of $2.6 million in government money. From a report: When we wrote about Mauch in January 2021, he was providing service to about 30 rural homes including his own with his ISP, Washtenaw Fiber Properties. Mauch now has about 70 customers and will extend his network to nearly 600 more properties with money from the American Rescue Plan's Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, he told Ars in a phone interview in mid-July.

The US government allocated Washtenaw County $71 million for a variety of infrastructure projects, and the county devoted a portion to broadband. The county conducted a broadband study before the pandemic to identify unserved locations, Mauch said. When the federal government money became available, the county issued a request for proposals (RFP) seeking contractors to wire up addresses "that were known to be unserved or underserved based on the existing survey," he said. "They had this gap-filling RFP, and in my own wild stupidity or brilliance, I'm not sure which yet, I bid on the whole project [in my area] and managed to win through that competitive bidding process," he said. Mauch's ISP is one of four selected by Washtenaw County to wire up different areas.

Mauch's network currently has about 14 miles of fiber, and he'll build another 38 miles to complete the government-funded project, he said. In this sparsely populated rural area, "I have at least two homes where I have to build a half-mile to get to one house," Mauch said, noting that it will cost "over $30,000 for each of those homes to get served." The contract between Mauch and the county was signed in May 2022 and requires him to extend his network to an estimated 417 addresses in Freedom, Lima, Lodi, and Scio townships. Mauch lives in Scio, which is next to Ann Arbor. Although the contract just requires service to those 417 locations, Mauch explained that his new fiber routes would pass 596 potential customers. "I'm building past some addresses that are covered by other [grant] programs, but I'll very likely be the first mover in building in those areas," he said. Under the contract terms, Mauch will provide 100Mbps symmetrical Internet with unlimited data for $55 a month and 1Gbps with unlimited data for $79 a month.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Man Who Built ISP Instead of Paying Comcast $50K Expands To Hundreds of Homes

Comments Filter:
  • Good (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Arethan ( 223197 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:55AM (#62777350) Journal

    This is a shining example of money allocated for a local-level initiative going through its respective local process and coming out with a net positive result. A seemingly rare moment of Actual Good News.

    The obvious alternative would have been that AT&T or Comcast wins the bid, though I'm personally less convinced either of those stock market traded giants would match the level of effort this local newcomer is bringing to the table.

    Though, I'm almost certain that some behemoth will offer to buy up the market after it's been built up and has a year or so of subscriber history. This guy may do very well to give them the finger and just repeat his process for other counties, using grants to build up a new empire. Or, he could just sell out and take the first batch of big money that flies in his direction - I doubt many people would fault him for that.

    • Re:Good (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Immerman ( 2627577 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:51AM (#62777462)

      > though I'm personally less convinced either of those stock market traded giants would match the level of effort this local newcomer is bringing to the table.

      Depends - are you talking about the effort to provide service, or the effort to get government money for doing so?

      Because we've already seen the giants go to great lengths for the latter - at least when there's no strict legal requirement that they ever actually do the former.

      • The problem we have is the amount of Time and Money that goes into making sure that government funds are properly handled and allocated.

        This need to make sure that money is properly allocated accounts for a lot of the difficulty in getting government grants, and support.
        In general giving money to an established company who has a track record in such activities is an easier sales pitch, than some guy trying to do something new.
        Besides which article would you get more angry at.

        Big Telecom company gets money f

        • Re:Good (Score:4, Informative)

          by Arethan ( 223197 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @12:36PM (#62777766) Journal

          Besides which article would you get more angry at.

          Big Telecom company gets money from the government to put broadband in rural communities fall short in implementation.
          or
          This guy get millions for the government to do something that he had never done before and he had failed.

          Having seen the former literally happen time and again across several decades, I tend to think that some schmo winning a government telecom service expansion contract and failing to deliver is still playing better odds. After all, the behavior of big telecom on this is pretty well known, so we'd be foolish to think they'll suddenly be eager to change the status quo. At least the random person has an unestablished track record... they still have the potential to maybe do something new, different, and exciting (like actually using the money for the purpose it was designated).

          • Re:Good (Score:5, Insightful)

            by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @12:49PM (#62777798)

            Plus the fact is this guy is local, he lives in the area he is service, he knows face-to-face the people that are getting or planning to get the service from him. The chances of him running off with the cash is probably an order of magnitude less than a mega-corp with no direct ties to the area and the project managers and executives thousands of miles away.

            • by jonwil ( 467024 )

              Not to mention that he himself knows what its like to be stuck with no decent internet service.

      • The big ISPs took something like a billion dollars in tax credits to provide access to underserved rural addresses. They took the money and did literally nothing. I have heard it described as the second biggest corporate crime after the 2008 meltdown and nobody talks about it.
      • There's definately an artform to tendering, and it helps to have a lot of experience in it. That's why ex govt employees do so well at consulting , they've already got the contacts and have probably evaluated so many tenders that they know exactly what it takes to win them. And it's a capability a lot of company's will pay very well to acquire

      • About ten years ago AT&T was paid to put in fiber down my rural road. About 20 homes along the 4 mile length, most are 100 yds or more off the road. AT&T was not paid to hook anyone up. The phone line does not support DSL so anyone who wants Internet has to use a satellite service. I use Hughesnet, $89 per month, 50GB cap. Starlink is not available yet.
      • It's not government money. It's taxpayer money.

    • Re:Good (Score:5, Interesting)

      by narcc ( 412956 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @12:28PM (#62777720) Journal

      This is an honest guy trying to do something good for his community. This is very much the exception.

      Public-private partnerships necessarily wasteful, and often low-quality, as the 'private' side is motivated to profit from the arrangement as much as possible. You might want to believe that leads to innovation, but it usually leads to cutting-corners, excuses for why project goals were not met, or flat-out lies about what was accomplished.

      I'm almost certain that some behemoth will offer to buy up the market after it's been built up

      An unregulated or under-regulated free market will produce monopolies. That's bad for consumers and bad for progress.
         

  • I am still trying to rationalize out spending $30k for a half mile of fiber to serve one customer. Government waste vs law of averages vs... It seems like a lot without the customer making some financial commitment to it.

    • by johnstrass1 ( 2451730 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:12AM (#62777392)
      It' s part of our social compact. We help all Americans with the basics, and internet is as necessary today as are roads and electricity. . Rural mail delivery is one example. It certainly costs more to get a letter to rural alaska than to Brooklyn. Its just a shame that those rural voters who benefit form this type of massive taxpayer subsidy then thumb their noses at the federal government
      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by King_TJ ( 85913 )

        I'm happy to hear that for once, the "little guy" wins here, in the sense he was able to take all of this government money and use it for what it's intended for. I mean, we all know this is a situation where the corporate giants in this space just scoop up 99% of those funds to do with as they wish. For them, it's a game of how to technically qualify for the funds while spending the least possible amount of money on meeting that bar, so they can increase profits and compensation for upper management/ownersh

        • I had to sit threw an long rant about Anti-Government and all the crazy right wing political BS from the very obvious fake news sites that my elderly father considers to be true.
          Part of this rant on how to not trust the government, he talked about all the problems he had with the VA getting service, until he gave the his state Senator a call complaining about his problems, where in short time he got a call from the VA assigning him a personal coordinator to help navigate the VA.

          He is happy thinking that se

          • by King_TJ ( 85913 )

            There's clearly some crazy stuff out there from fake news sites with far, far Right agendas. That doesn't really change anything about the reality of the government currently in place and operating daily, all around us.

            I'm sure most state Senators *do* regularly try to assist people with problems getting government services they're supposed to be entitled to getting. My mom had to get their help once for an issue with my youngest brother, who has Down's Syndrome and isn't very high functioning.

            My complaint

            • Biden promised that no one making under $400,000 would be audited. Oh wait, many billion dollar corporations have not made a profit in years, I guess they will not be audited then.
      • It' s part of our social compact. We help all Americans with the basics, and internet is as necessary today as are roads and electricity. . Rural mail delivery is one example. It certainly costs more to get a letter to rural alaska than to Brooklyn. Its just a shame that those rural voters who benefit form this type of massive taxpayer subsidy then thumb their noses at the federal government

        First of all, which social compact are you talking about? Where is it? Is it written down somewhere? Where is it written that "we help Americans with the basics"? What ARE "the basics"? Because some people are more or less including everything in "the basics". As in "the government is responsible for feeding you, clothing you, and housing you". I don't recall the part of our founding documents that stated Uncle Sam was my daddy and responsible for all of my "basics". Can you point it out in the Declaration

        • by jacks smirking reven ( 909048 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @12:12PM (#62777676)

          What ARE "the basics"?

          You are correct that this is not codified directly but this has come up before in history, especially with FDR and what he described in 1944 as "The Second Bill of Rights" [wikipedia.org]

          The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
          The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
          The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
          The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
          The right of every family to a decent home;
          The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
          The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
          The right to a good education.

          While it's not "the law" I don't think there is anything preventing us logistically or economically from ensuring all citizens have them in this the wealthiest nation to ever exist in the history of the earth.

          • ... preventing us logistically or economically from ensuring all citizens ...

            For that purpose, the New Deal declared that government had a responsibility to every citizen, not just a collective outcome. In some ways, he failed since black people, native Americans and women were not directly addressed. (That happened with the Civil Rights Act which caused its own political backlash of "state's rights".) He also failed as corporations branded such responsibilities as 'evil government'. It's why the US government continues to lack universal healthcare or hold telecommunication corp

            • And the Declaration of Independance says "all men are created equal" but slavery existed for another 100 years, women couldnt vote until the 20th century and white male landowners had all the power.

              America has never quite lived up to it's ideals but those still are ideal worth pursuing. Where FDR failed in the 30s we can do better today.

          • Every right has an equal responsibility. You have a right to a trial with a jury of your peers, but you also have a responsibility to show up for jury duty when requested to do so etc.

            > The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

            The responsibility to show up for work, on-time, displaying a good attitude, with useful and remunerative skills where jobs exist. A fair day's pay for a fair day's work.

            > The right to earn enough to provide adequa

        • by chill ( 34294 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @12:52PM (#62777808) Journal

          Provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.

          You can sing it if it helps you remember.

      • by guruevi ( 827432 )

        If you can afford 50k for a driveway (that's the price for half a mile of asphalt), you can afford 30k for some fiber. This region the article is talking about is very rich country with an average income of ~100-120k per person. These people have acres of land to have a half mile driveway with a mansion at the end, yet paying someone to trench a fiber is too complicated?

        • You're right for the most part, but not everyone living in the townships outside of Ann Arbor is wealthy. There's a lot of people who moved out there a long time ago and are now sitting on land that they probably couldn't afford today. This is probably true of lots of rural parts of America that are being "gentrified."

          More on topic, having lived in Ann Arbor, I don't see why 4G/5G connections isn't a better solution than running a $30,000 fiber optic cable to their house. While Ann Arbor has some hills,

          • More on topic, having lived in Ann Arbor, I don't see why 4G/5G connections isn't a better solution than running a $30,000 fiber optic cable to their house.

            Wireless home Internet service has historically had monthly data transfer quotas that are unusable for more than occasional browsing and email. Operating system updates on multiple devices, downloading a long-term-licensed movie or video game, or even SD streaming video could cause the ISP to bill the customer for overages.

        • I don't know anything about the specific area in which this story takes place, but I can assure you that not everyone with a 1/2 mile driveway is rich. I've lived in Montana my whole life, and while I've always lived in town, I've known plenty of people that live in the country that have very long driveways and were barely middle class. It's often just how it is out there.

      • I get that is the justification... but there is a point where universal-anything is a bad solution. Today, "universal [utility] electrification" is a waste of money as an example-- there are enough solutions to allow off-grid living with minimal compromise. A half-mile is trivial for plenty of other solutions that pure social-contract funds are squandered by providing the "most expensive" solution.

        It all works out in aggregate-- the grant was not to connect two customers to the network for $60k, but ~600

      • Rural mail delivery is one example. It certainly costs more to get a letter to rural alaska than to Brooklyn.

        It does, but the letter isn't even guaranteed to get to the person's house. In rural areas, USPS often does not offer delivery to an address, but instead to a cluster mailbox, which may be located far from the actual residence. And it's not just in tiny towns; Jackson, WY [jacksonwy.gov], a town of 10k, only has centralized USPS delivery.

        There is a balance between providing a common service and the cost of providing it. It's a lot to ask of the taxpayer to foot the bill for someone who decides to live far from infrastructu

    • Starlink... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:13AM (#62777394)

      Granted, it's not Gigabit, and it's more costly per month... but it takes a lot of months to chew up a $30,000 infrastructure cost difference...

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        but that fiber run is a much better investment long term, as the max data transmission of the fiber line itself is much higher than the 1gb currently offered, and all that is needed is upgrade it is better fiber transmitters and receivers at each end, as long as the ISP can also handle the increased bandwidth. As the national and global networks improve, so could the existing fiber infrastructure.

        • If this guy is smart, he's putting in conduit underground so that later cable runs are easy, and he can rent space in them.
        • Re:Starlink... (Score:5, Interesting)

          by jaredmauch ( 633928 ) <jared@puck.nether.net> on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:36AM (#62777594) Homepage

          but that fiber run is a much better investment long term, as the max data transmission of the fiber line itself is much higher than the 1gb currently offered, and all that is needed is upgrade it is better fiber transmitters and receivers at each end, as long as the ISP can also handle the increased bandwidth. As the national and global networks improve, so could the existing fiber infrastructure.

          There's also this thing known as a "pole denial" - aka no, you can't attach to that pole, which requires then doing something else, either setting your own pole or doing something alternative as a result. Just like mixing technology or environments (eg: Ubuntu vs Debian, or worse a RPM vs DPKG or Windows vs *BSD) having a mix of construction types can make your life more complex. I'm trying to optimize a lot of variables at once.

      • If that property is at the end of a half-mile dead-end road, the federal government is already paying a federal employee to drive a mile (round trip) each weekday just to check if the resident might have put a $.45 stamp on an envelope and placed it on the exterior of their mailbox for pickup.

        Thinking of the future, the fiber infrastructure allows for an IOT mailbox to be installed that will register when mail is ready for pickup. The smart mailbox system can then create a dynamic route for mail delivery /
        • by jbengt ( 874751 )

          If that property is at the end of a half-mile dead-end road, the federal government is already paying a federal employee to drive a mile (round trip) each weekday just to check if the resident might have put a $.45 stamp on an envelope and placed it on the exterior of their mailbox for pickup.

          Are you sure? Because I know plenty of people whose mailboxes are not directly on their property. For example, I live at the end of a 1/10th of a mile long road, and I have to walk that 500 feet to the mailbox on the

      • At current prices, $30k would pay for 22 years of Starlink service, not accounting for interest or reduction in prices over the next decades.

        Fiber definitely has its advantages, but beyond a certain distance there is no point in connecting an isolated house.

      • by sglines ( 543315 )

        I'd like to know why he didn't consider a radio link for that half mile. It would have cost him less than $500 bit more if he needed elevation.

    • by keltor ( 99721 ) *
      Don't focus on the trees, focus on the forest.
    • You have a good point. Simply hanging fiber on existing power poles or telephone poles probably would warrant a small annual space rental fee and would be far less. Likely those costs are due to new pole construction, right of way easements, or perhaps the cost of burying the fiber.
    • At this point it’s infrastructure. Why did the power company bother with this one home a century ago?

    • I am still trying to rationalize out spending $30k for a half mile of fiber to serve one customer. Government waste vs law of averages vs

      How is it the government's fault the contractors the guy is hiring charge what they do to run fiber? Are you whining about the $50,000 Comast/ATT/Verizon charge for the same thing? Surely that must be the government's fault as well and not them price gouging.
    • You'll be happy to own the fibre when the customer sells their land to a developer.

    • That does seem hard to justify. As a baseline rough guide I hear StarLink (satellite) is like $100 per month, $30,000 is 25 years of service and that would provide pretty good internet for most people cheaper. Actually why didn't the customer get StarLink or get it subsidized?

    • I am still trying to rationalize out spending $30k for a half mile of fiber to serve one customer.

      I'm trying to rationalise it to, but only because it sounds way too cheap. I've seen numbers like that for closer to the sub 100m runs. Don't underestimate what it takes to lay infrastructure, this isn't the same as your neighbour's half arsed cable burred so shallow in the ground that it not only fails building codes but is likely to get eaten by the local wildlife.

      Doing work costs money. Doing it properly costs a LOT of money.

      • I was following a couple rural ISPs a few years back that were easily able to bury fiber on the roadway ROW for under $100k/mile. It helps that there were almost no other underground utilities, so a chain trencher could run continuously for 24" burial. They would hand dig 10' on either side of existing utilities. If you are parallel with another service it is a totally different story of course.

        I was amazed; they could do a little over a mile a week in the field with a single crew of 4-6.

    • Iâ(TM)m sure we had the same discussion once upon a time about sewer lines.
  • by mseeger ( 40923 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:22AM (#62777412)

    I created my own ISP in 1992 because the university said, the network should be reserved for PHDs and professors ;-).

    Anger is an excellent motivator.

    • In that year my company's internet service was a 14.4K modem to a tiny ISP whose uplink to the "backbone" was a T1 line.

      • by mseeger ( 40923 )

        We started with a Zyxel 16K8 link to Hamburg which had a 64k uplink to EUnet who had a T1 link....

        At that time, this was more than anyone else in a 50 mile radius had.

        • by Anonymous Coward

          Was at a conference in 1993, 3*19k2 uplink for 600 people camping out with their computers in tents.

          That was enough. Back then.

          It was fun, too. Somehow the fun went away. I always wanted to get into networking but it somehow never happened. Not sure I regret that now.

  • by Virtucon ( 127420 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:52AM (#62777464)

    Blackjack and hookers? Asking for a friend.

  • by methano ( 519830 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @10:52AM (#62777468)
    Some dude in Wilson NC, did about the same thing a number of years ago. Comcast was reaming them so he said let's do it ourselves. They were very successful (high speeds, fiber, low prices) and the state legislature (republican controlled and bought off by Comcast and TW) promptly outlawed any other NC cities from doing the same thing ever again. Gotta love it.
    • When free market capitalism does not work in your favor, get a law passed to "fix the problem." After all, corporations are people too, and you don't wan them to end up homeless.

      • This was explained excellently a few years ago in a /. comment by someone who works at a telecom. From their point of view their is no "free market capitalism" because this is a highly regulated market already. The big players were required to provide service *everywhere* regardless of profitability whereas some of the smaller players were only serving profitable markets. That made it worse for the big players because they then lost some of their cash-positive customers, putting them in an even worse cas

        • Indeed the 30k raises some economical questions. Why focus on fiber up to each home? Why not use coax, ethernet, rf link, ... for the connection of the home to the backbone? Or is laying out fiber become cost competitive with those?
          • by jemmyw ( 624065 )
            I would have thought the major cost was digging up the ground rather than the type of cable. That seems ballpark utility connection fee around here, different country but similar rural housing issues.
            • Yeah, it's not the fact that it's fiber, it's the fact that the homeowner is being subsidized in his decision to live way off the beaten path. I have no problem with people living in the woods, but there are costs and they need to personally bear those costs.

    • by DesScorp ( 410532 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:55AM (#62777640) Journal

      republican controlled and bought off by Comcast and TW

      If you look at the list of states [broadbandnow.com] that block local broadband co-ops and services, you'll find states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington, and Colorado, and Oregon. Look around and I think you'll find that fellating big telecoms is very much a bi-partisan exercise.

      • We fought the "superdmca" bill here in Tennessee about 20 years ago, pushed by Comcast. Their sponsors were Curtiss Person (R) in the senate and "Rob Briley (D)" in the house. They're Comcast - they bought both parties.

    • âoeFreedomâ to do anything you want as long as conservatives agree with it.
  • by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:01AM (#62777498)

    in 3... 2... 1... "Waaaah! That's not fair! Our profits! Our shareholders! The FCC! We want Ajit Pai back!"

    I'm sure their lawyers are drafting appeals and vetting press releases even as I'm writing this. I really hope those fuckers make negative headway in whatever shitty self-serving initiative they're about to launch to protect their oligopoly.

  • by Rick Schumann ( 4662797 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @11:32AM (#62777576) Journal
    Just a thought: wouldn't it be cheaper, and just as effective, to set those single homes that require a half mile of fiber (for $30000 each) just to serve them, with high-gain parabolic dish antennas and amplfied WiFi to bridge that half mile gap? Theoretically, assuming there's line-of-sight?
    • by Reeses ( 5069 )

      I suspect he wanted to provide service that was less susceptible to weather issues (wind, storms, etc.) and lower maintenance. Ideally, a properly laid fiber line should be able to provide service for decades with little intervention other than ensuring animals haven't set up residence in the last junction box. Microwave antennae require consistent check-ups and the signal has to deal with lots of weather-related interference.

      As some one who grew up in a rural area with terrible internet options until I mov

    • Just a thought: wouldn't it be cheaper, and just as effective, to set those single homes that require a half mile of fiber (for $30000 each) just to serve them, with high-gain parabolic dish antennas and amplfied WiFi to bridge that half mile gap? Theoretically, assuming there's line-of-sight?

      How much does power, tower (rentals) and people to climb poles when the electronics break or become obsolete cost? Sure you could do a 60ghz or FSO for unobstructed short LOS runs but this is a massive ongoing drag in terms of maintenance, technological evolution and customer satisfaction.

      No matter what technology you select it's not fiber. It will never be as reliable, low maintenance, performant or as future proof as fiber.

      If you decided to go there and simply deploy a band aid you will win in the shor

      • I dunno, what does that cost? Just seems to me that if it's just one house, that a direct tight-beam wireless connection would be a good solution, assuming it's direct line-of-sight, nothing in the way. If it's on a street where there might be more houses built in the future then it could be a temporary measure just to give that one house service, fiber could be built later. Was just a thought.
    • The goals of the county gap project and funding was to provide service to these areas. The problem is the tower may be 2-3 miles away and to hit these speeds, it requires more spectrum than is available, even if you use the RF Elements horn based antennas.

      If the farm properties along the way are subdivided they can be connected for much lower cost in the future with this.

  • Free stuff for other people. For you, no soup.

  • by jgotts ( 2785 ) <jgotts@gmaCOLAil.com minus caffeine> on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @01:14PM (#62777864)

    The phone companies were supposed to have wired up these, let me be honest here, not so rural areas, a long time ago. The phone companies welched on their side of the bargain and left taxpayers holding the bag. These communities are just a few miles from Ann Arbor, one of Michigan's major cities. Washtenaw County is sometimes considered to be a part of the Metro Detroit sprawl.

    I have a true story to share about Jared. When I was in my late teens (1994-1995) his girlfriend reported to me that Jared did not consider me to be a Linux kernel hacker. By that point I was maintaining two kernel modules and had submitted at least one patch to Linus. I ytalked Linus at Helsinki and he agreed to add me to the CREDITS file with the description "kernel hacker."

    I have Jared to thank for reminding me that I belonged in the CREDITS file, even though my contributions were one-millionth the size of David Miller or Ingo Molnar. Every little bit helps!

    I prefer to do web services development today, mainly in PHP, and I've been gainfully employed doing Linux work full time since 1999. Contact me if you have an interesting project for a Linux veteran.

  • And the values of these homes just jumped 5-10%.
    Think about 1GB symmetrical fiber for a moment.
    You could host a small startup in this rural area.

  • by registrations_suck ( 1075251 ) on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @06:45PM (#62778594)

    If the govt is providing the money to build out, the govt should own the infrastructure when it's in place it shouldn't be just handed over to a private entity who is free to sell it at a profit.

  • Comcast is really scared now!
  • Curious on whether it is practical in this area to supplement the fiber with directional wireless solutions. I worked in a mostly rural county where microwave was the only cost-effective way option to reach certain areas. For the underground fiber plant, I hope there's plenty of slack to deal with fiber cuts. That'll prevent some costly restorations. Also, hope the plant isn't chopped up too much or the db loss will creep up. I agree with a previous person's post on renting the conduit. In a previous
    • Not really, there's a few WISPs in the area already, there are logistical issues when it comes to terrain and tree cover that make it impractical.

No spitting on the Bus! Thank you, The Mgt.

Working...