On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 4:27 PM, Jared Mauch <jared@puck.nether.net> wrote:
I’m looking for some advice/input from people either public or private about woes building fiber to reach people outside the footprints of the existing incumbents.
I worked on one such project, indirectly, years ago. Fiber in a small town. My three takeaways were: At the time it cost about $5 per year per pole to rent attachments on the phone pole. An attachment is a particular distance up the pole where you are allowed to attach your cables. Rights of way from pole to pole included in the deal. The power company usually owns the poles and is usually required by regulators to rent attachments. "Help" the local schools with a "partnership" to bring them fiber interconnects. Your part of the partnership is interconnecting the underfunded schools well below your cost. Their part is clearing the bureaucratic hurdles to stringing your fiber all over town. 'Cause tech is a source of tax revenue... unless it's all about the kids. Resist the urge to be a cable and phone operator at the same time. Yes, there's a temptingly large bucket of money over there, but it's not for you. The incumbents aren't going to take your entry in to the market sitting down. If you would beat them, you need the folks who would battle the incumbents for the buckets of "content" money to all be pulling for your success. Regards, Bill Herrin -- William Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>