←back to thread

Man who built ISP instead of paying Comcast $50K expands to hundreds of homes

(arstechnica.com)
1135 points carride | 1 comments | 10 Aug 22 13:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.219s | source
Show context
brentm ◴[10 Aug 22 14:20 UTC] No.32412425[source]▶
This seems like a fun project to work on but what is the financial game here? Does he invest in building the network, operate at a loss and then sell to someone like Comcast? I assume building a remote fiber network that can reach 600 houses has to incur huge CapEx (way more than $2.6M right?) and at $50/mo a very long payback period.

However it works, pretty awesome project, kudos.

replies(6): >>32412470 #>>32412495 #>>32412508 #>>32412624 #>>32412729 #>>32413177 #
1. pwinnski ◴[10 Aug 22 14:31 UTC] No.32412624[source]▶
The initial investment is paid by subscribers or financed by the government grant, both mentioned in the linked article.

The monthly income of $55 or $79 times 70 people is $3850-5530/month gross right now, which is likely not a full-time income, but with potentially 600 more customers soon, it's possible he could achieve a full-time income for himself, which many people would consider a worthy goal.

In 1994 or 1995, I used an ISP in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that was just one guy providing decent service. If there were issues, I'd call David and he'd fix them. His goal was to have good internet service--which was difficult to come by then and there--and to underwrite it by sharing it with others. I know he made a go of it for a number of years, although I'm not sure how it ended.