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

(arstechnica.com)
1135 points carride | 2 comments | 10 Aug 22 13:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.003s | source
1. the_optimist ◴[10 Aug 22 21:28 UTC] No.32418698[source]▶
Average cost of ~ $40k per connection to the government. How is this better than Starlink?
replies(1): >>32419136 #
2. bell-cot ◴[10 Aug 22 22:19 UTC] No.32419136[source]▶
The area served is close to Ann Arbor, MI - so remember Starlink's "satellites are in random-ish orbits around the Earth, not magically hovering over areas with more potential customers" issue.

It's possible that the county is trying to get tough with Comcast here - "stop gouging our residents so badly, or we'll help a local competitor (to you) grow into a real thorn in your bottom line". Starlink isn't credible for that.

And the money is from a "State and Local Fiscal Recovery" fund that the county has access to - so spending it on Starlink would probably be a legal non-starter regardless.