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: 0s | source

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notatoad ◴[10 Aug 22 18:11 UTC] No.32416199[source]▶

>"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."

is this really a valuable use of taxpayer money? sending a wireless link over a half-mile isn't that difficult, surely there's a better way to spend $60k of public money than delivering internet service to two families. especially now that starlink exists.

i'm all in favour of scrappy upstart ISPs, but this just seems wasteful.

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a2tech ◴[10 Aug 22 21:06 UTC] No.32418468[source]▶

>>32416199 #

Especially since he's burying the lede about the people he's servicing--its true 'in general' that the area is lower income, but most of the homes he's serving will be millionaires.

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1. notatoad ◴[11 Aug 22 01:53 UTC] No.32420708[source]▶

>>32418468 #

without knowing specifics, that's kinda what i assumed. i see the same thing near where i live - the "low income rural areas" that get infrastructure subsidies is cottage country or areas with a lot of retirees who've moved to the country.

the actual low income people living in rural areas have to move to a suburb or a trailer park if their region isn't serviced by a utility, they don't get assistance like this.

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