4 ms·

in the video Jared said he's 25 years in the industry. This being nlnog, I guess in networking, one layer above the physical? good mechanical engineering skills

in the video Jared said he's 25 years in the industry. This being nlnog, I guess in networking, one layer above the physical? good mechanical engineering skills also helped with building an diy conduit blower for the fibre cables. The thing I most wonder about if you start to be a service provider and need to provide ongoing connectivity - you need a backup plan for when you're out of town.

cnst 6y ago
And he didn't actually reply to the question on how much of his own time he has spent doing all of this. It's impressive, but, at the same time, I'd imagine it's way too stressful to run by yourself in a small town like that. Without really that much payout, money-wise.
- jaredmauch 6y ago
  too much time.. the payback is actually reasonable (under 4 years)
  - cnst 6y ago
    Are you saying you're going to recoup the value of your time in under 4 years, or would you just recoup the initial non-time investment in under 4 years? It may sound like you might be spending something around 20 hours per week on this, if not more. If you bill your own time to your new ISP at market rate, when will you recoup the investment? Is that still 4 years? To put some math into perspective, (20 hours/week * 4 weeks/month * 100 USD/hour) / 50 USD/month/customer = 160 customers -- that's how many customers you need to cover just your time alone, without considering any other expenses. The math should definitely work out given an adequate intake, but I think it's also easy to get lost in the community and tech part of it, forgetting the business case. Especially if you live in the middle of nowhere, without that many neighbours to sign up.
    - iptrans 6y ago
      Even if Jared is spending 20 hours per week on this project now, that will not be the case after construction is finished. As such your calculation does not hold and 160 customers will not be needed to recoup costs, cash or non-cash. There need only be enough customers to cover running expenses, administration costs and once off investment costs over time.

cnst 6y ago

And he didn't actually reply to the question on how much of his own time he has spent doing all of this. It's impressive, but, at the same time, I'd imagine it's way too stressful to run by yourself in a small town like that. Without really that much payout, money-wise.

jaredmauch 6y ago
too much time.. the payback is actually reasonable (under 4 years)
- cnst 6y ago
  Are you saying you're going to recoup the value of your time in under 4 years, or would you just recoup the initial non-time investment in under 4 years? It may sound like you might be spending something around 20 hours per week on this, if not more. If you bill your own time to your new ISP at market rate, when will you recoup the investment? Is that still 4 years? To put some math into perspective, (20 hours/week * 4 weeks/month * 100 USD/hour) / 50 USD/month/customer = 160 customers -- that's how many customers you need to cover just your time alone, without considering any other expenses. The math should definitely work out given an adequate intake, but I think it's also easy to get lost in the community and tech part of it, forgetting the business case. Especially if you live in the middle of nowhere, without that many neighbours to sign up.
  - iptrans 6y ago
    Even if Jared is spending 20 hours per week on this project now, that will not be the case after construction is finished. As such your calculation does not hold and 160 customers will not be needed to recoup costs, cash or non-cash. There need only be enough customers to cover running expenses, administration costs and once off investment costs over time.