The mutual benefit corporation is https://lahcommunityfiber.org https://lahcommunityfiber.org and I'm now on the board. It's basically the same corporate struct

The mutual benefit corporation is https://lahcommunityfiber.org https://lahcommunityfiber.org and I'm now on the board. It's basically the same corporate structure as our water company and so far is treating us well. Costs are all over the map. My neighborhood ended up being about $12.7k to build out and $155/mo, but we're on a steep hillside and with large parcels in an expensive metro area. Another neighborhood in a flatter area and with slightly smaller (but still quite large) parcels and higher uptake was around $4k. We were at ~50% uptake. Those that didn't either were outliers with Comcast, or weren't really serious internet users. Our alternative is AT&T DSL at 18/0.75 for $50/mo. We're expecting rebates on the initial build as uptake rises and additional nearby infra gets built, as well as a reduction in monthly cost as our backhaul gets better utilized. Getting enough commitment to be able to nail down costs and avoid the dilemma of a cost death spiral as people pull out of the project mostly boils down to peer pressure. We did OK on this in our neighborhood because the DSL alternative was so miserable that there was strong will to continue. Construction is hard and the contractors were incompetent and constantly screwed things up. Folks suffering that incompetence got pissed. Getting power from PG&E is a miserable sufferfest and won't be resolved for another year. In the mean time we're mooching power from one of the subscribers and paying him back. Luckily we didn't need a lot in the way of permits because it's all private property, including the road. If we were constructing in the public right of way we'd either need special permission from the town to do so, or we'd need to register as a CLEC with the public utilities commission. In practice we're working on both, but becoming a CLEC is so far away in our future that it won't be viable for any currently-planned expansions. Usually getting special permission from the town is easier for getting started.