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Laying fibre today is cheaper than most people think. Both fibre itself, and equipment prices fell through the floor around a decade ago, when fibre manufactur

Laying fibre today is cheaper than most people think. Both fibre itself, and equipment prices fell through the floor around a decade ago, when fibre manufacturing reached China, and India. It's usually the network hardware which makes a bigger impact on the pricetag today. I knew myself a trio which started a small fibre ISP with few thousand dollars, and 2nd hand network equipment.

paxys 5y ago
The biggest cost of such an effort is navigating local bureaucracy. You will hit a different permitting and approval process every few miles. Every neighborhood council has an opinion on how you should dig the hole. Every town wants to do an environmental study, economic impact study, town halls and endless deliberation. There are always vested interests in play. You can use only a specific kind of union labor. And then a month into deployment some idiot fixing a pipe will cut your cable. Despite a massive investment Google itself couldn't pull it off with Fiber, and I doubt startups have much of a chance.
- baybal2 5y ago
  Well, it wasn't in the US
NelsonMinar 5y ago
Fiber is only reasonably inexpensive in dense urban areas. The cost of laying new fiber in sparsely populated rural areas is prohibitive.
- baybal2 5y ago
  Well, no more than laying any other cable. For long straight runs it will beat copper on cost god knows how many times.
- axiolite 5y ago
  > Fiber is only reasonably inexpensive in dense urban areas. In dense urban areas it is expensive to retrofit a network. You have to maintain the existing while you run the new, won't have a lot of space, any digging or new poles is expensive as there is a lot of infrastructure in your way, salaries are much higher, etc. Europe is a good example of this. DSL remained in most areas because dense urban areas are expensive to convert. In less dense (sub-urban) areas, fiber has much lower ongoing maintenance costs versus copper, labor costs are lower, it's less prohibitive/cumbersome when you need or prefer to dig, and pole attachment is cheaper/easier. In very rural areas, customers are so sparse that it's a money loser whatever you do. Installation of the copper phone lines was paid for by government programs, and the USF fees continue to subsidize their continued operation. While fiber has lower operating/maintenance costs than copper, the payoff period for the conversion is many decades, so decidedly uneconomical. When FIOS first came out, it was unsurprisingly the sub-urban areas which were the first to be converted. They are the sweet-spot for most profitable FIOS conversion. Urban areas remain expensive to convert, but internet service has become more profitable over the years, and losing your customers to a competitor which did the investment is bad all-around, so conversion happens regardless of expense. Most telling fact is Verizon opting to get out of wired service entirely. It's a lower margin business than most, requiring high up-front investment with long/slow payback... at least in areas where there is any competition.
- rasz 5y ago
  Cost of laying fiber is same as cost of laying a drain pipe - technical plan and a guy with rented digger/trencher. The prohibitive part comes in when you start subcontracting to subcontractors of subcontractors.
kazen44 5y ago
network hardware has come down a lot in price too. small to medium core routers are quite cheap these days, even from the big expensive brands like juniper/cisco et al.

paxys 5y ago

The biggest cost of such an effort is navigating local bureaucracy. You will hit a different permitting and approval process every few miles. Every neighborhood council has an opinion on how you should dig the hole. Every town wants to do an environmental study, economic impact study, town halls and endless deliberation. There are always vested interests in play. You can use only a specific kind of union labor. And then a month into deployment some idiot fixing a pipe will cut your cable. Despite a massive investment Google itself couldn't pull it off with Fiber, and I doubt startups have much of a chance.

baybal2 5y ago
Well, it wasn't in the US

NelsonMinar 5y ago

Fiber is only reasonably inexpensive in dense urban areas. The cost of laying new fiber in sparsely populated rural areas is prohibitive.

baybal2 5y ago
Well, no more than laying any other cable. For long straight runs it will beat copper on cost god knows how many times.
axiolite 5y ago
> Fiber is only reasonably inexpensive in dense urban areas. In dense urban areas it is expensive to retrofit a network. You have to maintain the existing while you run the new, won't have a lot of space, any digging or new poles is expensive as there is a lot of infrastructure in your way, salaries are much higher, etc. Europe is a good example of this. DSL remained in most areas because dense urban areas are expensive to convert. In less dense (sub-urban) areas, fiber has much lower ongoing maintenance costs versus copper, labor costs are lower, it's less prohibitive/cumbersome when you need or prefer to dig, and pole attachment is cheaper/easier. In very rural areas, customers are so sparse that it's a money loser whatever you do. Installation of the copper phone lines was paid for by government programs, and the USF fees continue to subsidize their continued operation. While fiber has lower operating/maintenance costs than copper, the payoff period for the conversion is many decades, so decidedly uneconomical. When FIOS first came out, it was unsurprisingly the sub-urban areas which were the first to be converted. They are the sweet-spot for most profitable FIOS conversion. Urban areas remain expensive to convert, but internet service has become more profitable over the years, and losing your customers to a competitor which did the investment is bad all-around, so conversion happens regardless of expense. Most telling fact is Verizon opting to get out of wired service entirely. It's a lower margin business than most, requiring high up-front investment with long/slow payback... at least in areas where there is any competition.
rasz 5y ago
Cost of laying fiber is same as cost of laying a drain pipe - technical plan and a guy with rented digger/trencher. The prohibitive part comes in when you start subcontracting to subcontractors of subcontractors.

kazen44 5y ago

network hardware has come down a lot in price too. small to medium core routers are quite cheap these days, even from the big expensive brands like juniper/cisco et al.