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Some small towns have started building fiber to every home that want it, as a public utility. It has confirmed cost is the only question that voters care about.

by ip26 3y ago

Some small towns have started building fiber to every home that want it, as a public utility. It has confirmed cost is the only question that voters care about. In one example it cost something like $200M for a population of 150,000. That’s $1.3k per person. Good luck getting the taxpayer to sign up for that without a clear revenue model. It’s being done, but not as some kind of blind “hey you know what would be great” leap.

michaelmrose 3y ago
Wouldn't the revenue model be something like $50-$100 per household for the next 20 years to cover principle and interest? Assuming 50k households and 85% uptake and 50 per month is 510M 100 is about a billion.
- jdietrich 3y ago
  98% of Americans have access to fixed-line broadband, but only 62% actually have it. A significant proportion are fine with just having mobile and a small but fairly stable minority simply have no interest in using the internet at all. There are certainly some remaining connection gaps in remote rural communities, but universal fiber coverage is the least cost-effective solution to that problem. https://itif.org/publications/2022/12/05/state-of-us-broadband-in-2022-reassessing-the-whole-picture/ https://itif.org/publications/2022/12/05/state-of-us-broadba...
  - michaelmrose 3y ago
    I had a conversation as an agent with a customer wanting to cut internet access in favor of just having people use their phones. She was confused by the fact that she thought the experience she had by using her fixed wired internet to provide wifi access to her phones was automagically a function of the devices themselves. While slightly slow walking the process and explaining the disadvantages of this I manually shut down the connection to the modem without actually disconnecting the internet service. Her kids had successfully vetoed the operation before we could complete the disconnection. Pew says of those who rely only on a smartphone rather than a broadband connection only 45% feel a phone does everything they need was true and only 23% said that was the most import reason. Other popular reasons included unacceptable speed, cost, and perhaps most relevant the 22% that said other options simply weren't available. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/06/13/mobile-technology-and-home-broadband-2019/ https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/06/13/mobile-techn... I don't think its a stretch to imagine that uptake of fast fiber might be slightly higher than the 73% (not 62) with Home Broadband internet given that many have options that are both piss poor and expensive.
- ip26 3y ago
  Exactly, they worked out the numbers just like you did here, and showed it would cover principal in a reasonable timeframe. Instead of blindly building it without thinking about revenue and return on investment. It wouldn’t have been built otherwise.

by ip26 3y ago

michaelmrose 3y ago

Wouldn't the revenue model be something like $50-$100 per household for the next 20 years to cover principle and interest? Assuming 50k households and 85% uptake and 50 per month is 510M 100 is about a billion.

jdietrich 3y ago
98% of Americans have access to fixed-line broadband, but only 62% actually have it. A significant proportion are fine with just having mobile and a small but fairly stable minority simply have no interest in using the internet at all. There are certainly some remaining connection gaps in remote rural communities, but universal fiber coverage is the least cost-effective solution to that problem. https://itif.org/publications/2022/12/05/state-of-us-broadband-in-2022-reassessing-the-whole-picture/ https://itif.org/publications/2022/12/05/state-of-us-broadba...
- michaelmrose 3y ago
  I had a conversation as an agent with a customer wanting to cut internet access in favor of just having people use their phones. She was confused by the fact that she thought the experience she had by using her fixed wired internet to provide wifi access to her phones was automagically a function of the devices themselves. While slightly slow walking the process and explaining the disadvantages of this I manually shut down the connection to the modem without actually disconnecting the internet service. Her kids had successfully vetoed the operation before we could complete the disconnection. Pew says of those who rely only on a smartphone rather than a broadband connection only 45% feel a phone does everything they need was true and only 23% said that was the most import reason. Other popular reasons included unacceptable speed, cost, and perhaps most relevant the 22% that said other options simply weren't available. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/06/13/mobile-technology-and-home-broadband-2019/ https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/06/13/mobile-techn... I don't think its a stretch to imagine that uptake of fast fiber might be slightly higher than the 73% (not 62) with Home Broadband internet given that many have options that are both piss poor and expensive.
ip26 3y ago
Exactly, they worked out the numbers just like you did here, and showed it would cover principal in a reasonable timeframe. Instead of blindly building it without thinking about revenue and return on investment. It wouldn’t have been built otherwise.