I realize it is more cost effective to do it yourself, but it sure seems like there would be demand for some outfit that would do projects like that on a turnkey basis. Planning, permitting, construction, documentation. Especially if the idea is to run a microwave backhaul into the subdivision but you need someone to do the last mile.
I would think WISPs could kick ass getting into some of these pockets that don’t have broadband if we didn’t have to buy directional boring machines, fiber splicers, hire people and train them, all to do our first 10 houses. Heck, even the big cellcos contract out a lot of their celltower installations. You don’t exactly find a crew of people with Verizon Wireless or T-Mobile badges at the site. Same with telco fiber installation, more often than not I see some contractor name on the trucks. If I could get a reputable company to do a small project on a soup-to-nuts basis, I would do it and I suspect many others would too, even if I lost money, just as a marketing experiment. And from what everyone is saying, it’s not so much a question of losing money, but rather how long is the payback. Lots of the fiber projects we are hearing about, I suspect are in fairly upscale areas even if they are somewhat remote. It would be interesting to see what happens in a less affluent small subdivision (maybe a lot of retired people on fixed income), if someone brought in fiber. Would you get 100% take rate? Or would some people resist even with attractive pricing. If the competition was 1 Mbps DSL at $25/mo, would half the people prefer that to 100 Mbps fiber at $50/mo? Only one way to find out. All of us face our own demographics. Just like Google Fiber is finding low income renters in Kansas City have a problem with a $300 install for 7 years free Internet, because they move a lot, and because the landlord would have to approve the install and would get the benefit of the 7 years. From: That One Guy Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2015 10:38 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fiber Buildout Forum So what is the minimum number of houses within a particular geographic area that would make it cost effective to do a fiber solution? rough numbers. We have a particular housing set out in the country we have battled to service forever, there are only about 10 houses, most of which have tried to get our service. it consists primarily of a single 3/4 mile road buried deep in trees. Half of them arent able to even get satellite reliably without cutting trees or butting up 50 foot towers. We have LOS to one of the residences at the end of the little subdivision, we have considered various wireless options but the trees and locations of the houses would limit it to a 900mhz solution, for ten customers and a micropop contract the risks of 900mhz problems were never really justifiable. Would you guys see that small of a project over 3/4 mile of road justifiable if the average take plan was 39 bucks a month requiring a single hop backhaul and residential micropop contract? On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 10:20 AM, Sterling Jacobson <sterl...@avative.net> wrote: That’s just a pessimistic number I plugged in there. We are self-funding first, then we are bank funding with collateral, then we are debt funded from angel/private investors. Last thing we would do is equity funding, but it would have to be in the millions for that. I don’t touch VC funding. My company isn’t structured that way right now. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Kurt Fankhauser Sent: Monday, February 09, 2015 8:23 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fiber Buildout Forum Sterling, Are you paying 12% interest to investors on a 5 year note for these builds? Where are you finding these investors to fund the neighborhood builds? Kurt Fankhauser Wavelinc Communications P.O. Box 126 Bucyrus, OH 44820 http://www.wavelinc.com tel. 419-562-6405 fax. 419-617-0110 On Mon, Feb 9, 2015 at 1:15 PM, Sterling Jacobson <sterl...@avative.net> wrote: I like Gino said, I have two partner companies that do all of our builds at cost and bill back their own company so to speak. The construction is not trivial. It’s very equipment and labor intensive, I would never dream of trying to do it myself. From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Bill Prince Sent: Monday, February 09, 2015 7:20 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fiber Buildout Forum I'm sure he will answer, but I think he's hiring contractors where needed, but he's also hands on. bp<part15sbs{at}gmail{dot}com> On 2/9/2015 6:15 AM, Kurt Fankhauser wrote: Is sterling doing his builds with sub contractors instead of doing the work himself? Sent from my iPhone Kurt Fankhauser Wavelinc Communications P.O. Box 126 Bucyrus, OH 44820 http://www.wavelinc.com tel. 419-562-6405 fax. 419-617-0110 On Feb 9, 2015, at 7:40 AM, Paul McCall <pa...@pdmnet.net> wrote: Hmmm… it shouldn’t block PDFs. Resending Sterling’s PDF as a test Paul From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Chuck McCown Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2015 2:41 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fiber Buildout Forum I have had pdfs blocked before. From: Paul McCall Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2015 7:05 AM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fiber Buildout Forum Chuck, Are you attaching a power point file or PDF? I know pdf is allowed From: Af [mailto:af-boun...@afmug.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hogg Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2015 7:51 PM To: af@afmug.com Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Fiber Buildout Forum I attached it per my sent items...trying again. Regards, Chuck On Sat, Feb 7, 2015 at 3:36 PM, Chuck Hogg <ch...@shelbybb.com> wrote: 1. Attached. 2. RB2011 or GPON ONU. Flat drop to side of the house, outdoor NID where flat drop is terminated, either a 50-75' jumper or bend insensitive fiber going into the inside of the home plugging into the electronics indoor. 3. Not using peds, handhole with splice case or TE MST. 4. Don't know, not a PC user. 5. Google Maps. Using a locator. Regards, Chuck On Fri, Feb 6, 2015 at 7:36 AM, Trevor Bough <trevorbo...@gmail.com> wrote: Hey guys, I really enjoyed the fiber build out forum and have come up with a few questions since lunch yesterday: 1. Would you be able to make those power points available to the list? 2. What all equipment do you actually have at the house? Are you running the fiber up to the house and then making it the customers responsibility from there? Or are you running some interior Ethernet cable for people? 3. Could I get a rough list of what is actually going in the neighborhood peds? 4. Are you still able to use Powercode (or whatever you are using for your wireless customers) for your billing/monitoring/rates? Or did you have to get a secondary system to handle the fiber customers? 5. How are you keeping track of where your underground facilities are for years down the road? Are you using GPS coordinates at endpoints and service connections, measurements off of cross streets, or just planning to be able to use a locator to find it? <AFSterling.pdf> -- All parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if you can't get them together again, there must be a reason. By all means, do not use a hammer. -- IBM maintenance manual, 1925
