FTTP Advice, Michigan and other areas

Tue Sep 1 21:38:03 UTC 2015

On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 4:27 PM, Jared Mauch <jared at puck.nether.net> wrote:
> I’m looking for some advice/input from people either public or private
> about woes building fiber to reach people outside the footprints of the
> existing incumbents.

I worked on one such project, indirectly, years ago. Fiber in a small
town. My three takeaways were:

At the time it cost about $5 per year per pole to rent attachments on
the phone pole. An attachment is a particular distance up the pole
where you are allowed to attach your cables. Rights of way from pole
to pole included in the deal. The power company usually owns the poles
and is usually required by regulators to rent attachments.

"Help" the local schools with a "partnership" to bring them fiber
interconnects. Your part of the partnership is interconnecting the
underfunded schools well below your cost. Their part is clearing the
bureaucratic hurdles to stringing your fiber all over town. 'Cause
tech is a source of tax revenue... unless it's all about the kids.

Resist the urge to be a cable and phone operator at the same time.
Yes, there's a temptingly large bucket of money over there, but it's
not for you. The incumbents aren't going to take your entry in to the
market sitting down. If you would beat them, you need the folks who
would battle the incumbents for the buckets of "content" money to all
be pulling for your success.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>