Fiber Costs [Was: Re: SoCal FIOS outage(?) / static IP readdressing]

Wed Jan 11 00:20:35 UTC 2017

> On Jan 10, 2017, at 10:21 AM, Fletcher Kittredge <fkittred at gwi.net> wrote:
> 
> Numbers for building fiber optic systems are out there if you do the
> research. Joining the FTTH Council is a good start. One thing to recognise
> is that the numbers vary widely based on what is being built and where it
> is being built. There are large regional, technology, and product
> variations. Verizon has economies of scale few can match.
> 
> Having said that, some of the numbers listed are unrecognizably low.

Labor can vary quite widely based on project, distance and environment.  What is $5/foot in a rural location can be $150 or more in an urban environment.  It’s not uncommon to see pricing around $12/foot before engineering and other permitting work. 

If you’re in an environment that has favorable permitting process and can work with an existing insured contractor, $5/foot is attainable.  You are still up against 600-800 feet per day in favorable soil, which can easily turn to 200 should there be a rock or complex utility work involved.

I’ll say depending on your project, you can start with the big-dreamer communities out there, or you go the other way and talk to folks that are doing it on the ground in your local area.  I’ve talked to people about pole attach as well as underground.  You can see costs as low as 10k per mile on poles, but that’s the really low end.

All numbers I’ve mentioned are for Michigan in the communities around my home as well as outlying areas.  If you’re around my area and want to talk costs and the projects, a private e-mail is welcome.

If you’re in Maine, that granite rock is really tough, the hemlocks rot and fall more often than the birch, etc.  Those risks make the situation tougher, and the population north of Bangor/Orono really thins out, but at least the speed limit is higher on 95 now.  :-)

- Jared