Why bother paying for an installation of the internet when you can build your own?
A clever man from Michigan named Jared Mauch did exactly this. He could have paid for AT&T or availed a $50,000 worth of service from Comcast to extend to his rural home. Instead, he chose to start up his own fiber internet service provider.
Mauch started with about 70 customers, but it soon grew to 600 after receiving government funds to increase its access to broadband internet, according to a report by Ars Technica.
Ethernet cables are seen running from the back of a wireless router in Washington, DC on March 21, 2019.
Government-Funded Project
Washtenaw County received $71 million from the US government for various infrastructure initiatives, with some of that money going toward internet services. Before the pandemic, the county carried out a broadband survey to find unserviced areas, according to Mauch.
According to him, the county asked contractors to wire up residences known to be "unserved or underserved" based on the previous survey when federal funding became available.
To finish the government-funded project, Mauch will add another 38 miles of fiber to his network, which now has 14 miles.
He said in an interview with Ars Technica that he has at least two residences where he was to establish a half-mile to get to one house. He added that this would cost about $30,000 for each house that will be served.
"They had this gap-filling RFP, and in my own wild stupidity or brilliance, I'm not sure which yet, I bid on the whole project [in my area] and managed to win through that competitive bidding process," Mauch said in a statement.
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$2 Million Contract
Mauch is required by the May 2022 contract he signed with the county to expand his network to around 417 addresses in the townships of Freedom, Lima, Lodi, and Scio.
Mauch also noted that his new fiber routes would span 596 potential clients, despite the fact that the contract only calls for service at those 417 locations.
He will offer 100Mbps symmetrical Internet with unlimited data for $55 per month and 1Gbps with unlimited data for $79 per month, as stated in the conditions of the contract. His standard installation costs are $199.
Mauch also pledged to take part in the Affordable Connectivity Program of the Federal Communications Commission, which offers $30 monthly subsidies to homes that meet the eligibility standards in terms of income.
The contract stipulates that the project must be finished by the end of 2026 and that all project costs must be paid by the end of 2024.
The actual funding amount is $2,618,958.03, but Mauch targets a significantly shorter time frame, telling Ars that his objective is to build roughly half of it by the end of this year and the other half by the end of 2023
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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla
