“Don’t let them drop us!” Landline users protest AT&T copper retirement plan | California hears protests as AT&T seeks end to Carrier of Last Resort obligation.::California hears protests as AT&T seeks end to Carrier of Last Resort obligation.

  • Stupidmanager@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Laying fibre is really expensive - in really rural areas it could be $100k+ per subscriber, so you will never see a return on investment for doing that

    And yet, a local company in my state just ran fiber to 5000 homes in my area for what I told was 1 million. They used directional drilling, it was cheap and easy. Then all the sudden my local phone and cable company “also” put in fiber.

    So while I’m in a suburb, I know for a fact these guys are all over the state and growing, including rural (and so is the local telco/cableco). I challenge that 100k number, that’s bullshit telco numbers. The word is unprofitable, it is unprofitable to run fiber when you are the only competitor.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Rural could mean a km out of town there’s a few km of houses spaced out by an acre or two along a well maintained road.

      Or it could mean over an hour from the nearest town, down first a well maintained road, then a gravel road, then a dirt road surrounded by dense forest and/or lakes/swamp, there’s a community of 6 families each 5km from their neighbours.

      If the total distance is longer than 100km (60 miles), it’ll need a repeater/amplifier, which also needs power.

      At some point it becomes more worthwhile to establish a wireless connection, but even then you either need a satellite (at geosynchronous orbit, which has high latency), a constellation of satellites at a lower orbit, or a series of towers with line of sight of each other (or line of sight plus atmospheric bouncing).

      We’re not talking about the average case, but there are extreme cases that I wouldn’t doubt cost a large amount that will never be recouped via reasonable subscription fees.