As someone who's trying to bootstrap a small, local, last-mile ISP right now, my only wish is that there were many more people that held your opinion on this matter, and were willing to back that opinion with their dollars.
I fully support all alternatives to Comcast.
The process so far has involved :
- Figure out how to get access to right of ways [Completed] - Figure out how to get internet access to sell [Completed] - Figure out how much it will cost to start a CO [Mostly Completed] - Acquire a place to put a CO [Completed] - Acquire high quality, redundant backhaul [Under Construction Now]
- Figure out who's willing to pay to switch away from Comcast [I have some names, but this is definitely not completed] - Beg them for money [Some have subscribed, but definitely not enough yet]
There's a couple of big things that work against me:
City + State taxes for right of ways are pricy. We're talking multiple thousands of dollars per mile per year, on every single mile, just in taxes. (And I'm lucky, my city still owns a lot of their own right of ways. A lot of cities just wholesale gave them away to AT&T/Comcast).
Backhaul is expensive. Most ISP's are monopolies, so they can safely buy in scale. I have zero scale, so I pay full retail for everything. This is obviously very pricy. (I'm guessing I pay at least 3 times more, per Mbps, than Charter pays for backhaul, and probably 4 - 6+ times more than Comcast pays)
Fiber lines are dirt cheap. Install is expensive. Easily 95% of the cost of the network is that initial installation, and it can run into past the million dollar mark even in the smallest of neighborhoods.
If you want more info, let me know. I'd happily talk more about this, and provide solid numbers.
It wouldn't surprise me if speed/pricing like that existed around major network hubs (like Chicago).
I'm paying $8/Mbps. If I were to afford five times more backhaul than I have now, that price eventually drops to about $3.8/Mbps.
Places like Charter and Comcast pay less for their backhaul, in part because they are their backhaul, in part because they are large enough to negotiate their own peering agreements.
Recently, that's swung even more in their favour. Netflix, for instance, pays Comcast money for the "privilege" of paying the costs for all of the backhaul Netflix uses over Comcasts lines.
People sometimes call this "double dipping". But it's actually "triple dipping". Comcast charges subscribers money, Comcast makes Netflix buy the backhaul to Comcast, and Comcast charges Netflix again, to allow them to connect the backhaul they already bought, to Comcast's network.
Makes sense though, I'm sure if you had to get the fiber to your location that would easily push the price up a ton.
Seattle is one of my favourite places. Very expensive though.
If this somehow ever becomes successful in Michigan, Seattle is the very next place I would head.
(Should I have acknowledged my bias?)
May I suggest a link in your profile?
(And, if I'm ever successful and allowed to dream, Seattle would be my next target)
Thanks for the suggestion, I updated my profile.