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So I had to start a telco

Or ... Fiber to Jared’s house

Jared Mauch - Washtenaw Fiber Properties LLC

@jaredmauch

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Background

In 2002 I moved to a new home on the outskirts of Ann Arbor, MI
My employer at the time provided me a T1 to the local pop
1.5Mb/s in 2002 symmetric at home was still decent

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More Background

Development in and around Ann Arbor was putting in new subdivisions nearby
I expected broadband would reach my new home eventually (Cable, DSL, FTTx)
But.. nothing came
About 2+ (3.3km) miles away from existing service area

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So, problem... Conflict

No high speed internet
Move?

Seller pays commission based on sale price, significant cost to move
Home devalued as no high speed available

WISP (Wireless ISP) to temporary rescue

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What is a geek to do?

I know…

Start a telco!
File a tariff - https://washftth.com/tariff/
…
Profit?

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It never ends the research

Talked to many ISPs doing existing FTTH
Community Groups
Local ISP cooperative

They offer wireless

Local township passed millage to fund build costs

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Finances, or ... start small

Key was to spread out costs over a longer period of time
Found distributors for underground supplies
A little bit here, a little bit there goes a long way
Planning told me it would be a $60k project (at least)

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Fun with Spreadsheets

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More fun with spreadsheets

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Financial modeling is key

You need to understand what your costs are
What your monthly run-rate is for expenses and income
Essential to forecast full year expenses

Some costs are monthly, others quarterly or annual

Forecast for unexpected expenses

Repairs, disputes, refunds, bad debt

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Pre-builds

Worked with existing WISP who had antennas on my house
Pre-wired neighbors with fiber at my expense
Pre-wired and pre-constructed my property
Racks, Fiber distribution, patch panels...

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What does an install look like?

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Typical customer installation

RBFTC11
UF-Instant
FPP-6S-W-15
Armored patch cord
POE from inside to outside
HAP AC2 router (I sell this at cost)

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Internet Access

ACD.net (Enabling IPv6 for me)
123.net (Connection Pending)
Detroit IX (Connection Pending)
ARIN

Can apply for IPv6 space
Can apply for IPv4 space if you have IPv6
Already had an ASN

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Project picture

Turned in blueprints early 2019
Permit issued Sept 2019
…

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Expect problems

Cursed corner!
Never located twice the same

- Took 3x to bore successfully

- Heard after the fact about challenges others had with that corner

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Unbudgeted costs

Survey and staking of right of way

$5,000

Marking wire for conduit to end stop-work order

$300

Employee badges

Helpful during COVID-19

Water

$1,500 (may be revised) for contractor

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Fiber Installation

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Build your own tools!

Built a small fiber blower
Worked decent
2,700 (822m) feet without issue

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Splicing time!

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OTDR time!

Ouch!

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Some fixes ...

Better
Still need to upgrade splicer
Need to upgrade OTDR

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Scheduled install

August 27th
I know what I’m doing, so turn-up should be easy right? RIGHT?
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH
Sorted through a few issues

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Finally link-up!

Aug 29 01:35:04 arista-7050 Ebra: %LINEPROTO-5-UPDOWN: Line protocol on Interface Ethernet49 (TRANSIT: ACD), changed state to up

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Latency reduction

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So what to do?

Well, I was expecting a 10G
It’s a 1G
No BGP (yet)...
Deploy plan B (or is it D or E now?)
ER-X-SFP to the rescue!

Can do NAT
Not expecting to do 10G immediately anyways, it’s for future-proofing due to contract term

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So what to do?

Flip over default route to new path

NAT to WAN IP!

Then.. what does everyone else do?
Speedtest!

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Ongoing installations

Some customers were pre-wired in the Spring
They were connected in late August or early Sept
Paused installations for a week and a half due to family needs
Install takes me 2-4 hours to complete, less than 1 hour if pre-wired from spring
Many small dependencies that take time

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Costs?

2020 had the majority of them
Major costs breakdown:

$126,710
$94,866 - Directional boring/conduit installation
$31,844 - Misc materials, rentals, equipment

$5,000 - Surveying
$856 - 185 CFM Air Compressor rental

Maybe still cheaper than moving? And I now have fiber!

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Customer status (Oct 6th)

23 customers online (includes my house)
1 Business customer (previous WISP)
13 still being installed

2 more prospects in the service area expressed interest

2 people need to convert from wireless -> Fiber still
Trying to install in the order they signed up

Also ordered by all dependencies

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Network usage? 5Mb/sub

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Thank You!

Without many people it would not be possible
Support of many people who have been there and done that
Ryan Peel @ VBFiber
Chris Fabien @Lakenet
Antawn Parks @ Millenium
Roy Grove @ EZwisp
My neighbors on Reese Lane, Pinecross Lane, Liberty and Parker Road

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