Yeah, I was going to point this out too. If your town succeeds at this,
then they are either smarter than an average town government or they're
very lucky.
Have they actually hung any fiber yet? Does the town own the poles, or
are they owned by the electric and phone company? I bet they had a
consultant or the town IT guy who has done the research and is telling
them that it'll cost $x/mile or $x/pole or some such. Then they'll go
apply to the incumbent utilities and suddenly say "Make-ready? What's
make-ready?" If they're not smart (or don't have strong engineering
support) they'll end up spending all their money upgrading the power
company's system.
I've also found that certain major cable companies are experts at being
obstructive. At least that's true in these parts.
Or you can make the play AT&T did against Google Fiber: keep tabs on
where they're building and run along ahead of them upgrading your
network and making special offers to your customers.
-Adam
On 3/5/2019 6:49 PM, Lewis Bergman wrote:
And even worse trying run then one they are substantially complete.
On Tue, Mar 5, 2019, 5:39 PM <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Muni fiber has a lousy track record of actually completing
functional networks.
*From:* Christopher Gray
*Sent:* Tuesday, March 5, 2019 4:26 PM
*To:* 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group'
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Examples of Proposals to Sell WISP Network?
I’ve made several inquiries. Originally, I was on the bid list to
actually be the ISP on the network, but they went municipal to
skip the bidding process (the committee decided it would be easier
to do, and I understand their perspective). They are not allowing
any other interaction with outside companies, but the committee
says after the first contract is up they may make it open… which
is 3 years out.
I’ll I hadn’t thought about how long it will take relative to
losing customers, thank you for pointing that out. They’re
currently estimating almost a year to get the whole town
connected. I’m seeing some good ideas to share as part of a proposal.
*From:* AF <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> *On Behalf Of *Ken Hohhof
*Sent:* Tuesday, March 5, 2019 5:39 PM
*To:* 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Examples of Proposals to Sell WISP Network?
Would it make more sense to inquire about an arrangement where you
could resell the FTTH service to your current customers?
Assumption being that you would get a lower wholesale price that
you could mark up to the same retail price, also probably some
arrangement where you would do part of the installation work and
handle first level tech support, let customers keep their email
addresses, etc.?
I assume they won’t complete the FTTH build overnight, so this
would allow for a gradual transition. You could migrate customers
to FTTH as it passed their house, and eventually decommission your
WISP gear in that area.
If you can’t sell and instead decide to just turn off the lights
and close the door behind you, but then it takes the FTTH build
another 6 months to reach all the customers, there are going to
be a bunch of pissed off residents.
If they expect you to keep serving fewer and fewer customers as
they deploy their fiber, it’s like expecting you to dig your own
grave. Yes, some customers may not switch (depending on
comparative pricing), and perhaps they would buy you out (I’m
skeptical). But you’ve probably done the math. Would you be
profitable with half as many customers? A quarter? At some point
it just doesn’t make sense to stick around in that area.
*From:* AF <[email protected]> *On Behalf Of *Lewis Bergman
*Sent:* Tuesday, March 5, 2019 4:20 PM
*To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]>
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Examples of Proposals to Sell WISP Network?
I'm with Matt. I don't know what your projections are based on but
when I did research to replace my WISP network with a fiber one in
a small town the take rate as expressed by existing customers was
so low it didn't make sense. Maybe 5% expressed a desire to switch
regardless of price and only about half would switch if the price
was the same. Speed was a concern for about 25%. Of course that is
purely anecdotal not to mention old.
Anyway, a large percentage are very price sensative. That isn't to
say the muni won't do it way below cost. That seems to be how most
of them think.
On the valuation, I don't know anyone that nows what they are
doing that pays per sub anymore. Again, the muni probably doesn't
know what they are doing so you might get lucky. All purchases I
have seen in the last few tyears are all revenue based of some
sort. EBIDTA, Gross, Net. Really just however the buyer wants to
see it. The numbers always seem to work out pretty close. But you
never know, maybe they want it as a warm boot to their FTTH plans.
On Tue, Mar 5, 2019 at 2:29 PM Matt Hoppes
<[email protected]> wrote:
Devils advocate. Why would they buy it if all the customers
will just move over?
I wouldn’t be so sure they will all leave. If you treat them
right and aren’t gouging them on price many will probably lot
stay.
On Mar 5, 2019, at 3:19 PM, <[email protected]>
<[email protected]> wrote:
So much per customer. I would say $500-$2000 depending on
the number of subs, the type of equipment and the part of
the country. $1000/ sub is a low starting point.
*From:*Christopher Gray
*Sent:*Tuesday, March 5, 2019 1:11 PM
*To:*AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group
*Subject:*[AFMUG] Examples of Proposals to Sell WISP Network?
Does anyone here have an example of a proposal used to
sell your network or part of your network? You can provide
it offline if necessary.
[I'm in a position where the local government is actually
overbuilding my WISP network with a FTTH network. My
projections show I'm going to lose the business in the
particular area entirely, so I want to offer to sell it to
the town. I will be keeping the rest of my system, and
just selling this section.]
Thank you, Chris
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