I think it was mainly based on the BDC “fabric”, subject to challenges.
From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Adam Moffett Sent: Monday, August 25, 2025 9:45 AM To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] rural areas and fiber Wow. I wonder what data they went by for service locations. NY State was going by whether the location had an electric meter. This sounds more like using 911 addresses. -Adam _____ From: AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > on behalf of Ken Hohhof <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, August 25, 2025 10:32 AM To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] rural areas and fiber Illinois had already made a preliminary BEAD award for this area before the “benefit of the bargain” reset. I think the state’s reference cost was $15K so I used that number but for remote areas it could have been a lot more. Because the award wasn’t finalized and reviewed by NTIA we don’t know who it was going to what the dollar amount was. It remains to be seen what happens now, I guess we should know by the end of the year. Oh, and I forget who commented about every chicken coop having an address, that is somewhat true, there are buildings that will never need broadband but that are listed as locations eligible for BEAD subsidy. Some pig farms, every pig shed is a location, and every grain bin. We are on some commercial grain elevators, and while they only have one address, every bin and building is a broadband serviceable location, you’d think it was a subdivision. Even with the 75% subsidy from BEAD, your concerns about revenue covering OPEX are valid IMHO. Especially if some of these locations won’t actually need service. One could hope that both the states and the bidders are strategizing so that money losing areas are coupled with more profitable areas so that overall the bidder will succeed. From: AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > On Behalf Of Josh Luthman Sent: Monday, August 25, 2025 9:17 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [AFMUG] rural areas and fiber >If we, as a society, feel that those properties need broadband then there >would have to be something that functions more like USF, where those rural >properties are subsidized by a fee paid by the city dwellers. This is literally RDOF. On Mon, Aug 25, 2025 at 10:08 AM Adam Moffett <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: Fifteen thousand per house at 1 house per mile would be pretty optimistic for this area (NY State). The poles on those roads tend to be old, and the telco attached at a time when nobody was too concerned about the clearance rules. With make-ready on a rural road, you tend to get up to $50k/mile. You can go underground, but we have a bunch of challenges with that too. Regardless, it would be hard to make a viable business out of that scenario. It's all well and good if the government helps you get the capital, but opex is your problem. If we, as a society, feel that those properties need broadband then there would have to be something that functions more like USF, where those rural properties are subsidized by a fee paid by the city dwellers. Your description of old farms and farmhouses is very familiar. Family farms still exist, but often in the form of a corporation owned by the family. I think that's to avoid inheritance tax because the corporation doesn't die. Give your shares to the next generation when you retire rather than waiting until you die. The exception is dairy farms. With all the dairy subsidies we still have lots of dairy farms with 100 cows or less. Out of our >600,000 dairy cows in the state, the average herd size is 1200ish. One thing that I don't know if you experience in other states is you get the occasional "farm" around here that's actually just some millionaire's tax shelter. Some of the expenses for their palatial estate can become expenses for their struggling farm business. P.S.: One thing I do like about this group is nobody has ever asked me where NY keeps the cows with all the buildings around. -Adam _____ From: AF <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > on behalf of Ken Hohhof <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2025 12:13 PM To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > Subject: [AFMUG] rural areas and fiber In some areas we serve where houses are a mile apart and the nearest town with a Walmart is 15 miles away, people tell me that when a homeowner dies (many are in their 70’s and 80’s), they won’t even list the house because nobody wants to live in the middle of nowhere. It will be abandoned, or torn down to and turned back into farmland. We no longer have small family farms with the farm family living in a house on the land, because you need to farm so many acres to make a profit. If a farmhouse is near a town, it may become a rental house, but not when it’s 10 miles from the nearest town or school. But I expect some company will be awarded $15K+ each to pass these houses with fiber. If it takes 4 years to complete, the house might not even be occupied by then, and in any case, the 80 year old occupant probably doesn’t care if they have gigabit Internet. So will fiber make these houses suddenly desirable, and work from home people will move there from the cities, towns and suburbs? Reviving these rural areas where the younger generation has moved away? I guess that’s the vision, I’m not sure I buy it. Well and septic and propane, quarter mile driveway to plow in winter, but blazing fast Internet, and you can have horses and chickens. Will they start building subdivisions out there once fiber is available? I’m not buying it. Am I wrong? -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
-- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
