I assume we will lose most of our customers in town because there's fiber (non BEAD) going in. They are going to eat Mediacom's lunch because everyone hates Mediacom for all the reasons you state. We don't have a lot of customers in town though.
The competition seems to be mostly from 5G Home Internet (T-Mobile and Verizon). Despite all the focus on speed, what a lot of people care about is price. Everyone has a cell phone, it's a constant opportunity for their mobile provider to advertise bundles, and with prices in the $35 to $50 range with no hardware cost and no contract and self-install, that's where we lose customers. 5G indoor modem isn't much use though to the people with "barndominiums" or the farmers who need a custom setup for their barns and grain dryers. The local service is a selling point, but I am getting a little gun shy about some of the custom stuff we have traditionally done. Like wireless PTP links to outbuildings, or inside wiring for phone service. Stuff that has a multi year break even for us. Also the risk of equipment non return or having to refurb it to redeploy. That was never a big worry because most customers were with us for years, but with people now looking at Internet as a short term decision, I'm not sure I want to take the risk. If they get Geek Squad to do it, they'll pay time and materials, and then more labor in the future for maintenance and upgrades. So Geek Squad (using that as a placeholder for a computer or network guy) has no risk, they get paid up front. I guess I see all the same things you mention, but some people want to paint all ISPs with the same brush. We're all big faceless corporations selling a commodity and we're replaceable with the latest shiny thing they get an ad for. And while people give lip service to shopping local and good service and all that stuff, there's also a mental preference for the big national names and big companies. So it's not all good. -----Original Message----- From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Dev Sent: Friday, October 3, 2025 1:33 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [AFMUG] happy to be local again Now that big box broadband has swept into town, subsided rates and tried to kill the little guy to stem competition using government funds (which didn’t work, at least for us), then jacked them back up and are squeezing every dollar out of customers, we’re seeing big oozing back toward local. Nice take rates on new fiber builds. I think the reasons are: 1. Customers want to deal with someone who is local for support, who actually knows where they live and cares about them, or anything really. 2. The big guys’ subs of subs of subs didn’t give a rip about anything and bored through everything important, then left town. Sidewalks still tore up in places. 3. There a lot of people who still want an old-fashioned land line, not an $80 land line. 4. Customers are trying to figure out video, and what we offer. We are too. Mostly we’ve stayed away from it, since it seemed like a zero-sum game. Maybe we’ll have to change that. Anything else you all are seeing? -- AF mailing list [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
