Re: [Starlink] [Bloat] [LibreQoS] Enabling a production model

[Rich Brown <richb.hanover@gmail.com>]

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> On Mar 29, 2023, at 1:13 PM, David Lang via Starlink <starlink@lists.bufferbloat.net> wrote:
> 
> The problem is that laying cable (or provisioning wifi access to cover the area) is expensive, and if you try to have multiple different companies doing it, they each need a minimum density of users to make it worth their while.

Yes, this stuff is expensive, Here is reasonably current order-of-magnitude cost breakdown for a rural NH town nearby:

1) $55,000 per road-mile to design the system, get licenses to install on the utility poles, "make ready" (to check that the poles are ready for new facilities) and to hang the fiber on the pole. Installing coax would save $5K to $8K per mile.

2) $2,000 to $4,000 per premise to install the drop from the utility pole to the building, bring the fiber into the building and install the router. 

3) Pole rental (in NH) is about $10/pole/year. Divide miles of road by 200 feet between poles to get an estimate of the number of poles.

So density of customers is critical for the business case. That's why there are so many monopoly providers - it's costly to overbuild an already served area.


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