Matt, It sounds like you're almost running a charity if you're spending $12,500 to service 10 customers. At least for a wisp, that's alot. In a ftth build in rural areas, that might only connect 2 homes and that's why they wait for government subsidies.
We choose to run a profitable business and a 10 customer POP should be under $3,000 or we won't build it. I guess over the years, my mindset has changed from trying to connect everyone, to just connecting the most profitable customers. I don't want the highest marketshare, I want the most profit and efficiency. For us, this means we only deploy 5ghz now and have stopped using 2.4. We've never used 900 or 3.65 either. We're a mostly epmp network with LTU backhauls and af11 where needed for more capacity. But some of those 11ghz links are hitting 600 mbps so the next step is probably deploying aviat links at 1.4 gbps full duplex. My point is, existing customer usage is increasing but they're not paying us any more. The equipment I deploy should last 3-4 years but some of it is being maxed out after less than 2 years due to increasing usage. Someone has to pay for it and it shouldn't be us. I'll replace it after 4 years but if customers don't want congestion and their usage is what's causing it, they should be the ones to pay for the extra upgrades we have to perform ahead of our forecast schedule. Making the heavy users pay more is what will fund these early upgrades to our infrastructure. Now I started this business for fun and to bring internet to rural areas but over the last 7 years, I've switched more to the business side of thinking. So raising prices, pushing bad customers to the competition, paying for things to improve the customer experience like Calix and preseem, etc. We're trying to be profitable, not pushovers. Since we've raised prices and added 1 year contracts, we've never been busier and we're booked out 4 weeks on installs. It seems like every time we do something that benefits us and that one may perceive as not customer friendly, we get even busier as new customers perceive more value in the services we provide. There's something to be said about "you get what you pay for". We've only seen positive things happen when we raise prices. Profit goes up, sales increase, and word of mouth referrals as well. It's very weird to me but it's what happens. On Sun, Nov 17, 2019, 9:50 AM Matt Hoppes <mattli...@rivervalleyinternet.net> wrote: > How is that totally blocked? I can see the roof and a food portion of it? > > On Nov 17, 2019, at 10:43 AM, Ken Hohhof <af...@kwisp.com> wrote: > > Actually it’s more the people on low ground with big trees 360 degrees > that don’t have LOS to anything. If they want to build a 100 ft tower, we > can get them service. So you could call it a last mile problem, but not in > the sense you probably mean it. More of a chainsaw problem. > > > > They just took for granted that Metronet was nice enough to run fiber down > the street where they used to live, but I’ll bet there were more than 2 > houses per mile there. At their new house they have well and septic and a > propane tank, maybe they also need to pay for satellite TV and learn to > program the DVR. The elderly couple they bought the house from probably > didn’t need superfast Internet. > > > > Example, the photo I’m attaching. Of the telephoto photos from all 3 of > our nearby towers, this is the only thing we could see. Their house is > totally blocked, because they are on low ground surrounded by trees. This > is the peak of an old 40 ft barn with a steep roof that has huge holes that > have fallen in only the top of the barn roof is visible in the photo). > > > > They can see the southern sky and could get Hughesnet. Or wait for LEO > service. Or for the government to pay for fiber. > > > > > > *From:* AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> *On Behalf Of *Mike Hammett > *Sent:* Sunday, November 17, 2019 8:52 AM > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com> > *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] tired of entitled streamers > > > > Where is your pain point? Last mile, middle mile, something else? > > > > ----- > Mike Hammett > Intelligent Computing Solutions <http://www.ics-il.com/> > <https://www.facebook.com/ICSIL> > <https://plus.google.com/+IntelligentComputingSolutionsDeKalb> > <https://www.linkedin.com/company/intelligent-computing-solutions> > <https://twitter.com/ICSIL> > Midwest Internet Exchange <http://www.midwest-ix.com/> > <https://www.facebook.com/mdwestix> > <https://www.linkedin.com/company/midwest-internet-exchange> > <https://twitter.com/mdwestix> > The Brothers WISP <http://www.thebrotherswisp.com/> > <https://www.facebook.com/thebrotherswisp> > > > <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXSdfxQv7SpoRQYNyLwntZg> > ------------------------------ > > *From: *"Ken Hohhof" <af...@kwisp.com> > *To: *"AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group" <af@af.afmug.com> > *Sent: *Saturday, November 16, 2019 11:31:12 AM > *Subject: *[AFMUG] tired of entitled streamers > > Anybody else losing their patience with streamers? > > > > The people who just moved from somewhere they had gigabit fiber to the > middle of nowhere in a low spot surrounded by tons of trees, and say they > stream all their TV on 3-4 screens at the same time. > > > > I want to yell at them, if you had affordable blazing fast Internet, and > it’s that important to you, why did you move? And if you had to move, why > didn’t you move to a nice suburb with fiber or at least cable? And why do > you have to stream everything? You could get satellite TV. Yes, it’s > expensive, get over it. You could put up a TV antenna. You could get DVDs > by mail. Or if moving to the country was so important, you could go out on > the ATV or horse or snowmobile, or go hunting, or feed the chickens and > mini goats. If they’re streaming all the time, I have to suspect the > reason for moving to Green Acres was to save on property taxes, and the > reason for streaming is to avoid paying $200/month to DirecTV or DISH. > > > > It’s gotten so bad, a significant number of prospective customers say > they only want Internet to stream, anything else they can do on their > phone. And when a streaming subscription is sub $10 (or free with Amazon > Prime), they’re thinking Internet is like shipping, it shouldn’t cost more > than the item being delivered. > > > > I know, “OK boomer”. > > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > > > <barn.jpg> > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com >
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