Did I mention that when my kids and I (they’re in their late 30s now) moved to a town with no cable TV, their grades and test (including SAT) scores went way up?

We’ve never had a single conversation about whether we should keep our internet access (only which method gets us the best bang for the buck).

In essence, it’s only the fact that the cable which brings me the internets is the same cable that they push TV through that keeps us hooked up.

1) My house is where it is. Nothing will change that. Thus, whatever
I have to pay in terms of capital costs to get fiber to my house is
just another aspect of the capital costs of my house, like the number
of square feet, the type of siding, the number of acres, etc.

2) Businesses have trouble raising capital. There’s no magic wand;
every kind of capital has its cost, most of which is related to the
risk. This includes ISPs.

3) My local ISP would be happy to run fiber out to my house, if they
could get sufficient return on the capital expended to cover the cost
of the capital.

Here’s the solution:

4) Just as I have to have somewhere to live, I have to have Internet
access. It’s a necessity to me. Thus, I will spend my savings, or
borrow money, to buy a house and, I propose, a fiber run from my ISP’s
POP to my house.

5) I pay them their cost for running the fiber. Obviously this is
good for them, because they get their employees’ salary covered and it
increases the amount of fiber they buy which lowers the cost to them.

6) The agreement with them is structured such that they are borrowing
the money from me. My loan to them is secured by a lein on the
fiber. If they go under, I own the fiber, and can use it to gain
access from somebody else.

7) The agreement also specifies that they pay more than a risk-free
interest rate (this is the same rate that the US pays to borrow
money), but less than market rate (because my loan is secured by the
fiber that I want in the first place.)

They provide me with broadband Internet at the same rate as
everyone else in the area, but instead of paying me cash, they pay
down the loan.

9) And of course, the reason they do this is so that they can sell
Internet access to everyone else between my house and their POP.

I’m getting numbers from my local ISP soon (written in February), but
the capital should be less than that needed for a new car.

Unfortunately, they never got back to me with actual numbers except to
say informally “you wouldn’t want to pay it.” I’m not sure I agree
with them, but I haven’t pressed the issue.

Oh, and the other thing about the economics is that you need something
which is 1) legal, and 2) REALLY BIG. Here’s my (as yet unpublished)
secret plan:

Go buy a high-def video camera, and use it to film local sports events
in their entirety. Then put that video on a file server connected to
a wifi router. Announce the game video availability on
 NorthCountrySports.net. Put a snippet of the game on NCSN. People
could take their laptop to some place within range of the wifi, and
watch the game in high-def.

Assume that this is a success (which it wouldn’t be right now because
HD video cameras are way too expensive.)
At first, there would be only one wifi router. People nearly in range
would complain to us (we would encourage them to do that). We would
place a wifi router to bring them into range. And so on and so on.
Eventually we would have Potsdam covered. Then we go to SLIC and say
“Hey, you want to sell these people high speed Internet, since they
already have a broadband (if local-only) connection into their house?
We’ll only charge you a small interconnection fee.”

The next step is to convert them to fiber customers. Y’know what I
think is the correct way to do that? Blown-in fiber. Sumitomo makes
it. That way the cable hangers are just provisioning plastic tubes.
Splicing one just uses a sharp knife and plastic glue. It’s also
crucial to use a single fiber.

It’s gotta be cheap, cheap, cheap to run FTTH. Right now it’s way too
expensive, and it’s mostly the labor needed to hang or bury the cable.
The fiber itself isn’t expensive. Neither is terminating it: $50 per
end.

Just tweeted your line anyway.