I’ve been reading lately about how [Jared Mauch](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/01/jared-mauch-didnt-have-good-broadband-so-he-built-his-own-fiber-isp/) created his own ISP, but none of the articles seem to mention how that actually connects to the internet… I can’t seem to wrap my head around it. Wouldn’t he have to connect to a “backbone” or something?
In: 6
>Mauch buys Internet connectivity and bandwidth for his ISP from ACD.net, a large network provider, but ACD.net hasn’t deployed fiber lines to Mauch’s neighborhood. Mauch thus installed two miles of fiber from his home to ACD.net’s closest underground cable vaults, where he connected his fiber to their network.
So yes, he did have to connect to a higher tier provider… and he pays $$$$/month for that connection (besides having to string all the fiber from there to his home, and from his home to his neighborhood and his customers).
BUt, having said that, the link that he buys from ACD.net is probably really phat (lots of GB/s), and is probably only a few thousand $$/month (its the stringing the cable that $kills$you$). Split enough ways, that monthly fee becomes really manageable really quick, so all he has to do is keep adding customers in his neighborhood and everyones individual cost share comes down. And the nice thing about fibre is it can carry a much higher bandwidth than cable (if you upgrade the equipment at either end appropriately), so a fiber wired neighborhood is reasonably future proof.
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