Outlying Communities

No community is an island (unless, of course, you ARE an actual island!). While you want to look after your particular residents there are good reasons to think beyond your own borders to other surrounding communities.

Spreading out the cost of your central office and shared Internet uplinks to more subscribers will reduce per subscriber cost. Basically, the larger the network, the cheaper it is on a per subscriber basis.

A larger network can afford faster Internet uplinks. While more subscribers means your Internet uplink(s) get more loaded, the economics work out such that you can deliver better, faster service to everyone for the same cost on a larger network than on a smaller one.

Then there is the good neighbor and goodwill argument. Nearby communities may be smaller and less organized than yours, and would certainly appreciate being able to piggyback on your network. This can lead to better relations and more political power down the road.

Depending on how you organize your network in terms of financing, ownership and control, offering service to other outlying communities may be easy or it may be hard. It is something to think about as you decide on your overall ownership structure.

Here's an example from the Rancho Santa Fe case study. Rancho Santa Fe is shown as area 4 in flesh color. It borders high density cities in white on its western side, but abuts a series of smaller communities, each typically with their own small HOA on its northern, southern and eastern side.

Image source: First American Title

It will be very hard for these smaller communities to build their own FTTH network, nor will existing service providers feel compelled to upgrade their networks to fiber any time soon.