Originally published at: A rural guy who built his own ISP just to have decent service gets government funding to add more customers | Boing Boing
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Further evidence of why the govt needs to treat internet access as a utility as it does for electricity. The Rural Electrification Act of the New Deal brought electricity to millions of Americans living in rural areas that were not economically viable for private enterprise to power.
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Wouldn’t be surprised if this is key to the financial viability. I wonder if the towers were there before he laid fiber, and what kind of service agreement they demand.
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“They had this gap-filling RFP, and in my own wild stupidity or brilliance, I’m not sure which yet, I bid on the whole project [in my area] and managed to win through that competitive bidding process,” he said. Mauch’s ISP is one of four selected by Washtenaw County to wire up different areas.
Knowing the scrutiny government procurements get, imagine being that government and seeing the company you just awarded a contract to making public statements about their own “wild stupidity” for bidding. 
Jokes aside, whatever helps crack the telecom oligopoly, I’m here for it.
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That and checking their privilege to be like a person providing service to hundreds in spare time instead of the sole grid authority for the region…not sure I said that right,
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Where does he connect to the internet in order to build an isp in the first place? I’ve heard of other people doing this, but this part is never explained.
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