Building a community ISP —
Comcast wanted $210,000 for Internet—so this man helped expand a co-op fiber ISP
Fed up with Comcast and AT&T, Silicon Valley residents started their own network.
Jon Brodkin – 10/17/2022, 8:48 AM
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Sasha Zbrozek lives in Los Altos Hills, California, which he describes as “a wealthy Silicon Valley town,” in a house about five miles from Google’s headquarters. But after moving in December 2019, Zbrozek says he learned that Comcast never wired his house—despite previously telling him it could offer Internet service at the address.
Today, Zbrozek is on the board of a co-op ISP called Los Altos Hills Community Fiber (LAHCF), which provides multi-gigabit fiber Internet to dozens of homes and has a plan to serve hundreds more. Town residents were able to form the ISP with the help of Next Level Networks, which isn’t a traditional consumer broadband provider but a company that builds and manages networks for local groups.
Zbrozek’s experience with Comcast led to him getting involved with LAHCF and organizing an expansion that brought 10Gbps symmetrical fiber to his house and others on nearby roads. Zbrozek described his experience to Ars in a phone interview and in emails.
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Remember that cable tv started as a community effort to get better TV reception. Perhaps this is a way to escape cable companies and their contracts and high prices.
Now with these folks it wasn’t about money. For us poor folks, that’s too much of a capital expense.
I wonder about the possibilities.
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Reinke Faces Life 