The Incredible Story Of The US Man Who Built His Own Broadband & Got $2mn From Govt

A man from America built his own broadband after getting fed up with expensive bills and slow internet speed. But here is the catch, he was awarded ?2.1 million ($2.6m) by the government.

Man makes his own broadband and gets millions from the government

Jared Mauch, a network architect, set up his own fibre broadband provider after being slapped with a ?40,000 bill by Comcast to extend their Internet access to his property.

The man was tired of having slow internet speeds of 1.5Mbps at rip-off rates so began building the ISP (Internet Service Provider) on his land around five years ago. After hooking up around 70 of his rural neighbours to the network last year, he has now secured millions of dollars in grant money to serve an additional 600 homes.

LinkedIn

His company started with just one customer - him. But his company grew rapidly after his neighbours signed up. Mauch will now be able to expand his network with an extra 38 miles of fibre broadband.

Instead of paying tons of money for dreadfully slow Internet, his customers can sign up for 100Mbps and unlimited data for ?44 ($55) per month. He said, he "had to start a telephone company to get [high-speed] Internet" at his house after the major American broadband companies never extended their fast networks to his area.

YouTube

He even asked the Internet giant Comcast to extend their network to him but they quoted him $50,000 (?40,000) to do so. "If they had priced it at $10,000, I would have written them a cheque," he told ArsTechnica.

"It was so high at $50,000 that it made me consider if this is worthwhile. Why would I pay them to expand their network if I get nothing back out of it."

Reuters

The man was able to build his company, Washtenaw Fiber Properties, because he works as a network engineer.

Follow us on telegram.