How many subscribers needed to justify Gigabit Fiber build?

[Glendale Guest]

2 questions related to Glendale, CA:

1. How many Sonic subscribers are needed in an area to justify Sonic doing a Gigibit Fiber build?

2. How many Sonic subscribers are there already in Glendale, CA?

City of Glendale is interested, they applied but lost out to Palo Alto for the Google gigabit fiber project (install by Sonic, yes?).

Just trying to gauge the feasibility of this happening here. If we need 1,000 and only have 10, well then...

[dane]

The factors that go into ranking cities and neighborhoods for build out include:

Linear density - the total utility length required to reach each premise. This takes into consideration not only density (generally a factor of lot size, road sizes, etc), but rather how many feet of construction is required to "pass" each premise. Larger parcels are more challenging that smaller ones, but parcel shape also matters.

Construction method - underground construction of utility is far more costly than aerial, and this is a large factor that affects uptake requirements for return on build-out investment.

Uptake or take rate - the number of premises that have adopted Sonic services, or that are likely to do so if/when they are delivered. Local awareness of the Sonic, and the potential for fiber are key items here. Spread the word!

Backhaul, or middle-mile costs - a more rural market might have great uptake (due to the unavailability of existing Cable or DSL), but might not be feasible due to the miles of build-out required to get there.

Size of project - because there is a certain amount of project management, equipment/cabinet and backhaul cost, tiny projects are very challenging to make financially viable. An example might be a 28 home private subdivision with an HOA that is willing to commit to service for every home. Great take rate, but impossible economics on the scale side.

Some of these factors can be influenced (take rate, for example), but most cannot (without moving, at least.)

[m2m3]

I live in Glendale and wasn't aware of the City's interest in Fiber. Well, if that is the case, I think that it's time for me to inquire from them what their current itinerary, if any, to see what's in sight for the near future. I think that Gigabit could do well in a town like this (200,000+), especially around the down town area where I live.

[Guest]

Do Sonic's FTTN customers count toward take rate as much as DSL customers do, or does Sonic consider them already satisfied / lower priority for fiber deployment?

[dct]

Do Sonic's FTTN customers count toward take rate as much as DSL customers do, or does Sonic consider them already satisfied / lower priority for fiber deployment?

Each of our customers essentially counts as a vote in your area. As far as I am aware, there isn't any weighted metric considered when deploying a network; I believe the largest considerations are customer density/take rate, and feasibility of deploying this network.

Bottom line, if you're interested in FTTN, go for it - we still want you to have Fiber, and will be doing what we can to make that happen.