US man builds own fiber broadband; gets govt contract for $2.6 million

Jared Mauch, from Michigan, built his own fiber broadband to avoid paying any hefty bills and has now been given a $2.6 million grant to expand it. He was forced to make the move after Comcast, an established telecom operator asked him to cough up $50,000 just for them to extend its cable network to his home.

He was not willing to pay the exorbitant fee, so he decided that he would solve his own problem by building his own broadband.

This happened around five years ago and the AT&T offered an internet speed of only 1.5Mbps, especially in Michigan's rural area. So this also added to Mauch's reasoning to create his own broadband.


Mauch's experience as a network architect gave him the working knowledge for creating the broadband and eventually start his own company, Washtenaw Fiber Propertie, He built an ISP (Internet Service Provider) on his own land which currently provides service to around 70 customers besides from Mauch himself.

In an interview, he said that even if Comcast had priced it's services at $10,000, he would have gladly given them the money. But he thought that $50,000 was too much, considering he was getting nothing much in return.

Washtenaw County was offered $71 million by the US government. Out of that, the county gave a portion to Mauch to extend his network. Under the contract, Mauch broadband is supposed to provide services to 417 estimated addresses, but he has said that his network is capable of reaching 596 potential customers.

Under the contract, the broadband is supposed to provide a 100Mbps symmetrical Internet with unlimited data for $55 a month and 1Gbps of unlimited data for $79 a month. He said that he has already made upgrades to his equipment and operations. He has also hired more people on board.

He also said when speaking about his his life has changed since he started his own broadband, that he has become more popular among his neighbors and is saved as the 'fiber cable guy' on most of their phones.