For Jared Mauch, frustration was the starting point for founding his company, which now provides fast internet to hundreds of households in rural areas.
This is how he became an internet provider: Jared Mauch is an American from Washtenaw County in Michigan. During the Corona pandemic, the network architect was frustrated with his slow rural internet, which was only 1.5 Mbps, while working from home.
He asked his provider if there was no better option. It was possible, but only for around 45,000 Euros. That’s when he took the initiative and founded a company that aimed to provide the region with fast internet and outcompete the existing providers.
Our colleagues from GameStar-Tech also reported on the story surrounding Jared Mauch’s success.
600 times faster and affordable
How did Jared Mauch become an internet provider? To combat the economic and social consequences of the Corona pandemic, the state of Michigan launched a program. Here, Mauch applied for funding and succeeded. Washtenaw Fiber Properties LLC began its operations.
With the help of about 2.6 million dollars and donations from the local population, he started digging to lay fiber optic cables. The network’s headquarters was established at his home, including a backup power supply.
What does Jared Mauch offer? His company offers a range of tariffs similar to other providers, but there are one-time connection fees. For around 550 Euros, all houses near the newly built streets are connected. Depending on the speed, the monthly prices according to the official homepage range from about 60 Euros for 100 Mbps to as high as 128 Euros for 1,000 Mbps; both upload and download.
Thus, Jared Mauch offers up to 600 times the speed of his former provider at the local level. By mid-2024, the company already had 200 customers, as he explained to GameStar-Tech. The network is also set to be further expanded.
A completely different time, hundreds of kilometers away, but professionally related, an IT technician was angry with Microsoft. A bug in the then-current version of Office threatened to cause him a lot of trouble. He then decided on an unusual step: When an IT technician wrote an angry email about an Office bug personally to Microsoft CEO Bill Gates – and saved his job
