Comcast wanted $210,000 for Internet—so this man helped expand a co-op fiber ISP

Los Altos Hills Community Fiber (LAHCF) is a cooperative (co-op) broadband provider that gives multi-gigabit fiber Internet to dozens of homes and has a plan to serve hundreds more. Town residents were able to form the provider 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. This was done to overcome frustrations residents have been having with providers like Comcast. Resident Sasha 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 said it took over a year to and reaching out to the Los Altos Hills town government to get Comcast to tell him how much it would charge for a line extension to his house. The answer was $210,000. Zbrozek proposed connecting to Comcast by running a line to a neighbor's property that had Comcast service. "The closest point between my property and a (now former) neighbor with Comcast who would've let me do some private trenching is about 40 feet," said Zbrozek. However, Comcast doesn't allow that type of property-to-property connection.