You know what they say: If you want something done properly, do it yourself. Two brothers-in-law based out of Saline, Michigan, appear to have taken this principle to heart—as, after having had their fill of relying on Comcast for their high-speed internet, they've started an ISP of their very own.
After becoming frustrated with the slow upload speeds and what he perceived to be an unreliable connection offered by Comcast's Xfinity service, Samuel Herman—a Saline resident and chief operating officer of his father's local construction company—decided to take matters into his own hands (via Ars Technica). After discovering that no fiber ISP was competing with Comcast in his area, he enlisted the help of his brother-in-law, Alexander Baciu, to create an ISP that aims to provide a cheaper and more reliable alternative.
"All throughout my life pretty much, I've had to deal with Xfinity's bullcrap, them not being able to handle the speeds that we need," Herman told Ars Technica. "Many times we would have to call Comcast and let them know our bandwidth was slowing down... then they would say, 'OK, we'll refresh the system.' So then it would work again for a week to two weeks, and then again we'd have the same issues."
"We have spoken to all of these Internet service providers and asked them to come and service these areas. I knew that there was a dire need in this area and that everybody was sick of the Xfinity BS."
Given that the construction business is their game, particularly the installation of fiber lines and their associated conduits, the two decided to pivot their knowledge of local infrastructure into creating a fiber broadband provider of their very own. "We kept on talking. We're like, hey, we're doing this work for other people, why not?" said Baciu.
In August of 2024, the pair signed a contract with a firm that provides IP address assignments, backhaul services, and connectivity for ISPs. They also hired technical assistants and software engineers to handle the networking requirements. Just six months after their newly-minted broadband provider, Prime-One, began operations, the pair have already gained over 100 customers.
Prime-One currently has 15 employees and provides unlimited data connections to the local area starting at 500 Mbps for $75 a month, all the way up to a 5 Gbps connection for $110, along with an Optical Network Terminal, a modem, and a router. "We are 100 percent fiber optic," says Baciu. "Everything that we're doing is all underground. "We're not doing aerial because we really want to protect the infrastructure and make sure we're having a reliable connection."
The company also offers phone support, as opposed to the mostly online chat support offered by Comcast. Currently, the network is capable of servicing around 1,500 homes in Saline over 75 miles of fiber optic cables—but Prime-One is planning to expand to 4,000 homes in the near future, along with providing connection opportunities to multi-unit residential buildings as well.
So, it's a hometown hero story all round, then. Everyone loves the idea of a scrappy underdog taking on the big players, but in this case, the two underdogs involved had the technical know-how, the will, and the funding to succeed. On Comcast's part, however, it looks like the pair might have spurred the competition into a response:
"We have upgraded our network in this area and offer multi-gig speeds there, and across Michigan, as part of our national upgrade that's been rolling out", a spokesperson said. Meanwhile, MetroNet and Frontier, two competing ISPs, have also been expanding their fiber line construction into The City of Saline, although neither appears to be serving the zones Prime-One operates in currently.
And as for the future? Herman says that "we have plans we cannot disclose at this moment, but we do have a plan to expand." Sounds like this David vs Goliath battle has some ways to go yet, then. Good luck, chaps.
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