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This Man Launched a New Internet Service Provider from His Garage | Freethink DIY Science - YouTube
Channel: Freethink
[0]
[upbeat instrumental music]
[1]
Everybody has issues with their internet.
[2]
Hey, is your guys' internet working?
[4]
No!
Nobody's is!
[6]
Whether it's an unnecessary
bundle, data limits,
[9]
[beeping]
or speed.
[11]
[whooshing]
[12]
It's not working, Gerald.
[13]
But, it has to work!
[14]
Maybe if I--
Your internet's not working,
[16]
Gerald, face it!
[18]
[screams] What's happening?
[19]
[bells jingling]
[20]
But, this guy actually
did something about it.
[23]
My wife came home with the bill
[25]
and I said there's gotta be a better way.
[27]
He built his own internet service company
[30]
from his garage.
[playful instrumental music]
[45]
[Garage door opening]
[47]
This is where all the magic happens.
[49]
This is--
[laughing]
[52]
This is Brant and this is his garage.
[55]
It's the DIY hub of internet connectivity
[58]
in Dillon Beach, California.
[59]
The way I engineered the
service is kind of like
[62]
an irrigation system.
[63]
The green lines actually
represent sort of a big,
[66]
fat virtual pipe that brings
strong internet service
[69]
to the different areas of the community.
[72]
Just basically liberating
information to the people.
[76]
But, Brant wasn't always
a DIY internet guru.
[79]
[electronic music]
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In fact, before building his own ISP,
[82]
he swore off technology altogether.
[85]
[funky instrumental music]
[87]
We came out here six and a half years ago.
[90]
I was finding what I needed
kind of out on the water
[93]
and outdoor activities.
[94]
In hindsight, I think I can look back at,
[96]
and I call my Luddite phase.
[99]
Let's roll.
Come on.
[100]
Let's get on board.
[102]
But I didn't really know
where it was taking me
[104]
at the time.
[106]
All the while, I think my family
was suffering a little bit.
[110]
They felt pretty isolated out here.
[112]
He loved that it was away from everything,
[115]
which was exactly what
was the most challenging
[117]
for me and Emma.
[120]
I think it was a good couple of months
[122]
that we had no internet and
I felt a little resentful.
[125]
We're kinda stuck out here
in this isolated place.
[128]
[whooshing]
[132]
It became apparent that Emma
would need internet for school.
[135]
The burden that my daughter
felt for school was heavy.
[139]
She was bouncing back and forth
[140]
between staying late at school,
going to the public library,
[143]
maybe going to Starbucks
when the library closed
[145]
and she still wasn't
done with her homework,
[147]
but it was very slow.
[149]
Public Wi-Fi is just terrible.
[152]
The cell phone service was
really our only option,
[155]
but that proved to be extremely expensive.
[159]
My wife came home with the bill, $707.
[162]
[thudding]
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That was the last straw.
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There's gotta be a better way to do this.
[167]
[thudding]
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He's not one to just sit back
just sayin' there's nothing
[170]
that we can do.
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He will find a solution.
[173]
[soft piano music]
[174]
I knew that there was a cell phone tower
[176]
in our close proximity.
[178]
I thought maybe that
would be a good direction
[180]
to start investigating.
[182]
So, Brant begins searching
for the cell tower.
[185]
After chasing down utility trucks,
[187]
he eventually found it and the company
[189]
that owned the fiber line attached to it.
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But, he had a problem.
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No one would return his calls.
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It was like silence for six months
[197]
and then one day I got this
call out of the blue saying,
[200]
now, what is it you're
trying to do out there?
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[laughing] I'm like, oh, my gosh!
[202]
I can't believe it.
[203]
I get to talk to somebody.
[204]
I just want the internet,
[205]
I don't wanna play
these games or whatever,
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just open the pipe up
and let me have access.
[210]
After months of negotiations,
[212]
Brant eventually got a fiber
line installed directly
[215]
into his garage.
[216]
That really solved my
[laughing] internet problem!
[219]
Some of my closer neighbors
asked if they could buy in.
[223]
I was just being bombarded
with people just saying,
[225]
hey, sign me up, sign me up, sign me up!
[227]
And, I didn't even know if I could do it.
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Hey, Terry, how are you?
[232]
Good, you remember Clara?
I do, oh, my goodness.
[235]
I was actually really skeptical about it.
[238]
I was imagining that the
service would be bad,
[240]
the speed would be slow,
we'd have problems.
[243]
So, have you been able to
get out on the water lately?
[245]
He's got this great energy about him.
[247]
[thudding]
[248]
Not at all afraid of us
pestering him about our service.
[252]
My partner and I can actually both work
[254]
from home at the same time,
[255]
which would never happen
with the other service.
[259]
To have that choice of something
[260]
other than the bigger companies
[262]
that were providing terrible
service has been huge.
[265]
[upbeat instrumental music]
[268]
Right here, actually, is the
fiber coming into my garage.
[272]
My interface to the fiber connection.
[274]
This head end unit really is the brains
[276]
for disseminating all the information,
[278]
which go to the antennaes up on my roof
[281]
that actually get the signal out there.
[284]
That's how we do it.
[286]
[Gentle wave sounds]
[289]
I feel like there are no limitations now.
[292]
Now that we have internet
and it's fast and it's good.
[296]
Emma was ecstatic.
[298]
She'd just finished her
freshman year at Berkeley.
[301]
I think she saw it as
him doing this for her.
[305]
It just, it made her happy.
[306]
[upbeat instrumental music]
[309]
So, the spirit of DIY in my
mind is anybody who wants
[313]
to just take the bull by the horns
[315]
and get it done themselves.
[319]
There's no restrictions,
I mean, you just go.
[321]
Especially out here,
it's like the wild west.
[324]
It's kinda nice.
[326]
So, what's next for you?
[328]
What's next for me?
[329]
I think I wanna learn a
little bit about editing DNA.
[332]
[uplifting instrumental music]
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