What are your recurring costs?

The Coop has to pay Qwest, every month, for rental of our subloops. At the time we signed our contract in March of 2002, the price for unbundled distribution subloops was $8.73 per month per subscriber. Most of the subloops were and are "revenue" subloops because they go to homes that are paying for service. But two of them are connected to the homes that provide the point-to-point microwave link to the T1 line, and represent recurring costs to the Coop.

By June of 2002, Qwest had quietly taken steps to triple our costs, raising the rental of unbundled distribution subloops to $24.13 per month. This was a big problem.

The Coop has to spent about $900 per year for an insurance policy naming Qwest as a beneficiary.

The law firm of Oppedahl & Larson LLP pays about $400 per month to Qwest for the T1 frame relay data line. It is anticipated that some of this cost may be reimbursed by the Coop.

The Coop pays for its data traffic on the T1 data line. This cost could be anywhere from $75 per month to about $450 per month, depending on traffic levels. After some months in service we will have a better sense of what this cost is turning out to be.

The Coop received numerous loans from "angels", property owners in the neighborhood who wanted to make it possible for the Coop to launch service. Thus the Coop intends to repay the loans over time. The loans amounted to some $12,000.

You will note that there are no payroll or labor costs in our discussion of recurring costs. That is because the Coop is an all-volunteer organization.