Why Fiber Contractors Misprice Their T&M Rates
Fiber contractors misprice their T&M rates by building them on hoped-for utilization instead of measured hours, then wait on carrier billing cycles that pay when the portal says so. Revenue mix drifts wherever the phone rings, and overhead never gets tied to billable hours. A $2.4M fiber splicing contractor repriced on real numbers with CONTROL.
The specific ways fiber contractors lose cash, pulled straight from what makes this trade different.
T&M Rate on Annual Utilization
A splicing rate that pencils at 90% billable hours collapses at the 60% your crews really run. Utilization is the denominator under every T&M rate.
Carrier Billing Cycles
Carrier portals pay on their own clock and disputes restart it. The 13-week forecast has to carry that cycle or payroll finds it first.
Revenue Mix Strategy
Splicing, OSP construction, and emergency restoration carry different margins and different risks. A deliberate mix beats whatever the phone brought in this quarter.
Utilization-Based Overhead
Overhead per billable hour is the number that keeps a fiber shop honest. Spread across hoped-for hours, it understates cost on every single ticket.
The CONTROL chapters that solve this for fiber contractors specifically.
Why do fiber contractors lose money on T&M work?
How do I fix my fiber splicing T&M rate?
What profit margin should a fiber contractor target?
