Free UTOPIA!

The monthly FreeUTOPIA podcast will air tomorrow from 4PM to 5PM on BlogTalkRadio. Our guest will be Chris Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a policy group based in Minnesota. Call in with your questions and comments at (347) 838-8025, join the show chat room, or just listen in on the show page.

The NTIA has started sending out rejection notices to broadband stimulus applicants and has been updating its online database with hundreds of applicants that did not get approved in the first round. Among those are all three of UTOPIA’s applications. Despite rejection in Round 1, UTOPIA can still apply for Round 2 which will be less restrictive on application requirements.

That said, it’s entirely possible (and in my estimation, highly probable) that UTOPIA won’t get funding at all. BTOP seems to be focused on new projects rather than existing ones and is focusing on the most rural areas. If that’s the case, the SAA will be the only way to finance any future construction and participants will have to bear a higher cost.

(h/t: Stimulating Broadband)

Spanish Fork is one of the more unassuming municipal systems in the country, making around $400K per year for city coffers while providing some rock-bottom rates for service. In fact, news about them is often few and far between. The Daily Herald reports today, however, that they’re upping the stakes with new voice service. The city is targeting a rate of $15/mo, even cheaper than what I pay for the limited use Vonage plan. No word yet on what features will be included, but it would be hard to complain at that kind of rock-bottom price.

A commenter asked about the future of UTOPIA in Centerville and a search of the city website turned up some hints from the city council meeting on January 5. According to those minutes, Centerville is considering a Special Assessment Area (SAA) to cover the city with service, but the city council hasn’t yet taken any official action. (There was also discussion of making the Mayor the new board member for the city, but no action was taken on that either.) If you’re one of the people who has been waiting, patiently or not, for UTOPIA service, your chance may come soon.

The following letter to the editor was submitted to the Salt Lake Tribune, Deseret News, Daily Herald, Ogden Standard-Examiner, and Davis County Clipper. It was published in the Clipper and an abbreviated version is currently slated to appear in the Tribune.

UPDATE: Here’s the letter published in the Tribune.

Whenever there is criticism leveled towards UTOPIA, you will usually find the Utah Taxpayers Association screaming the loudest. The irony is that they are one of the least-qualified to criticize UTOPIA or make any commentary on telecommunications policy.

(more…)

Looks like UTOPIA has finally launched a new website. It looks a lot better than the old one and appears to include a way to see where service is available, though that feature is currently down. It’s definitely a marked improvement over the old one.

The service provider list also shows that Voonami is now a commercial service provider on the network, bringing the total up to 9 companies providing service. The board meeting schedule for 2010 has also been posted. Go give it a poke and see if you find anything else interesting.

(h/t: luminous)

Tomorrow’s podcast will be at 4PM with a guest from Veracity Networks. We’ll talk UTOPIA, iProvo, and anything else that happens to come up. As usual, feel free to call in or tweet questions and join us in the chat room.

Retransmission fights between cable companies and station owners is not a rare thing, but networks actually disappearing from the line-up isn’t common at all. It’s been almost a week since Scripps pulled their channels, including Food Network and HGTV, from Cablevision, leaving many New York City customers without access to these stations. Even more remarkable, they’ve chosen to get popular programs, such as Iron Chef, to customers by partnering with local over-the-air stations. Have the catfights between cable and programmers finally reached a level where cable just can’t cut it anymore?

(more…)