Archive for September, 2006
Saturday, September 30th, 2006
Cable vs. Satellite: There is no Competition
Given the plethora of ads you'll see of DirectTV taking snipes at the cable company and vice-versa, you'd think they were being really competitive with each other. Cable always talks about its service, satellite always talks up its supposedly lower pricing. A closer look, however, reveals that satellite providers are offering second-rate service while not [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Essays by Jesse
Thursday, September 28th, 2006
UTOPIA Brings Broadband to Rural Users Faster Than Qwest, Comcast
There's an article in the Davis County Clipper concerning UTOPIA's rollout to rural areas. These areas have been underserved by the incumbent carriers for years. UTOPIA finally brings them the benefits of high-speed without the high price tag that cable and phone companies charge. UTOPIA could very well be the first and only broadband service [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cheers, News by Jesse
Thursday, September 28th, 2006
Editorial: HR 5252 Would Increase Competition, Lower Prices for Cable
An editorial from Tuscon chimes in to support HR 5252 without the badly-written poison pill to banish Net Neutrality. According to the editorial, our southern neighbors in Arizona overpay for cable by over $178M per year due to lack of competition. Let's speed up UTOPIA adoption so we don't end up in the same boat!
(See [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cheers, Legislation, News by Jesse
Thursday, September 28th, 2006
Fed Up Colorado Cities Solicit Competitors
Fed up with poor service and high prices, dozens of cities in Colorado are actively pursuing either municipal broadband or bringing in more service providers. Unsurprisingly, Qwest tried to protect its monopoly by passing a bill that bans such competition. Thankfully, the bill was watered down so that Qwests dreams of bleeding consumers dry can't [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cheers, Jeers, News by Jesse
Thursday, September 28th, 2006
UTOPIA Serving as a Model for Other Municipal Fiber Systems
A project in Minnesota to build a municipal fiber system has been based upon the model used by UTOPIA. This brings only good news about our state and shows how well thought-out the UTOPIA project is.
(See full article.)
No Comments » - Posted in Cheers, News by Jesse
Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
Silicon Valley Behind the Curve?
Silicon Valley, the heart of the US technology industry, is still unsure as to what it's going to do to provide municipal broadband. There's going to be a roundtable to figure out if it will be a true municipal broadband system or just another monopoly contract. Let's hope for the former.
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
Cities That Get It: Loma Linda, CA
The city of Loma Linda, a sleepy suburb of Los Angeles, has finished up a brand-new fiber optic network providing broadband services that the telecoms and cable companies just wouldn't go for. Now that they have this network in place, the city is finding all kinds of creative uses for it including distance learning [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cheers, News by Jesse
Wednesday, September 27th, 2006
Letters to the Editor: Sep. 28, 2006
After Salt Lake City Weekly suggested that the underserved township of Emigration Canyon could consider UTOPIA as one of their options, I wrote them in and set them straight on the restrictions imposed by state law. The letter was published in today's Salt Lake City Weekly.
No Comments » - Posted in Communications by Jesse
Sunday, September 24th, 2006
All Eyes on Corpus Christi
Corpus Christi is about to finish the rollout of a municipal WiFi system that may fully demonstrate the benefits of municipal broadband. It's going to be used for everything from meter reading to communicating with traffic signals to, yes, Internet access. Since this is the first fully-functioning muni WiFi system and it has concrete [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Cheers, News by Jesse
Sunday, September 24th, 2006
Net Neutrality Halts Telecom Bill
Thanks to efforts from a few senators, the overhaul of the 1934 and 1996 telecommunications acts is dead in the water. While this would have been beneficial for municipal broadband, the potential negative effects on Net Neutrality would have been much worse. Let's hope the Net Neutrality sections get fixed up so that all of [...]
