Archive for April, 2007
Monday, April 30th, 2007
Why Couldn’t Packetfront Finish the American Fork Deal?
Maybe they're too busy catering to the high end. They just dropped a press release touting a new fiber network in some luxury condos in California. I suppose the "little people" don't hold much interest when there's not phat sacks full of cash money involved.
(See press release here.)
2 Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
Deregulation Disasters: Sometimes the Market Doesn’t Work
A very common refrain I'll hear when it comes to UTOPIA and other municipal fiber efforts is "let the market decide!" On the surface, it sounds like a good idea: let private competitors enter the area and give the incumbent providers a whatfor. Where they consistently fail, however, is in delivering a plan that works [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Essays by Jesse
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
Comcast Showing Huge Subscriber Growth, Raises Rates Anyway
Comcast recently posted an 80% increase in quarterly revenue on strong growth of triple-play services and reduced customer churn. This might also have something to do with jacking up my basic digital TV service by about $6 a month. The article also makes no mention of the bad PR they've gotten from cutting off Internet [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Jeers, News by Jesse
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007
US Broadband Rankings Continue to Slip
According to a survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the US has a laggard rate of broadband adoption, we pay too much for it, and we're giving up a ton of economic benefits by not having it. From a high of #4 in 2001, we've dropped to #15 out of 30 industrialized [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Jeers, News by Jesse
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007
Utah Taxpayers Association Opposes Municipal Fiber
They've just posted a heap of criticism for the iProvo project and don't mind taking a few swipes at UTOPIA either. Most of this diatribe is little more than declaring things to be fact with zero citation and I've been taking them to task on it. Why don't you go on over and join [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Jeers by Jesse
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Paragons of Dishonesty: The Lying and Manipulation of The Heartland Institute
About once every month or two, The Heartland Institute releases yet another paper lambasting municipal telecommunications networks. This month proves no different with more claims that municipal broadband efforts are financial black holes and renewing the call for market-based solutions. The problems with these reports lies in their blatant manipulation of the facts [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Essays, Jeers by Jesse
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Gov. Huntsman Has Praise for UTOPIA
At a meeting of wired communities, Gov. John Huntsman had ample praise for the job done by UTOPIA in building out its fiber network. Officials from several foreign countries were in attendance as well as Paul Morris, UTOPIA's executive director. Hey Governor: how about some love for those of us living in the county that [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
MSTAR Moves to New Digs
A sign of a booming broadband business with both iProvo and UTOPIA, MSTAR has moved to a larger facility in Orem to meet growing demand for services. As the only triple-play provider on both networks offering voice, video and data, they're bound to grow into (or out of) that new office as UTOPIA moves into [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
FTTH Council Pushing for 100Mbps by 2015
The FTTH Council is pushing for a national standard of 100Mbps broadband for all American households by 2015. This would place us behind other countries (like Singapore, which plans to have 1Gbps by then), but it would be a major step forward in getting true broadband adopted nationwide.
(See press release (PDF) here.)
No Comments » - Posted in Cheers, News by Jesse
Wednesday, April 18th, 2007
UTOPIA Inches Closer in Centerville
Centerville's planning commission approved the site of the main UTOPIA hub within the city, paving the way for the service to be rolled out. There's no specific dates, but construction should start this summer to provide services by year's end.
(See full article here.)
