Author Archives: Jesse

Clipper Plugs FreeUTOPIA, Cites Delays in UTOPIA Installation

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Yesterday's Davis County Clipper ran an article about UTOPIA's installation delays, plugging FreeUTOPIA in the process. Where does the blame lie for slow installations? Look no further than the Rural Utility Service. Though the RUS approved a loan to UTOPIA for rural broadband development last fall, paperwork has kept the loan from closing in a timely manner. Once closed, however, it opens the door to deployments in Brigham City, Tremonton, Centerville and Payson, at a minimum.

While the delays can be frustrating, it's worth drastically lowering the cost of installation for member cities. That's probably a small consolation for residents in Murray, Midvale, Orem and West Valley City where construction has temporarily stopped to be able to leverage the federal dollars. The money from the RUS has an expiration date and can only be used on cities with a population under 20,000.

Roger Black, the COO for UTOPIA, says that areas where it's been installed are seeing a 21% take rate, slightly below initial projections but above the take rates needed to have UTOPIA run in the black. This good financial news is in stark contrast to the red ink projected to bleed from iProvo for the foreseeable future despite having a significantly higher take rate. The takeaway is that pooled risk is a Good Thing(TM), something that Provo and American Fork apparently didn't get the memo on.

The funniest thing I find about being mentioned in the Clipper is that I had no idea it was coming until I read the article. You'd think they would want to talk to the guy running a website they find useful.

(See full article here.) 

Telecom Analysts Produce Loud "Duh", Say Better Broadband Stats Needed

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I usually find it amusing when so-called "experts" tell us something that's really pretty obvious. In this case, they're criticizing the FCC's pathetic excuse for broadband stats. What are they telling us that we didn't already know? That stats by ZIP code are way too broad and don't paint an accurate picture of availability and that the number of providers is often drastically over-reported.

This follows a survey from the Communications Workers of America showing that the nation's fastest state, Rhode Island, can't compete with high-speed offerings in Japan, Korea or Canada (eh?) despite what seems like a brisk average speed of 5Mbps. (Canada, for comparison, averages over 7Mbps.) Trailing the pack is West Virginia with a dog-slow 1.12Mbps average, not even enough to match a T1 line.

(See full articles here and here.) 

Verizon, Redmoon Each Independently Decide to Be Evil, Find Sneaky Ways to Display Ads

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Here's a pair of head-shakers for you. Verizon is starting to test a service where mis-typed domain names will instead present search results, much like Verisign's SiteFinder service that caused angry mobs to all but go to the company's offices with torches and pitchforks. The service works at the DNS level meaning that Verizon customers would not be able to bypass it. The biggest problem with this is the impact on tools that look for non-existent DNS records as a way to combat spam and could break other search tools you have on your computer. The obvious motivation is to sell ads on the new "Did you mean…?" screens to make a quick buck. (See full article here.)

And speaking of making a quick buck from ads, Texas ISP Redmoon has found a way to insert ads into web pages that never originally had them at the ISP level. You wouldn't be able to bypass this and it would be a wholesale violation of the intellectual property rights of website owners who spend countless hours building content and arranging it just so. These aren't pop-ups: they're displayed right in the page, modifying the source to insert them. It's also worth noting that this is a paid ISP, not a freebie like Juno or Netzero. (See full article here.)

Hopefully both Verizon and Redmoon will realize that they're on the verge of summoning angry mobs and angrier hackers. 

Governor's Group Want Internet Tax Ban to Stay Temporary

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The National Association of Governors warned Congress that making the current ban on taxing Internet access permanent is a Bad Thing(TM). Their contention is that keeping it temporary gives the government a nice big stick to carry around in case any ISPs start acting up. I can certainly see that taking Teddy Roosevelt's advice to heart is usually a pretty good idea, though I have to wonder if a club does much good if you never use it once in a while.

(See full article here.)

FTC Excuses Itself from the Net Neutrality Debate

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In a move that sounded a lot like a collective "not my job, not my problem," the FTC decided to downplay network neutrality concerns and get itself onto solid, er, neutral ground. In a recently released report, the FTC chose to take no position on network neutrality and downplayed it as not really being all that important. In the process, they urged legislators to move with caution on the issue. Even though this doesn't outright cave in to the wants of the telcos, they'd all prefer the status quo of ambiguity so they can quietly start enacting their own two-tier Internet and deny they're up to anything.

Users of UTOPIA and iProvo, however, have little to fear. Both systems have built-in network neutrality requirements for all providers, so you're not going to face the possibility of having to pay for some kind of "premium" tier to get your BitTorrent on.

(See full articles here, here, here, here, here and here.)

Illinois Joins the Ranks of the Crazy, Allows Statewide Franchising

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Despite a few concessions calling for compensation for missed/late appointments, limiting service contracts to one year and requiring some deployment to poorer neighborhoods, Illinois pretty much handed the telecom industry a license to cherry-pick service areas with little in return. This bill, more-or-less purchased outright by AT&T, is the latest in a dose of crazy talk that gives a lying and monopolistic industry free reign to bypass cities it doesn't feel like serving and bring benefits only to wealthy and upper-middle class neighborhoods while bypassing "less desirable" areas. Aside from the minor concessions, the silver lining is that municipalities are allowed to build their own networks, potentially filling the gap left in AT&T's wake.

Utah recently made a narrow escape from the lunacy of state-wide franchising when SB 209 stalled in the last hours of the 2007 legislative session. It did pass the Senate, however, so it's important you make sure that your representatives in the Senate and House know that you don't want state-wide franchising in Utah. Not only would poorer areas like Rose Park be completely bypassed, but rural towns would also receive little to no benefit.

(See full articles here and here.)

FCC Warm to "Dumb Networks", Universal Access

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In comments at a recent telecom conference, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin emphasized the importance of universal access to broadband connections as well as the role of "dumb networks" in ensuring network neutrality. "Dumb networks" are a lot like the wholesale fiber networks offered by UTOPIA or iProvo where retail and wholesale operations are not operated by the same entity. Even amidst these glimmers of hope, Martin made sure he was playing to the audience of big telcos by taking a wishy-washy stance on local franchising and the upcoming 700MHz spectrum auction.

Not everyone in the FCC is content to sit out the spectrum fight. FCC Commissioner Adelstein has openly voiced support for using the 700MHz spectrum to form an open wireless network that anyone can build on top of. With such a heavyweight behind the idea of divorcing wholesale and retail broadband, television and telephone operations, it's entirely possible that the next six months could yield a major win for real competition in these spaces and provide much better service than what we've been stuck with.

Blogger Susan Crawford isn't so optimistic. She's rightfully ticked off at the abuses heaped on us by incumbents and contends that it will take nothing short of a change of leadership in both the FCC and Congress to facilitate change. Here's to hoping she's wrong. 

(See full articles here, here and here.)

Cablevision, Verizon Promise Lots of HD

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In the mounting war of who can provide the most HD, Cablevision says it'll be rolling out capacity for up to 500 channels of high-def programming by the end of the year. Not to be outdone, Verizon is poised to offer it on-demand through its FIOS network. Verizon, however, actually has the capacity to deliver on its claims. The advanced fiber network offers a peak of 14400Gbps of bandwidth compared to just 4Gbps for coaxial cable, the kind that Cablevision is employing on the last mile. There's also a lack of HD programming that will be available to cable and satellite operators as broadcasters continue to drag their feet on switching away from old analog signals.

This isn't the only major payoff Verizon is seeing from sinking tons of money into next-generation infrastructure. The company also plans to drop fat sacks full of cash money on upgraded EVDO gear to provide the fastest wireless speeds possible, a move Sprint has already started. The new network that Verizon is building is going to make markets they serve competitive with offerings in Korea and Japan while crushing competitors that refuse to pony up to play the next-gen network game. (Hey AT&T? I'm talking about you.)

Of course, this brings up a disturbing picture. While Verizon is competing better than anyone else and delivering the kinds of products we were supposed to have had by last year, the pricing commands a hefty premium with the top-grade FIOS service running a whopping $180/mo while failing to deliver symmetrical speeds. With the massive consolidation in the telecommunications sector and the increasing cost of mounting competitive challenges, we might end up getting right back to where we were 25 years ago with the Bell monopoly. New competitors like OEN are offering speeds and prices about comparable with what Verizon offers (though largely in different markets), so I'm not optimistic that new entrants are going to bring prices in check.

(See full articles here, here, here, here and here.)

AT&T Using Piracy as an Excuse to Bypass Net Neutrality

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In a move filled with more spin than a merry-go-round testing facility, AT&T has claimed that it has the right to restrict or block certain kinds of traffic in an effort to curb online piracy. This has a huge potential effect since AT&T controls most major markets in over 30 states after gobbling up SBC and BellSouth. Not only is network neutrality up in the air, but they also risk losing common carrier status and safe harbor protections, opening them up to lawsuits and liability the likes of which a telecom provider has never seen.

If AT&T gets sued into bankruptcy, we risk putting half of the nation's phone lines at risk of financial ruin. Indeed, it appears to be willing to bet the whole farm on being able to charge all kinds of extra fees for using their "tubes" in any way you wish. Apparently Ed left a lot of crazy behind when he was replaced as CEO.

(See full article here.) 

Spanish Fork's SFCN Rolling in Dough

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Spanish Fork reported that their municipal network is going to turn a $275,000 profit for fiscal year 2008, a stark contrast to the red ink bled by iProvo. What's Spanish Fork's secret? For starters, they decided on a less expensive HFC network as opposed to FTTP, a choice that saved money now but sacrifices some expandability in the future. SFCN also has a very high participation rate with over 70% of households subscribing to Internet, television or both. Because there were no other broadband choices when SFCN was built, they got the "first to market" advantage. The city operates both the wholesale and retail portions of the network because they built it before the law prohibited cities from being retailers. With the money they're putting in the bank on this one, it's only a matter of time before they'll expand the fiber all the way to the home.

(See full article here.)