Author Archives: Jesse

CNet has an interview with Edward Mueller, the CEO of Qwest, that reveals their direction on fiber optic networks:

CNet: Let's shift gears here for a minute to broadband. You talked about Qwest's commitment to upgrading its network by taking fiber to the node or fiber to the neighborhood. Why doesn't Qwest follow Verizon's lead and just take fiber to the home?

Mueller: It's too expensive. We don't see the return.

CNet: But Wall Street seems to have looked favorably on Verizon's strategy, and it's starting to pay off. They seem to have a long-term vision.

Mueller: We don't have the resources.

Funny, I would have thought that decades of price-gouging and anti-competitive behavior combined with a $200B federal handout would be resources enough. In the interview, it becomes clear that Verizon and AT&T are using wireless revenues to cross-subsidize their FIOS and U-Verse rollouts, respectively, whereas Qwest can only cook up lame "partnerships" for cellular access. (And picking Sprint? That was dumb.) They're also expressing little interest in either the 700MHz auction or WiMax.

The short version is that we can't expect Qwest to deliver next-generation networks under the current leadership, especially after the last five years where the company spent more time courting a buyer than being a phone company. Without that competitive pressure, do you really think Comcast is going to roll out DOCSIS 3.0 in Utah anytime soon? My magic 8 ball is saying "don't count on it".

h/t: Warren Woodward of XMission for pointing out this article.

In what seems to be part of a continuing series, the Salt Lake Tribune has decided to go tilting at windmills once more by attempting to re-classify Spanish Fork's profitable network as a train wreck with tons of hidden subsidies and shoddy accounting. Apparently the Tribune is so focused on that predetermined conclusion that they're more than willing to discard any and all explanations to the contrary.

For starters, there's the public reason given for transfers from various city departments: they're buying a stake in the city-wide network for their own internal uses. For instance, Spanish Fork's electric department uses the network for the same reasons as iProvo, to conduct remote breaker monitoring throughout the city. The water and sewer departments no doubt have similar uses of their own. Given this, it only makes sense for them to own part of the network. The shame is that Spanish Fork is trying to have city agencies pay for their usage and ownership of the network, unlike Provo, and they still get hung out to dry in the papers. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, huh?

Unsurprisingly, the Utah "Taxpayers" Association was on the spot to provide some more "told you so" flavor quotes. Apparently getting quotes to provide a balanced story are way beyond the Tribune's capabilities. It's proof positive that you just can't trust what you read in the papers these days. 

It looks like another storm is brewing for iProvo and finances are the question once again. This time the anger is being vented at the providers on the network, Veracity/Nuvont and MSTAR, who are allegedly behind by almost $1M on their bills to the city. The state auditor is acting on an anonymous tip and has requested that the city forward three years worth of financial records and 6 months worth of recordings from closed-door meetings, the latter of which is a highly irregular request.

The city says that the matter is a difference of opinion on when bills should be paid. According to Mayor Billings, there's no payment issues beyond that. Veracity has also stated that they are no more than 30 days past due at the very most on any bill and that amount wouldn't come close to a cool million. 

One commenter at the Deseret Morning News noted that the timing of such an anonymous tip, so close to the obviously misleading Tribune articles on UTOPIA's finances, almost seems orchestrated. I wouldn't put it past Qwest to stoop to such a level.

Read more in the Tribune and DMN.