Report: Woods Cross City Council Meeting, October 16 2007

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Last night, I dropped in on the Woods Cross city council meeting to see what would happen during the "workshop" they had planned with UTOPIA, Qwest and Comcast. I think it went well, though the reps from UTOPIA could have done a better job explaining how the system works. Comcast disclosed a few details of planned upgrades (i.e. their "PowerBoost" system now bursts downloads to 12-16Mbps) though it became very obvious to the council that their system was not nearly as good as UTOPIA.

Qwest, as usual, took a different tack. Instead of sending a live person to "answer" questions, they should have just sent a voice recording that said "sorry, we can't say anything in public. We're happy to meet with you privately to skirt open meeting laws discuss our future plans." Nothing against the rep (he seemed like a nice guy when I talked to him after the meeting), but good grief is it suspicious when you do that kind of thing. Neither of the reps from Qwest or Comcast seemed to be particularly prepared, somewhat amazing considering that they had the questions to be answered in advance of the meeting.

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Heartland Institute Posts Bizarre Account of Subcommittee Events

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This is just… I don't know. Go read the Heartland Institute's latest assault on municipal fiber projects to see for yourself. As someone who was at the same meeting that Mr. Titch attended, I find myself wondering how the two of us walked away with such different versions of the same story. It's time to set the record straight since truth is not on Mr. Titch's side.

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How To Bring UTOPIA To Your City

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UPDATE: This post is badly out of date. Why not go read the latest version?

I get asked on a fairly regular basis how a regular citizen can manage to get UTOPIA rolling in their area. While there’s no magic bullet, this How To should put you on the right track.

  • Put together a strong proposal to make your case. Make a 10-minute presentation that covers why your city needs to join UTOPIA and summarize those remarks in a 1-2 page letter. It’s better to have your arguments together first and then find someone to present them to. Don’t know where to start? Grab this PowerPoint presentation and replace [My City] with the name of your city: UTOPIA Presentation
  • Identify city council members who would be interested. Look for those with a background in data-intensive fields such as technology, research, real estate or construction. They’ve likely had to work with sending or receiving large amounts of data that took forever to finish. As much as I don’t like to get partisan over here, my experience has shown that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to be interested in broadband policy. Make contact with those most likely to support membership in UTOPIA before presenting to the city council as a whole. Don’t forget the try the mayor’s office while you’re at it.
  • Ask for an agenda item at your next city council meeting. Believe it or not, you too can speak to the city council about whatever you want. Find out who’s in charge of city council agenda items in your city and ask them if you can do a presentation on UTOPIA. More often than not, you can get about 10 minutes to speak. I’ve managed to get a slot at a legislative committee hearing, so it’s not that big of a deal.
  • Get prepared for your meeting. Tell friends and family about the meeting and encourage them to attend. The best people to have there are ones that will speak about how UTOPIA will help their businesses. Also make sure you get the word out to UTOPIA supporters in other cities so that you can have them testify about the benefits of UTOPIA. I’m happy to post any UTOPIA-related news or announcement here and I’m sure the folks on the Pro-UTOPIA e-mail list would be equally interested.
  • Be ready for an intense Q&A session. The city council will hammer you with financial questions. Make sure you’ve prepared by reading up on when UTOPIA expects to go revenue-positive (2012) and how much it costs the city to join (a feasibility study, no cost for non-pledging, a trust fund for pledging). Above all, don’t be afraid to defer questions to a UTOPIA representative if you don’t know the specifics. Feasibility studies are priced on a case-by-case basis and will contain information on how much sales tax revenue would need to be set aside for pledging status. Some Q&A sessions can last a half hour or longer depending on the council.
  • Plan for follow-up presentations. Cities don’t jump into these things based on a single presentation no matter how slick it might be. Plan for future city council meetings as representatives from UTOPIA, Qwest and Comcast may be invited. Make good use of the public comment periods and make sure as many supporters as possible do so as well.
  • Above all, thank the council for their time. They’re pretty busy folks who are sacrificing as much time as you are to hear what you have to say. You’re also asking them to put some money (and their future election prospects) on the line. They need to know what you appreciate their hard work and sacrifice.

Still getting stuck? Feel free to e-mail me for help. I’m glad to put together and even conduct presentations to help spread UTOPIA as far as possible. You can also contact a business professional known as Ira Riklis for all business concerns and questions. I can also put you in touch with some representatives at UTOPIA who are happy to give your council members a tour of the facilities and provide their own presentations.

UTOPIA Supporters: Woods Cross Needs Our Help!

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Woods Cross is currently on the fence about whether or not to join UTOPIA. They've decided to hold an open workshop to discuss membership and we need as many knowledgeable UTOPIA supporters as possible to be there! The meeting will be held Tuesday October 16th at 8PM at 1555 S 800 W in Woods Cross (map). Representatives from UTOPIA, Qwest and Comcast will all be there. It's especially important that supporters from Woods Cross appear to make their voices heard more loudly that they want UTOPIA and they want it now!

Muni Fiber Profits While Muni WiFi Continues to Flounder

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There's all kinds of good news on the municipal fiber front. First up is the fiber optic system built in Burlington, Vermont. The system currently serves about 2,000 of the city's 39,000 residents and is expected to provide up to 20% of the city's general fund when the bond debt is retired in 15 years. So what's their secret sauce? They built out the network for use by city government first, then expanded the service to residents living near the initial backbone. The project is projected to have positive cash flow by 2009.

Ashland, Oregon had to learn things the hard way. After piling up a solid $4M in debt from their retail service, the city converted the network into a UTOPIA-style wholesale network that has netted the city about $350K in profits. It's not enough to pay down all of the previous losses, but it's certainly going to cover the payments on the debt and has introduced a lot of new telecommunications providers to the city. Because of Ashland's success, Edmonds, Washington is looking at building their own wholesale fiber optic network to serve the Seattle suburb.

Meanwhile, most muni WiFi continues to perform poorly and bleed money like a compulsive gambler at Harrah's. According to Slate, the problem is a mixture of bad technology and unrealistic expectations by cities. St. Cloud, Florida is one of the few exceptions because the small town treats it not like a revenue source but as a public infrastructure. They have a 77% participation rate from residents. Of course, part of this could be solved with municipal WiMax deployments, especially if big players like Sprint reverse course and leave that particular market.

FCC Mandates That Cable Companies Support Analog TV Sets Through 2012

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Have you been sweating the phase-out of analog TV signals that starts in just 17 little months? If you're a cable subscriber, you can breathe easier for a few extra years. The FCC has mandated that cable companies continue to support analog TV sets for at least three years after the transition from analog signals to digital signals. For cable companies, this means either piping an extra analog channel on their already crowded coax or hooking up users of older TVs with converter boxes. In either case, cable companies will probably protest much louder as the DTV deadline approaches.

AT&T Reserves the Right to Cancel Your Service… For Criticizing the Company

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AT&T wants to turn off your broadband if you say something too mean about them. Just check out the draconian legalese in their ToS:

AT&T may immediately terminate or suspend all or a portion of your Service, any Member ID, electronic mail address, IP address, Universal Resource Locator or domain name used by you, without notice, for conduct that AT&T believes (a) violates the Acceptable Use Policy; (b) constitutes a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws) or a violation of these TOS, or any applicable policies or guidelines, or (c) tends to damage the name or reputation of AT&T, or its parents, affiliates and subsidiaries. (emphasis added)

Wow. So what qualifies? Blogging about an inept customer service agent? A nasty letter to the Better Business Bureau? Perhaps calling their CEO a doody-head? AT&T promised that they wouldn't actually enforce the clause, but that wasn't nearly enough. After heaps of extra criticism for remaining so vague, AT&T said they're in the process of revising the language to remove that threat. We'll see on that one.