Free UTOPIA!

I’ve had several anonymous tips regarding Broadweave lately that aren’t any kind of good news for the company. These sources say that Broadweave, despite their happy face for the press, is running very tight on cash and is planning to outsource their call center as a way to cut costs. This could mean some very serious service difficulties in the near future and runs contrary to their promises to keep the company operations on iProvo within the city limits. If true, it sounds like Broadweave is coming unravelled much faster than even the harshest critics could have anticipated.

Talk about out of the loop… I found out today that FuzeCore has become a new provider on the UTOPIA network. Their website indicates that they are a triple-play provider, though they plan to only offer voice and data for now. Unfortunately, the pricing looks out-of-sync with the pricing from other providers. Anyone know any more details?

Good news for those that haven’t heard yet: UTOPIA service is now available in Tremonton. Both XMission and Nuvont are selling services and the word on the street is that the install fees are rock-bottom (under $60). If you’ve been waiting for UTOPIA in Tremonton, wait no more!

This is a liveblog of the UTOPIA Board Meeting on October 27, 2008.

10:43AM The meeting is now adjourned.

10:42AM Sorry about the hiccup. Looks like my hosting company had to do another emergency reboot.

10:36AM UTOPIA is also working with RUS and has finally been able to open a dialog. The head-end is also nearing completion and there was mention of video production services. Could this mean that public access is in the works like on iProvo?

10:33AM The plan is still to bring in business providers and more business accounts.

10:29AM Todd Marriot is delivering an update on the network status. They plan to have 4-5 new triple-play providers Real Soon Now™ and are still working with Tetratech and PacketFront. They’ve also been doing upgrades to the core to make it “carrier class”. The current plan, however, is unwritten. As I’ve found on my own, they have been visiting city councils to give them updates and have been doing so in groups of two to avoid having to make them open meetings.

10:26AM The motion to create Finance, Construction and Membership committees carried.

10:23AM The topic at hand is the lack of data available to evaluate. Marriott’s position is that they still need to carefully guard a lot of data. Amazingly enough, he had a meeting with Royce Van Tassell and the UTA now supports UTOPIA’s success as best for the taxpayers. It’s good to heard that UTOPIA is working with one-time rivals to bring good ideas in-house.

10:21AM Todd Marriott is now presenting an update on UTOPIA’s status.

10:20AM The motion carried for reform the executive committee without Centerville.

10:19AM Paul Cutler has asked that Centerville remain on the executive committee since they would normally have another year of service. Brent Grotegut of Payson has spoken strongly against this as he believes the current executive committee membership is responsible for the problems UTOPIA has experienced.

10:18AM The executive committee has also been reorganized, but I’ve had a hard time following just who was asked to fill which positions. Hopefully those changes will be posted on the website along with the meeting minutes. Reps from Layton, Tremonton, Orem, and Brigham City will all be part of the committee.

10:13AM Kane Loader of Midvale has been elected as the new chairman of the board. He replaces Alex Jensen of Layton.

10:12AM The meeting is getting underway now.

10:10AM Unsurprisingly, reps from Comcast, Qwest and the Utah Taxpayers Association are on-hand to see things unwind. Steve Oberbeck from the Salt Lake Tribune also came into the room.

10:01AM Looks like we’re starting a bit late today. I’ve already noticed that several of the board members have changed including the reps from Murray (who is now Jeff Dredge) and Centerville (who is now Blaine Lutz).

The City of Centerville has posted a memo on their website that they expect an update from UTOPIA Executive Director Todd Marriot at the city council meeting on November 5. Council meetings are typically held at 7PM in the city council chambers at 250 N Main St. Anyone looking to glean some more information on what UTOPIA is up to should be at this meeting.

(And UTOPIA guys? Hook me up with your meeting schedule so that curious supporters like me know in advance. I stumbled across this while looking for something unrelated. Seriously.)

I asked Mstar directly if they are still on UTOPIA and got the following response from Henry Rodriguez, Customer Service Manager:

The change to the UTOPIA website must be an administrative oversight, as Mstar continues to be the largest and most experienced service provider on the UTOPIA network. Any questions about UTOPIA’s website should be sent directly to the UTOPIA staff.

Forum commenter DIE-HARD has reported that he is an Mstar customer and hasn’t experienced any change in service or received any kind of notification of changes. I also put in an inquiry to one of my contacts at UTOPIA, but I haven’t heard anything back yet.

UPDATE: I’ve heard back from UTOPIA who said it is a temporary measure. They’ve started selling in Tremonton as has been rumored on the forum and wanted to make sure that Mstar would be prepared for a large influx of new customers before they’re listed.

Frequent commenter Capt. Video pointed out that UTOPIA’s website no longer shows Mstar as a provider on the network, but there doesn’t appear to be any replacement for them. This means that no current providers offer video service. Mstar’s website, however, has not been similarly updated and still shows them as a provider. Anyone know what’s going on? Are current Mstar customers still getting service?

The next UTOPIA board meeting will be held Monday October 27 at 10AM. The address is 60 E S Temple, Suite 1800 in Salt Lake City. Hopefully we’ll find out some more details there.

Cox is doing it. So is Comcast. In fact, prices are rising all over the telecom industry as stock prices plummet and subscribers prove fickle (as AT&T found out with a loss of 3.9M landline customers so far this year). Many of them are also ramping up higher-speed tiers and premium services to pad the bottom line.

Unfortunately, prices are likely to continue to rise in our current anti-competitive telecommunications market. Byzantine phone regulations are used to block new voice carriers, the programming cartel consistently flexes its muscle to increase wholesale television rates and data providers continue to increase markup even as the wholesale rate of bandwidth drops to new lows. DSLReports lambasts the lack of competition in a scatching editorial that details why telecom has the lowest consumer satisfaction ratings of any industry in the nation. As we continue to support duopolies and exclusive providers via HOAs, the problem is only going to get worse.

There hasn’t been any news in the broadband world the last few weeks. Just kidding. Here are some “morsels” for you to chew on:

• A local telco in Monticello, Minnesota (Bridgewater Telephone, child company of TDS Telecom) lost a suit against a city-built Fiber-to-the-Home network. (A project very similar to UTOPIA). The judge dismissed Bridgewater’s complaint of competition by a governmental organization. Apparently, the incumbent telco, Bridgewater, wouldn’t build a fiber network so the city had decided to bond and build their own. I thought this network was interesting because the goals of the network read a lot like the goals of UTOPIA:
  • choice of service provider
  • competitive rates
  • local service
  • local ownership
  • economic development
  • economic returns to the community

  There is a site like FreeUtopia that is covering this network: http://www.monticellofiber.com/

• Some universities seem to be cutting back on POTS (plain old telephone) offerings to dorms because of lack of use.
• Cox and Time Warner were fined for implementing SDV and knocking CableCARD customers offline without proper notification.
• It also looks like BPL (Broadband over Power Lines) is dead. Manassas, Virginia where the flagship BPL network was deployed has been turned over to the city who will keep it around until about 2010. For all you amateur radio (PDF) operators out there this is good news.
• Apple is rumored to be working on a networked TV. That’s going to require a lot of bandwidth. In addition to normal TV functions, you could stream any content from iTunes like downloaded movie rentals, TV episodes on demand, etc.
• Business Week recently did an excellent piece called “The Digital Divide” that talks about just how important broadband is becoming in spurring business in areas that have it, and leaving those that don’t in the dust.
• President Bush signed the Broadband Data Improvement Act into law on Oct. 10. The bill will provide for improved data on the status of broadband deployment in the United States by forcing the FCC to make a couple of major changes to the way it puts together broadband information. This includes yearly metrics for “second-generation” broadband that can support full motion HD video and more granularity to for reporting of broadband broken down by ZIP+4 instead of just ZIP (as it is now). The bill also authorizes a program of grants to support public/private public partnerships to stimulate broadband deployment and adoption at the state level. I’m interested to know what this would mean for projects like UTOPIA. Thoughts?