EXCLUSIVE: CenturyLink Paid For uNOpia

CenturyLinkWondering how the uNOpia site sprung up so quickly and with so much funding? Wonder no more. I have inside information that the payments for the entire operation come directly from CenturyLink itself. This isn’t too surprising since they rarely directly involve themselves in politics anymore, preferring to launder the money through hatchetmen like the Utah Taxpayers Association (who, of course, is heavily promoting the uNOpia site). Given how much CenturyLink stands to lose in the residential and commercial wireline market should this succeed, it’s no wonder they’re willing to spend thousands of dollars to try and upend it.

This isn’t anything too surprising after the confirmed involvement of the Utah Taxpayers Association in HB60 and the suspected involvement in SB190 earlier this year. Incumbents will stoop to any low in order to protect their turf and keep prices artificially high.

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15 Responses to EXCLUSIVE: CenturyLink Paid For uNOpia

  1. Greg says:

    I think the opposition to UTOPIA by Comcast and Century Link is exactly why we need UTOPIA. They know competition is good for the consumers and bad for them…they may actually have to provide service (not just internet service…customer service).

    Since I live in an area that has UTOPIA, but don’t yet have the lines to my house, I of course have to put up with one of the, “big two” to get internet access. Yesater, I was on a call with Comcast and, long story short, after mentioning that I live in a UTOPIA city, they nearly bent over backwards to make sure I didn’t cancel. Do you think that would have happened if I lived somewhere that UTOPIA does not exist? Not a chance.

  2. Ted Laser III says:

    Just got one of these uNOpia flyers in the mail today. It reeks of desperation. So glad I live in Centerville and have UTOPIA hooked up and running 100 Mbps Up/Down with Xmission.

    • David says:

      Ted,

      I’m jealous. I live in Bountiful and can only wish that we can get the Macquarie deal finished for UTOPIA and expanded here because I’m my internet service has been running at about 8% of the advertised speeds I’m paying for and even if it runs at 100% of the advertised speeds 100 Mbps isn’t even in the realm of possibility here.

  3. Vince says:

    Just think of all the things centurylink could have done with that money. Like maybe run some fiber. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to sit here, content with my SumoFiber gigabit connection while everyone else says “lol u dont need that” between complaining about netflix buffering.

  4. Don says:

    I live in Centerville and noticed some horizontal drilling crews laying fiber conduit near the intersection of Parrish Lane and 400 West (one of Centerville’s business districts, by the Walmart). I stopped and asked them who they were laying it for. Their response, “CenturyLink.”

    • Jesse says:

      Worth noting: they’re likely feeling pressure from UTOPIA, and yet they’re only laying the fiber in a business area. Kind of proves the point I made about CenturyLink abandoning residential wireline markets, eh?

  5. Ronald D. Hunt says:

    CenturyLink is currently engaged in an aggressive stock buy back program($2 billion worth), and carries over $20 billion in debt, Its debt is rated as BB+ and BBB-, And has Fitch threatening to lower their debt rating if revenue doesn’t meet expectations, or if their debt level increases further.

    Fitch believes they will be able to meet their bond obligations in 2015 and 2016 due to a revolving credit facility(one for $2 billion and another for $160 million), They make no mention of after that.

    CenturyLink is a house of cards, Rather then upgrading their network, they are doing stock buybacks, they are doing little to improve their debt rating, leaving them at not terrible, but still bad interest rates( probably averaging around 6.5%), They have neglected residential service, in effect handing large numbers of customers over to Comcast, and TWC(soon to be Comcast).

    CenturyLink would easily match Comcast in brand ill-repute, if their customers hand’t already jumped ship to the cable company to either get modest broadband or any broadband at all, and the way the cable companies bundle services all but guarantees non-broadband services will be switched to them as well.

    Telephone companies that have upgraded to fiber(basically Verizon), will find themselves in a sweet spot when cable bandwidth finely hits the wall in a few years, this being the point where cheap equipment swap outs are no longer enough to increase speeds.

  6. Mike says:

    This isn’t exactly new behavior from CenturyLink. YEARS ago (and I’m dating myself slightly here) USWest had a petition before the public Utilities Commission to “deregulate their broadband because there was sufficient competition in the marketplace” I remember that clearly because there was quite a lot of outcry from the public. I spoke about how I had tried to get an alternative and there wasn’t. I also recall Pete Ashdown from Xmission speaking out. I have always been highly impressed by Pete’s (and Xmission’s) outspokeness in the community.

    When we first moved to a Utopia city, I was excited about the prospect; then I found out that they weren’t in “my” neighborhood, with no prospect to get it. When we bought our hose in Payson, I was excited because it had utopia installed; it was really no contest who I was going to choose for my provider. I just wish there wasn’t the 1TB cap. It (sort of) makes sense on 100Mbps (but I really wish I could monitor my useage), but at Gigabit speeds you are talking about a couple of hours….

    For comparison’s sake, in Orem at least, I was consistently closer to the rated speed with US West Quest CenturyLink than with TCI AT&T Comcast Xfinity.

    That’s right, let’s not forget, as we contemplate that AT&T might merge with DirecTV (though not directly related to this site) that AT&T first brought cable modem service to the greater Salt Lake area

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  9. Nunyabidness says:

    I suppose you voted for Obama and the Unafforadable “Care” Act as well….i guess you enjoy stealing from others to get something, eh?

    Be a real man and buy your OWN crap instead it making others do it for you. Oh you know where you CAN live like that?? RUSSIA.

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