Here’s your broadband news:
- Here’s an interesting post about a guy who regrets his decision of moving to an area where there is no broadband (rural southwestern Wisconsin).
- A sparsely populated town of 350 in Wyoming is now a major English teaching hub, doing “outsourcing” in the opposite direction. How did this happen? The local telco coop that serves their area upgraded to fiber and now residents are doing business with people all over the world.
- The new mantra in real estate? Location, location, broadband. From this AP Article: “In less than a decade, broadband has gone from a luxury to a must for many people, and for some of them, it’s started to influence their real-estate decisions. Homes that have broadband are winning out over more remote ones that don’t. Areas with better and faster broadband are becoming more desirable than ones with slower access.”
- Akamai has released the 2008 3rd quarter report on the State of the Internet. The U.S. is in 8th place in terms of speed, and just 26% of users have download over 5 Mpbs. Upload speeds are far more dismal.
- Another telecom expert says the U.S. “needs more broadband competition”. We certainly aren’t going to get that in Utah with a Qwest and Comcast duopoly. We need UTOPIA and it’s accompanying open access principles to succeed.
Finally, Jesse already talked about this in his post, but the city of Monticello is moving forward with their own fiber network despite the legal appeal from TDS Telecom. The bond money has been locked in escrow by the courts, but they are moving ahead anyway with liquor store reserve funds. I guess they consider broadband that important.
I think we are seeing a trend here: fast broadband is becoming vital to businesses and individuals. It truly is becoming the “railroad” of this century. In the last six months, I personally know of three businesses that chose to locate in Murray because of UTOPIA and at least two friends that moved to Layton in the hopes of eventually getting UTOPIA. And can you believe I am in an area in west Ogden where neither Comcast nor DSL is available, it’s unbelievable!
I feel for the guy who regrets moving where no broadband is available. My family and I have discussed moving into a Utopia City but we’ll see if things work out with replacing our City Council here in West Jordan.
Already almost half the city council has been replaced as of last year. After speaking with many residents it seems there will be another major upset in 2009 if they don’t get their heads out of the sand. And yes that includes Mayor Newton. I usually hear people talk about his service to our city as a joke. Yes I’m paraphrasing and making it sound kind.
And that’s not just with the lack of of options in our city (third largest in Utah!). People are very unhappy with the problems they have yet to resolve including our crumbling streets, budget shortfall (the one we’ve been predicting for nearly 3 years and is now here) and lack of alternatives to Qwest and Concast.
There are problems with sewer lines being incorrectly connected to homes (and these were approved BY the city with permits). Several home basements were flooded just the street behind me with sewage. And the list goes on.
Yeah, I see a big change in West Jordan. But if doesnt come then that’s ok. We’re already considering other cities to move to 🙂