Author Archives: Jesse

Broadband Bytes for 2011-01-08

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  • Comcast already playing dirty with retrans. http://is.gd/jXNMB #
  • Kindle lets you loan books. Big step towards resale parity with the dead tree version. http://is.gd/jXPBv #
  • Are you paying hundreds of thousands for cable TV? Yep. http://is.gd/jXRHw #
  • Customer service FTL. RT @FrontierCorp: Enjoying being back at work after (almost) 2 weeks off!! #
  • ISPs continue telling media companies to pound sand on copyright policing. http://bit.ly/emzhSp #
  • Et tu, coax? Cable companies can't make HFC plants give them enough bandwidth. http://bit.ly/gISVzr #
  • 80% of broadband users say their connection doesn't meet their needs. Does that sound like a working free market? http://bit.ly/eWyVWR #

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Broadband Bytes for 2010-12-25

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Broadband Bytes for 2010-12-18

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More federal dollars for UTOPIA?

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I just read today that Tremonton and Perry could see upwards of $1M to fund UTOPIA expansion. It would be as part of an earmark from Sen. Orrin Hatch to expand distance learning and telemedicine programs. In such small towns, those grants would probably finish Tremonton (about 95% done) and complete a big chunk in Perry.

h/t: Nacilbupera. He/she/they may not like UTOPIA, but they deserve some credit for finding the information.

Broadband Bytes for 2010-12-11

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Comcast, Netflix and Why Municipal Networks Matter

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Comcast is apparently a bit of a slow learner. After getting publicly smacked about for tinkering with bitTorrent, they’ve really stepped in it now by messing with Netflix. The audience is much bigger than the guys running protocol analyzers on their connections; you’ve gone and upset regular folks too. (How do you see that one working out?) Unfortunately, this is playing out as badly as anyone can hope.

Comcast is unfortunately trying to realize the dream of Ed Whitacre by essentially double-dipping for data at a time when bandwidth is so cheap you can almost afford to give it away. Imagine if the phone company tried to charge you for making a call and the recipient on another phone network for receiving it. Can you imagine the uproar and outrage at attempting to bill someone that’s not even their customer? That’s what Comcast is essentially doing, trying to charge both sides of the transaction instead of providing you the service you already paid for.

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Broadband Bytes for 2010-12-04

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What Happened to Prime Time, Straight from the Horse’s Mouth

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When the Salt Lake Tribune published their story as to what’s going on with Prime Time Communications, they noted that they were unable to reach anyone for comment. Yours truly, however, scored a 40-minute phone interview with Bryon Wentzlaff, one of their VPs. From the sounds of things, it’s just one more example of why telecom is a tough business to break into no matter who you are. Prime Time hit a point where they were not making money and didn’t project doing so for the foreseeable future.

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Prime Time Goes the Route of MSTAR

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Looks like I’m a little late to the reporting party, but better late than never: Prime Time is getting booted from UTOPIA. Apparently the company filed bankruptcy for the MSTAR subsidiary on September 3 after having pulled $2.2M out of itmonths earlier. (Yeah, I’m not sure where the money came from either.) This is after several of their other developments did the same earlier this year. Customers started losing phone service not long after that filing. After racking up $1M in unpaid bills (sound familiar?), UTOPIA wants to kick Prime Time and customers are being advised to seek other service providers.

With how heavily the company depended on private developments and how much work had to be done to fix the badly-tarnished MSTAR brand, this isn’t too surprising. The upshot is that with over a dozen other providers and at least a few offering video, nobody is entirely out in the cold.