Author Archives: Jesse

Broadband Bytes for 2010-11-27

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Analyzing Pew’s Data

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Pew recently published some results of a survey on Internet use and came to the conclusion that most of us just don’t care about affordable broadband. Sadly, their conclusions in the summary are way off-base and very badly misread the data. The simple fact is that telecommunications policy still matters, even if they can skew the data otherwise.

The results couch all responses in terms of if affordable broadband should be a government priority. The actual question asked, however, asked only specifically about the federal government. There is no data at all about state or local efforts, but Pew chooses to refer to “governement involvement” as if all levels of government are included. This ignores that the feds have made a fine mess of telecom and a number of communities have been forced to take matters into their own hands. Had the question been asked of each of the three levels of government, it would have been a lot more revealing about who we trust to fix things.

Another problem is that the question itself asks two things at the same time, neither of which is necessarily related to the other. Asking about “expanding affordable high-speed Internet access to everyone in the country” is attempting to tie availability and affordability together into a single package. It would have been better to ask separately about pricing and availability to see if maybe Americans just aren’t comfortable with doing too much at once, or perhaps if making service available is more important than attacking the pricing issues.

There’s also missed conclusions based on the data they have collected. Opposition to federal involvement in expanding broadband is highest among non-users, but nobody bothers to guess as to why. The remaining data, however, makes that clear: they just don’t get what Internet access will do for them. It’s a huge education gap that, unsurprisingly, is concentrated among older adults. So, basically, most of the opposition comes from people who don’t use it, don’t know how to use it, and won’t learn how to use it. The question is why those who are basically being luddites should have any say in what has proven to be a vital technology. That, however, isn’t being asked either.

I’m kind of disappointed that Pew, a normally respectable outfit, would do such sloppy work. It’s a disservice to those of us trying to fix what’s broken.

Broadband Bytes for 2010-11-20

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Broadband Bytes for 2010-11-13

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Broadband Bytes for 2010-11-06

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Return of the Forum

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Good news: the forums are back! The bad news? None of the data from the old forum could be migrated due to the failed upgrade that tanked them in the first place. If you want to post on the forum, you’ll need to re-register an account. If you want to maintain anonymity, make sure you use an e-mail address not tied to a Gravatar, otherwise it will display.

Happy posting!

Salt Lake Tribune Employs Cable Industry Shill to Review UTOPIA Plan

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The Salt Lake Tribune ran an article today about UTOPIA’s new business plan in which a Mr. Ron Rizzuto continually discounted it. The article cites that Mr. Rizzuto is a professor at the University of Denver; this is true. What is omitted, though, is much more telling. Mr. Rizzuto is a senior fellow at The Cable Center, an organization funded by the cable industry. Not only that, Comcast’s Executive Vice President, David L. Cohen, is a member of the organization’s board.

It’s not surprising that a cable industry shill would attempt to trash UTOPIA in the press. It’s not even surprising that he would attempt to portray himself as a dispassionate and disinterested third party. Both of these have been done time and time again, like when Heartland Institute’s Steven Titch did consulting work for Qwest and claimed it had no bearing on his harsh criticisms for iProvo and UTOPIA. If anything, I automatically expect some kind of conflict of interest to emerge from parties opposed to UTOPIA as so many of them will always act in their own financial best interests. (Utah Taxpayer’s Association, I’m looking at you.)

What is surprising, shameful, and downright embarrassing is that the Salt Lake Tribune didn’t spend the entire 2 minutes on Google required to find all of this out. Even if they did, they chose not to disclose it in their article. One of two things happened: they were either negligent in their journalistic duties or (and this is more likely) they are continuing to advance the position of the editorial board that UTOPIA cannot succeed. Whichever it is, I am deeply unimpressed.

Hosting Move

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As of tonight, Free UTOPIA! now runs on WebFaction, a new hosting provider. Basically, I got sick of the downtime and system maintenance at my old host and thought saving $30/mo on service would be a nice side benefit. As part of the move, I’ve updated the theme to a newer version and updated a number of plugins. If you notice anything wonky or non-functional, please let me know.

Broadband Bytes for 2010-10-23

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Utah Taxpayers Association Spews More Lies

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Several UTOPIA member cities are gearing up to start taking votes on the new Utah Infrastructure Agency designed to help fund new construction of the network. The Utah Taxpayers Association is trying to get people to show up at these meetings to protest the UIA and try and kill it. In their effort to do so, they continue to distort, twist, and outright lie in their efforts to rile people up.

First off, the UIA bonds are not an unconditional loan. They are funds that will be secured by payments from subscribers. If there aren’t enough subscribers to secure repayment, the money doesn’t get touched. You would think that such an arrangement would be acceptable to an organization that purports to represent taxpayers as it clearly shifts the burden from the taxpayers as a whole to the subscribers. Attempting to characterize the UIA as a big grab-bag is a big lie.

Secondly, the UTA says that UTOPIA is running a $20M deficit in “operating expenses”. The problem, however, is that their version of “operating expenses” is entirely unclear. I’m betting that they chose to include equipment depreciation and possibly even the bond payments in that figure in order to paint a much more dire picture than actually exists. For all of the accusations by the UTA that UTOPIA doesn’t disclose enough information, it’s hypocritical and extremely irresponsible of them to distort the numbers for the purposes of supporting their arguments.

Remember the last time the UTA tried to organize an anti-UTOPIA protest? UTOPIA and its supporters showed up and ended up turning half of the attendees into subscribers. Let’s show them it can be done again. Centerville meets tonight (October 19) at 7PM, Orem is October 26 at 6PM, and Payson is October 27 at 6PM. All meetings are at the respective city hall. Let’s show the UTA that lying won’t get them very far.