Author Archives: Jesse

iProvoWorks.com Launches to Advocate for iProvo

By | | ,
Leave a comment

Just today, Jeremy Neish, a Provo citizen, launched iProvoWorks.com to build a grass-roots advocacy network around the city's municipal fiber optic network. It appears to have some of the same goals that I have for FreeUTOPIA, yet it goes further to put together advertising materials and actively solicit new customers onto the network. I'd encourage anyone who's supportive of iProvo to give this sister site your support.

BREAKING: Centerville Says Yes by 3-2 Vote

By | | , ,
1 Comment

Just moments ago, Centerville's City Council voted 3-2 to approve the new UTOPIA bonds, coming down to a "lesser of two evils" yes vote from Council Member Justin Allen, the swing vote on the council. The vote comes with conditions that Centerville reserves the right to reconsider based on how the remaining three cities vote, that UTOPIA find new executives and that UTOPIA present all contracts to the board before moving forward. All amendments were proposed by Paul Cutler, member of the Council and UTOPIA's board.

This now leaves only three cities, Brigham City, Orem and Murray, to cast votes on the issue. I encourage anyone in favor of UTOPIA to contact the council members to voice support leading up to these meetings. 

Updated UTOPIA Meeting Schedule: Orem, Payson, Brigham City, Centerville

By | | ,
Leave a comment

I've received updated meeting times for the rescheduled UTOPIA meetings as follows:

  • Brigham City: Thursday May 1 at 7PM
  • Centerville: Tuesday April 29 at 7PM
  • Murray: Monday May 5 at 6:30PM
  • Orem: Friday May 2 at 9AM
  • Payson: No re-vote

The addresses should be the same as the prior meetings and can be located on the sidebar. Payson has decided to not reconsider approving the new bonds for UTOPIA and will likely start paying from its pledges on the original bond arrangement. All other hearings will not be accepting any further public comment since they've already had significant public input. I'd encourage you to attempt to make as many of these meetings as you can and take the time to write to city council members.

BREAKING: Murray Tables Vote Until May 5

By | | ,
Leave a comment

The Murray Municipal Council voted 5-0 to table the final vote on the UTOPIA bonds until Monday May 5 at 6:30PM. The feeling is that they had a lot of information to process and needed additional time to come to a final decision. The audience was split pretty evenly between supporters and opponents and Mayor Snarr made an impassioned speech on the necessity of this infrastructure. My gut feeling is that the council will move to approve the bonds as the best option available.

The State of iProvo: Network Will Save City and Residents Millions Each Year

By | | ,
14 Comments

I had the opportunity to attend the inaugural meeting of the iProvo Review Committee last Tuesday and walked away with more information than I knew what to do with. The Committee was kind enough to distrubute current figures for iProvo subscribers, information on municipal networks, and, best of all, a copy of the consultant's reports from CCG Consulting and Franklin Court Partners. There was a lot of information to soak in and it took me about three 2 hours of reading to slog through it all. After digesting where the network is and where it is going, I can come to only one conclusion: iProvo is the most valuable thing the city has ever done for its residents with a potential to save city departments and residents millions of dollars each year it operates.

Continue reading →

Overpriced and Anti-Competitive: The Dark Side of Qwest's Fiber

By | | ,
3 Comments

Much has been made of Qwest's announcement that they're rolling out their new FTTN network in Utah, but the media has missed some critical points regarding the dark side of Qwest's plans.

The first jaw-dropper is the sticker shock: $105/mo for 20Mbps/896Kbps DSL or $52/mo for 12Mbps/896Kbps DSL. Interestingly enough, these services are only initially available in parts of Draper, Salt Lake City and East Millcreek despite their claims that they are pushing hard to roll out access in UTOPIA cities and underserved areas like Woods Cross. The closest comparable service is a 30Mbps/30Mbps package from MSTAR running $50/mo. Not only is it faster than either of Qwest's planned DSL offerings, it beats both on price. When looking at bundles with phone service, Qwest will clock in at a budget-busting $146/mo for the top-tier DSL speed and unlimited long distance while MSTAR sips from your wallet at $74/mo, almost half that. While must is being made of UTOPIA's new installation fees, the savings pay for it after just 14 months with the Internet/phone bundle. This is a huge pricing differential that consumers must be made aware of.

The real scandal is what this will do for local loop competition. AT&T is building a network similar to Qwest and based on the same FTTN technology. Because it's fiber optics and not the old copper plant, they are no longer required to line-share with other providers. Qwest is doing the exact same thing. There will be no XMission, no MSTAR, no Infowest for your DSL provider in these areas; Qwest will be the sole retailer. Expect a similar picture when it comes to your phone service. Seem like paying $24M to kick out the competition was a steal for the incumbent.

This kind of market consolidation is bad news for Utah consumers.

BREAKING: Layton Approves New Bonds By 3-2 Vote

By | | ,
5 Comments

After almost 4 hours of public comment, the Layton city council approved the resolution authorizing the new UTOPIA bonds by a 1-vote margin. This was a battleground meeting, too: Qwest had the room stuffed with employees and sent Jerry Fenn, President of Qwest for Utah while the UTA sent their point man, Royce Van Tassell, to stump for them. The public testimony was about as split as the council vote with a number of residents expressing frustration at both incumbent providers. My favorite part? When I got to spell out in excruciating detail the trail of broken promises and outright lies from both Qwest and Comcast. Those watching him said that Jerry Fenn looked very uncomfortable as I spelled out their $1.4B Telco Act of '96 fraud and their plans to use the FTTN upgrades to shut out competing DSL and phone retailers.

I'll be sure to post more when I find out how the votes in Brigham City and Perry went. 

Where UTOPIA is Today: A Response For Rep. Steve Urquhart

By | |
29 Comments

You know what? You're right. Cities shouldn't get the state to bail them out if UTOPIA calls their pledges. The key word here is if. To date, UTOPIA still hasn't used any tax money despite 18 months of construction delays from the Qwest lawsuit, being illegally obstructed from accessing utility poles and having the RUS pull a switcheroo on the loan money that left them with $11M in related expenses that didn't get reimbursed. That they've managed to suffer through that much adversity without a financial collapse is something else.

Have they made mistakes? Absolutely. Totally eating the installation cost probably wasn't the best idea, public awareness is low and their biggest challenge seems to be rolling out to areas with demand. At the same time, they've slashed the construction costs by about 25% and saved some businesses as much as $2500/mo in telecommunications costs. Cities with UTOPIA (like Murray and Midvale) have been able to attract new businesses because of the fiber optic system and have implemented advanced wide-area networks that speed city operations and save a significant amount of money. It's not all failures, but certainly is a mixed bag.

UTOPIA has learned a lot and a second chance seems appropriate given what they've learned. If they can't make a go of it after the second chance, it'd be time to close up shop and try something different. If every venture closed up shop after the first round of mistakes, nobody would ever open a business; I don't see how this is different.

Continue reading →