Author Archives: Jesse

UTOPIA in the Bloghive: UTA Calls Foul on Financials, Rep. Frank Draws Parallels to iProvo, Pleas to Come to Orem Condos

By | |
6 Comments

Here's some more recent blog posts about UTOPIA. Some of these have aged a bit, but they're still worth reading and responding to.

  • The Utah Taxpayer's Association brings up UTOPIA's financial data and proceeds to trump up a bunch of half-truths. It's no secret that the UTA hates on municipal broadband, but excluding important parts of the story to prop up your premise? Lame. Specifically, they conveniently left out the legal actions from Qwest that kept UTOPIA from building anything for two years, then criticize them for revising their projections after the lawsuit was settled. C'mon, guys. You can do better.
  • Rep. Craig Frank (a co-chair of the Government Competition and Privatization Subcommittee, mind you) drew some parallels between iProvo and UTOPIA in regards to the Dec 3 meeting and the disclosed financial data. Like the UTA, he leaves out important parts of the story to suit his premise such as the lack of compensation to iProvo by city departments for their use of the network. He then goes on to more or less claim that the telecommunications services from Qwest and Comcast are the best the free market can offer. Except, of course, that free markets in Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Latvia, Belgium, Verizon's service area, etc. seem to have done a much better job than we have. And FYI? Our highly regulated Bell/Cable duopoly is hardly a free market.
  • Luke Marrott of Orem laments that Garden Park Condominiums can't get UTOPIA installed. The complex is surrounded by fiber rings on all sides, the money has already been freed up for UTOPIA's use and there's sufficient interest from residents to move on it. So what's the hold-up? The post doesn't name names, but it does allude to a troublesome HOA that could be holding up the show. Maybe it's time to let the FCC know about the problem? After all, they seem to take a dim view lately of obstructing construction of a competing network in an MDU since they banned those exclusive contracts not too long ago.

Report: iProvo Strategic Summit, December 3 2007

By | |
4 Comments

The event on Monday turned out to be a public meeting to discuss where iProvo is going and what it plans to do to shore up operations. The scuttlebutt (that every single paper missed) is that Mayor Billings setup the meeting to try and sway the city council in general and Councilman George Stewart in particular to give more iProvo money, either as subsidies or loans. Given the intent, the goal was to show what iProvo has learned and what it's currently doing to try and turn this one around financially.

Continue reading →

Telecom Summit in Provo on Monday December 3

By | | ,
Leave a comment

Details are sketchy, but I've been made aware that there's some kind of telecom summit this Monday where iProvo will be one of the items discussed. It's going to be from 3PM to 6PM at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo. I understand that Provo City Councilman George Stewart will be in attendance. Thought I'd pass this along just in case it turns out to be something interesting.

As a side note (and totally unrelated), there's an election underway for the new Bloghive Advisory Board and I got nominated. If you know some of the other bloggers on the list and want to cast a ballot, I'd encourage you to do so (and, hey, vote for me while you're at it).

Sticker Shock: Prices Rise on Cable TV, Cell Phones, Even Dial-Up

By | | ,
1 Comment

As further evidence that we don't have a truly competitive marketplace comes a round of price increases on all kinds of telecommunications services. Verizon has decided to jack up rates a whopping 12% on FIOS TV before the dust has even settled on installations in most states. Cablevision, though they have no shiny new fiber optic network to pay off, has decided to send through an increase of 4.7% in 2008. Both providers say that the cost of providing programming is to blame. My response? Stop forcing us to buy so many damned channels you greedy bastards.

Cell phones are getting more expensive too and for the same reason: we're paying a lot of money for services we don't use. When was the last time you sent a video or picture message? Or sent more than 1000 text messages in a month? Or grabbed a few new ringtones from the online store? Apparently only about 34% of you care for such things. Fat lot of good competition is doing.

Even dial-up can't catch a break. In a move designed to force people onto DSL or U-Verse, AT&T has raised the price on every single one of their dial-up offerings to make them all more expensive than DSL. What if you can't qualify for DSL? Tough noogies from everyone's (least) favorite phone company.

Now would be the time to put on your negotiating hat and talk tough with your providers. Both AT&T and Embarq offer super-secret "naked" DSL if you know how to ask for it. You might also be able to wring a "new customer only" deal out of Verizon on DSL service. You can also do a bit of legwork and threaten to cancel service to get a cable company to hook you up with a promo rate. I did this with Comcast and saved over $200 during the course of the 6-month retention offer.

FCC Chairman Martin to Cable Industry: Watch Your Back

By | | , ,
Leave a comment

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seems to not be in the business of making friends lately. Despite talking tough on "a la carte" stations and cable conglomerates, he's failed to make much headway with fellow members of the commission or members of Congress. His goal? To treat cable operators like phone companies by giving them "common carrier" status. It doesn't seem to far-fetched given how they do a lot more than pipe in HBO and Food Network these days.

There is, however, a bit of cynicism floating around. Some have openly wondered if Martin is playing to the telco's advantage. Given that they've been rescinding open access for competitors and removing the caps on fees they can be charged, those accusations seem to stick. Sounds like the balance of power is indeed swinging. Not from huge telco giants to consumers, but from cablecos to telcos.

Switching E-mail Update Services

By | |
Leave a comment

Since launching the website, I've been using the Subscribe2 plugin to manage sending updates via e-mail to those of you not so big on RSS. Unfortunately, the plugin has been getting a bit buggy lately. For instance, yesterday it sent out three copies of the e-mail. (I get them too, so I share your annoyance.) I've also gotten at least one report that it won't properly process unsubscribe requests and AOL seems to think that any message coming from here is junk mail.

Given these problems and the great results I've gotten with my feeds, I've decided to switch to using FeedBurner's e-mail notification service. The old notification service is still in place and will remain there for about a week to give everyone a chance to make the switch. Make sure you remove yourself from the Subscribe2 list before adding yourself to the new FeedBurner list to avoid duplicate messages. Use the form below to manage your subscription.


 

CableCARD is DOA

By | | ,
2 Comments

Last month, Ars Technica wondered aloud why it is that you can't get a CableCARD device very easily. After all, the FCC mandated that cable companies start supporting "digital cable-ready" television sets way back in July. Despite this, both of the major cable box manufacturers don't sell at retail, cable companies haven't trained their staff on CableCARD and digital TV sets with a CableCARD slot are very, very pricey.  The conclusion is that CableCARD's technical limitations mean that cable operators would rather skip it for the Next Big Thing™ to support SDV and 2-way communication right out of the box.

Further confirmation of this comes as TiVo offers up an adapter to allow their CableCARD-ready units to tune in SDV channels, something that they haven't been able to do. Given that most cable providers will be moving to some form of SDV to conserve bandwidth and offer up nearly limitless programming, it seems that CableCARD is a technology headed for the dustbin before it even becomes available.

My personal advice would be to not get too heavily invested in CableCARD unless you get a unit that it specifically upgradeable to support SDV. Even then, it might be worth it to play a game of "wait and see" until the next technology, DCAS, becomes widely available.

Google Plans a 700MHz Bid

By | |
Leave a comment

Though it was more-or-less settled in speculation, Google has committed itself to spending at least $4.6B on a chunk of the valuable "C block" going up for auction this Janurary. Some prime motivators include a change in wholesaling rules by the FCC and Verizon dropping their lawsuit to halt open access (even though the CTIA is continuing that fight and AT&T is still being a crybaby about it). Analysts think Google might team up with an existing wireless partner for the bid, though this seems to run counter to their intention to offer up an open network for use by any provider and any device. Given the steep price tag of this prime piece of wireless real estate, it's unlikely that Google will bid for spectrum in the UK anytime soon.

In other 700MHz news, the FCC awarded a license for 10MHz of bandwidth to PSST, the only company to apply for the job of building a nationwide emergency communications network. With the backing of various fire and police organizations, it was pretty much a shoe-in. The network is expected to get all police and fire departments nationwide using compatible equipment, though there's some stiff resistance to buying a lot of expensive new equipment when the time comes.

Wireless Woes: Earthlink, AT&T, Sprint All Drop Plans

By | |
Leave a comment

Earthlink finally got over the hangover and decided that municipal WiFi just wasn't working out the way they had planned. The company decided to put it's muni WiFi operations on the chopping block for a cool $40M (provided, of course, that there's an interested buyer). AT&T is also backing off on muni WiFi. After bailing on St. Louis, they've now backed away from a system in Napa CA after the PUC defined unpalatable regulations regarding antennae height.

Sprint's also feeling the wireless pinch. After nixing their high-profile partnership with Clearwire, the company hinted that it might be getting out of the WiMax business altogether. Rumors are afoot that Comcast might either partner with Sprint or buy out the company entirely in order to get into the wireless space, but such expensive talk spooks investors already unimpressed with the company's financial picture.