Category Archives: News

News articles about UTOPIA from around the country and around the world.

Fiber Networks Drive Telecommuting, Home-Based Business

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A survey conducted by the FTTH Council shows that many FTTH subscribers use it for telecommuting or home-based businesses. About 13% of respondents indicated that they were using it to telecommute an average of one day per month more than they normally would while 10% indicated they were using the high-speed connections to run home-based businesses. Figuring the take rates for systems like UTOPIA, that means that with the projected take rates and a full build-out, the system will take an average of over 1,000 commuters per day off the road, a significant impact on transportation policy in the Beehive State. This is a major public policy impact that goes far beyond the improved economics from spurring new home-based businesses, a segment that lead the stratospheric growth of Las Vegas' local economy.

It also seems that FTTH users report a higher satisfaction with the service compared to DSL and cable with over 85% of subscribers saying they're pleased with the service. This might have to do with the median download rate of FTTH connections being over 2.5 times higher than the national average. Speed matters.

Bad Competition: Verizon Shuts Out Copper Competitors, Comcast Purchases More Rivals

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Typical of monopolistic incumbencies, Verizon has cut off copper lines in homes with FIOS to prevent customers from "downgrading" and having the option of picking their service provider. Their reading of the Telecommuncations Act of 1996 is that they are not required to lease lines to competitors on the shiny new fiber optic network like they were with the old copper infrastructure. This has left CLECs in a position of a shrinking potential market as Verizon aggressively builds out the fiber optic network, now serving over a million customer in their service areas and passing over 10 million homes. Given their past of neglecting copper infrastructure, it seems like Verizon is hoping to get everyone onto the more expensive service while shutting down as much competition as possible.

Meanwhile, Comcast has started buying out small cable operators to take over the last few markets not served by themselves, Time Warner, or AT&T. They've purchased a pair of systems in Colorado and one in Pennsylvania to add a measly 3,000 customers. The Colorado acquisition plays well with their dominance in nearby Denver. It may come that the day of the truly local cable or phone company will be dead before too much longer.

Open Spectrum Auction Backed by FCC Chairman

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In a move that immediately gave AT&T and Verizon a case of bunching panties, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has announced that he is in favor of the Google-backed plan to require the 700MHz spectrum to stay open for any compatible device to use any service. This no doubt makes the group behind the open-source OpenMoko phone pleased as punch as they search for a market for the highly-hackable device. Consumer groups are calling for it to go one step further and become a truly wholesale network allowing multiple service providers to compete for business. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh, however, is backing the Frontline plan to seize the spectrum to make a public safety network, essentially getting commercial operations in the band for free.

This news goes hand-in-hand with renewed Congressional pushes to require that cell phones be able to seamlessly move from provider to provider, the so-called "cellular Carterphone" regulation named after a ruling that wireline phone systems had to accept any outside device that did not interfere with operations. In conjunction with that are an increasing number of groups calling for the wildly popular iPhone to be unlocked so they can jump ship to other GSM providers.

With these rapid developments in the wireless world, it's not much surprise that San Francisco's City Council chose to delay voting on their high-profile wireless project until a future meeting. Maybe they're thinking it would be best to bide their time for the moment.

Vineyard Mulls UTOPIA Membership

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With the expiration of a ban on new members, the small town of Vineyard is now considering joining UTOPIA. The city is considering becoming a pledging member meaning that they will promise tax money to cover the debt service should it not be covered by revenues from subscribers. Becoming a pledging member means that they will be guaranteed a build-out of the network. Non-pledging cities, such as Cedar City, will have to wait until there is enough excess revenue to cover the build-out of the network in their city.

Roger Black, COO at UTOPIA, says that the deployment could raise home values by around $5,000 just by having the service available. Vineyard is eager to join sooner rather than later so that lines can be installed in new major developments without having to tear up existing roads. Vineyard is now waiting for a cost assessment prior to committing to joining the network.

(See full article here.)

Telco Consolidation Shutting Down Competitors

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In a rash of related stories, it appears that a mixture of telco consolidation and lawsuits against VoIP providers is going to lead to fewer choices for broadband and phone service. Earthlink has been bleeding money for some time since dial-up subscribers have been fleeing in droves and it doesn't look to get much better as they lose access to DSL customers and the related copper infrastructure. In the process, they're betting the farmhouse on some high-profile WiFi deployments, most notably in Philadelphia. This is the same scenario at Covad, a provider of bandwidth to competing DSL carriers. The company recently announced that they would be laying off about 8 percent of their workforce as business lags.

Meanwhile, VoIP provider Vonage is still embroiled in Verizon's "we own the Internet" lawsuit, putting a damper on the company's future prospects. This is no doubt playing into SunRocket's decision to lay off about a quarter of their staff including several executives. It's also disheartening for these companies as more and more of the fees and regulations associated with normal phone lines are being mandated by the FCC, this time expanded to 711 for TTY and relay services. Combine that with aggressive expansion by both Verizon and AT&T, and it looks like we're heading for an even worse competitive environment than prior to the 1984 "Baby Bell" breakup.

With incumbents getting more and more entrenched and entering new markets a la Standard Oil, the need to keep infrastructure and retail services separate seems more necessary than ever.

(See additional articles here, here and here.)

Cable Companies to Charge More For Set-Top Boxes, Lay Blame on CableCARD

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Expect your TV bill to jump a few bucks by the end of the year. Citing the "new" CableCARD requirement from the FCC, the cable companies are claiming increased costs from supporting the 11-year-old standard first proposed under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. While most brand new TVs and other video devices include a CableCARD slot, most cable operators are hopelessly clueless on how to get the things to work and many give up in frustration, going back to renting the set-top boxes.

Charter Communications has already applied for and received a waiver for enacting the CableCARD requirements that went into effect on July 1 and Verizon is currently pursuing one for its FIOS operations. Anyone want to take bets on how many other companies are going to apply to be the exception to the rule?

(Read more articles here, here and here.)

Clipper Plugs FreeUTOPIA, Cites Delays in UTOPIA Installation

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Yesterday's Davis County Clipper ran an article about UTOPIA's installation delays, plugging FreeUTOPIA in the process. Where does the blame lie for slow installations? Look no further than the Rural Utility Service. Though the RUS approved a loan to UTOPIA for rural broadband development last fall, paperwork has kept the loan from closing in a timely manner. Once closed, however, it opens the door to deployments in Brigham City, Tremonton, Centerville and Payson, at a minimum.

While the delays can be frustrating, it's worth drastically lowering the cost of installation for member cities. That's probably a small consolation for residents in Murray, Midvale, Orem and West Valley City where construction has temporarily stopped to be able to leverage the federal dollars. The money from the RUS has an expiration date and can only be used on cities with a population under 20,000.

Roger Black, the COO for UTOPIA, says that areas where it's been installed are seeing a 21% take rate, slightly below initial projections but above the take rates needed to have UTOPIA run in the black. This good financial news is in stark contrast to the red ink projected to bleed from iProvo for the foreseeable future despite having a significantly higher take rate. The takeaway is that pooled risk is a Good Thing(TM), something that Provo and American Fork apparently didn't get the memo on.

The funniest thing I find about being mentioned in the Clipper is that I had no idea it was coming until I read the article. You'd think they would want to talk to the guy running a website they find useful.

(See full article here.) 

Telecom Analysts Produce Loud "Duh", Say Better Broadband Stats Needed

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I usually find it amusing when so-called "experts" tell us something that's really pretty obvious. In this case, they're criticizing the FCC's pathetic excuse for broadband stats. What are they telling us that we didn't already know? That stats by ZIP code are way too broad and don't paint an accurate picture of availability and that the number of providers is often drastically over-reported.

This follows a survey from the Communications Workers of America showing that the nation's fastest state, Rhode Island, can't compete with high-speed offerings in Japan, Korea or Canada (eh?) despite what seems like a brisk average speed of 5Mbps. (Canada, for comparison, averages over 7Mbps.) Trailing the pack is West Virginia with a dog-slow 1.12Mbps average, not even enough to match a T1 line.

(See full articles here and here.) 

Verizon, Redmoon Each Independently Decide to Be Evil, Find Sneaky Ways to Display Ads

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Here's a pair of head-shakers for you. Verizon is starting to test a service where mis-typed domain names will instead present search results, much like Verisign's SiteFinder service that caused angry mobs to all but go to the company's offices with torches and pitchforks. The service works at the DNS level meaning that Verizon customers would not be able to bypass it. The biggest problem with this is the impact on tools that look for non-existent DNS records as a way to combat spam and could break other search tools you have on your computer. The obvious motivation is to sell ads on the new "Did you mean…?" screens to make a quick buck. (See full article here.)

And speaking of making a quick buck from ads, Texas ISP Redmoon has found a way to insert ads into web pages that never originally had them at the ISP level. You wouldn't be able to bypass this and it would be a wholesale violation of the intellectual property rights of website owners who spend countless hours building content and arranging it just so. These aren't pop-ups: they're displayed right in the page, modifying the source to insert them. It's also worth noting that this is a paid ISP, not a freebie like Juno or Netzero. (See full article here.)

Hopefully both Verizon and Redmoon will realize that they're on the verge of summoning angry mobs and angrier hackers. 

Governor's Group Want Internet Tax Ban to Stay Temporary

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The National Association of Governors warned Congress that making the current ban on taxing Internet access permanent is a Bad Thing(TM). Their contention is that keeping it temporary gives the government a nice big stick to carry around in case any ISPs start acting up. I can certainly see that taking Teddy Roosevelt's advice to heart is usually a pretty good idea, though I have to wonder if a club does much good if you never use it once in a while.

(See full article here.)