Posts with keyword: utopia

5 entries

Switch to XMission

Tue May 11 07:04:00 2010

You might remember that I am lucky enough to live within the boundaries, of Utah FTTH project, UTOPIA. UTOPIA is a wholesale service, so you don't buy connectivity from them, you buy it from one of several retail providers on the network. Since I first signed up in 2007 I've been using MStar, a service from Prime Time Communications. They were pretty good at first, but recently I've had lots of short duration network outages (5-10 minutes each). I decided it was time for a change. I've been a big fan of Pete Ashdown's company XMission
Continue reading {Switch to XMission}

Optical Illusion: Qwest's Concern for Consumers

Wed Jun 13 22:10:00 2007

I was quoted in a City Weekly article on what Salt Lake City mayoral candidates think about municipal broadband in general and Utopia in particular. It wasn't my quote, however, that caught my eye, but one from Jerry Fenn. Jerry is a lawyer by training and Qwest's Utah President (a position that's mostly about lobbying, I think): Fenn admits that Qwest has been on "the other side of municipally backed telecom projects" mostly because of the long-term harm to consumers. From Salt Lake City Weekly - Optical IllusionReferenced Wed Jun 13 2007 22:00:46 GMT-0600 (MDT) Is there anyone, and
Continue reading {Optical Illusion: Qwest's Concern for Consumers}

I've Got Fiber to My House

Thu May 3 22:09:00 2007

Utopia truck ready for install(click to enlarge) Utopia is Utah's large-scale municipal-broadband project. My city, Lindon, was one of the first supporters of the project and all winter I've watched in anticipation as crews dug up the lawns in my neighborhood laying fiber. I first heard about Utopia when I was Utah's CIO and Utopia was just a dream Paul Morris had. I've supported it, written about it, testified about it to city councils, and, mostly, waited for it. Yesterday was the day that I had service installed in my house. To understand the overall situation, it's important to
Continue reading {I've Got Fiber to My House}

Inside Utah: Talking About UTOPIA

Wed Jul 5 14:29:00 2006

Jennifer Napier-Pearce interviewed me about UTOPIA, Utah municipal broadband project, for issue 50 of her Inside Utah podcast. Jennifer, who works in public radio, produces a good show with board interest for folks in Utah and high production values.
Continue reading {Inside Utah: Talking About UTOPIA}

Spectrum Talks Up UTOPIA

Fri Jun 2 13:00:00 2006

An IEEE Spectrum article discusses Utah's muni-broadband project, UTOPIA. There's a map of UTOPIA cities, but the legend seems to be missing. There's also a page of photos. The piece also contrasts the UTOPIA architecture with Verizon's FiOS service. The peaceful coexistence of multiple service providers is another thing that distinguishes Utopia. Because Utopia sends TV programming as Internet packets, indistinguishable from e-mail, Web pages, and everything else, it puts a huge reservoir of bandwidth at the disposal of its providers. By contrast, Verizon's FiOS, a sort of DSL on steroids, reserves most of an optical fiber's capacity for
Continue reading {Spectrum Talks Up UTOPIA}