ftth

CPUC considers $3.3 million subsidy for two FTTH projects

9 April 2015 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

Poor broadband service in Helendale now, but fiber could be on the way.

Two fiber-to-the-home projects in the California desert, northeast of Los Angeles, will be getting a total of $3.3 million in subsidies from the California Advanced Service Fund (CASF), if the California Public Utilities Commission approves draft resolutions released last week.

The proposals, for Helendale and Wrightwood, were submitted last December by Ultimate Internet Access (UIA), an independent Internet service provider that’s already active in the area.… More

LA refines its pitch for citywide FTTH

6 April 2015 by Steve Blum
, ,

Seen one of these?

“Are we creating a unicorn here?” asked Steve Reneker, general manager of information technology for the City of Los Angeles. He was relating his experience looking for companies interested in building a citywide fiber to the home system to participants in a local government broadband conference put on by the California Emerging Technology Fund in Riverside last week. The answer he got back from the industry was “yes”.

LA [floated a request for information last year](), looking for ideas and partners to aid its FTTH quest.… More

UTOPIA tests everyone pays, everyone gets muni broadband model

9 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

At a crossroads.

The latest report issued by Macquarie Capital as it pushes ahead with an effort to bail out the sinking multi-city UTOPIA municipal fiber-to-the-home project in Utah confronts an inevitable collision between public policy and profitability.

Good public policy requires muni FTTH service to be available to all, whether or not they want it now, or whether their neighbors want it. It’s a defining characteristic of any government-provided service. On the other hand, good business practice – indeed, the defining feature of capitalism – calls for money to be spent where the return on investment will be the highest.… More

Broadband UTOPIA starts at $23 a month for cities that remain in the game

5 March 2015 by Steve Blum
, , , ,


Click for the full report.

Only six of eleven Utah cities involved in the UTOPIA fiber-to-the-home system chose to move ahead with a bail out plan proposed by Macquarie Capital, an Australian investment company. As a result, the proposed monthly tax bill (characterised as a “mandatory utility fee”) for homeowners in the reduced project area has jumped from $18 to $20 per month to the current estimate of $22.60 and a cap of $25. That’s just to pay for building out the network to every home and business in those cities.… More

Santa Cruz County supervisors look at fiber plan, consider options to move ahead

12 February 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,

On Tuesday, Santa Cruz County supervisors took a look at the broadband development plan that I previewed a couple of days ago. It sketched out a possible core fiber network in five key unincorporated areas of the county that have been identified as economic development priorities, as well as providing additional support for the broadband infrastructure policy initiatives that are already underway.

“Infrastructure is already inadequate and it’s being pulled back”, Peggy Dolgenos, CEO of Cruzio, a local independent ISP, told supervisors after the presentation.… More

Fiber network proposed for five Santa Cruz County communities

10 February 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,


Click for the full report.

Build an open access fiber backbone network through areas Santa Cruz County that are high priorities for economic development: that’s the recommendation county supervisors will hear later this morning when they consider a draft broadband master plan.

The study, prepared for the county by Design Nine, includes a number of useful recommendations about broadband policy and planning, but the center piece is an independently operated fiber system that focuses on five key areas of Santa Cruz County.… More

AT&T discovers North Carolina

1 February 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,

It’s tough work chasing Google.

AT&T is going on a hiring binge in North Carolina. According to a press release it issued on Friday…

AT&T today announced it is looking to fill nearly 100 new technician positions in North Carolina…

In North Carolina, AT&T launched U-verse with AT&T GigaPower Dec. 8 in Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, and also plans to bring the service to Durham, Charlotte and Greensboro. U-verse with AT&T GigaPower provides customers access to the fastest Internet available from AT&T, featuring speeds up to 1 gigabit per second.

… More

Surprise, Google's fiber announcement didn't make everyone happy

29 January 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Maybe if they threw in some free beer?

Tuesday’s formal announcement that Google Fiber is heading for 18 cities in four southeastern U.S. metro areas is getting a generally warm and happy reception. But not universally. Grumbles are coming in two flavors: the who in the world needs all this sort – relatively rare so far – and the why not me variety, which is more common.

It has to be frustrating to want fiber to the home service and live in the next city over from one of the blessed.… More

Answers to the three big questions Google Fiber ducked on the way south

28 January 2015 by Steve Blum
, , ,

Along with a posse of elected officials, Google held four press events in southern states yesterday to formally announce the metro areas and cities picked for fiber to the home builds:

  • Atlanta, Georgia and the nearby cities of Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, College Park, Decatur, East Point, Hapeville, Sandy Springs and Smyrna.
  • Charlotte, North Carolina.
  • The Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina metro area, including those two cities plus Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Garner and Morrisville.
  • Nashville-Davidson, Tennessee.

The next step is to do the necessary, detailed engineering work, a process that’s expected to take several months to complete.… More

Video of Google's North Carolina press conference is online

27 January 2015 by Steve Blum
, , , ,

WRAL-TV in Raleigh, North Carolina covered this afternoon’s press event there. Which included governor Pat McCrory, seven mayors from the area and Google representatives. The video is available here.

Lots of good words were spoken about fiber, gigabits, Google and North Carolina. The prepared announcement read by Google exec Michael Slinger pretty much tracked with the press release Google posted earlier today. He cited the “passion, commitment and dedication” that the seven Raleigh-Durham area cities brought to the process as key reasons for chosing them.… More