know this has been a model I have been advocating for some time, and
have tried to deploy in Ottawa with additional twist of bundling the
cost with the customer's energy bill -- BSA]
Geoff Daily's Blog: http://www.app-rising.com/
My blog: http://free-fiber-to-the-home.blogspot.com/
UTOPIA Trailblazing New Opportunity For User-Owned Fiber
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http://www.app-rising.com/2009/11/utopia_proving_new_option_for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AppRising+(App-Rising)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
An exciting development has occurred recently in the world of fiber
deployment. A new model is emerging in Brigham City, a city of less
than 20,000 in northern Utah, for how user-owned open fiber networks
can be financed and deployed.
It used to be that the only way you could get fiber was if you were
lucky enough to have a private provider lay it or to live in a city
that did it itself. Today in Brigham City, for $3,000 you can buy your
own fiber. And in fact more than 1,600 local residents have already
bought in to this new opportunity.
With that fiber they'll get access to UTOPIA's competitive and
growing ecosystem of service providers, where they get to choose what
services from what providers they want running on their pipe.
While this may sound radically different from how fiber has been
traditionally deployed in the US to date, user-owned open fiber
networks have already been a big success in Sweden, helping them wire
remote mountainous communities with world-class broadband
infrastructure.
We also need to realize how potentially brilliant the open fiber
concept is for rural America because of how it allows for competition
to happen between service providers on a single pipe. With open fiber
you can make sure that everyone benefits from having access to a
competitive marketplace of communications services.
But I'm even more excited about what UTOPIA's new model could mean
for the future of fiber deployment.
The biggest problem with the economics of deploying fiber is that you
have to carry a massive debt load and begin paying it off before much
revenue starts coming in. Plus you have to invest a lot of money into
neighborhoods without any real idea of how many people are going to
sign up for service.
The user-owned model totally changes these dynamics. First off, by
having users pay for their own pipes you disaggregate most of the
debt. Just look at Brigham City. They're building a $5.5 million
network and the city's only putting up less than $700,000. So no
massive debt load for the city (or a private provider for that matter)
to carry.
The second major piece of this is that UTOPIA's going to have
built-in take-rates when they build out neighborhoods. Plus churn
should fall to zero since people own their pipes.
Basically the way I see this is as the possible beginnings of a new
third model for fiber deployment in the US. You no longer have to wait
for a private provider to make the investment, or for your city to
figure out how it can overcome all the roadblocks and then actually
execute effectively. Instead users who want service can band together
and find a way to get it now rather than waiting twenty years for
someone else to figure out how to do it.
They have developed a special assessment area model, though, that
allows homeowners to commit to a $25 a month payment over 15 years to
spread out the cost over time.
Another potential trouble spot is how to deal with renters who want
service but landlords who don't want to pay to have it installed.
But while there are questions still to be answered, the keys for
right now is that this model has worked elsewhere, and now at long
last we have someone willing to step out and see if it can work here
in the US.
So I say to UTOPIA: best of luck as you continue on these endeavors!
The rest of the country is watching, and we're all hoping you succeed
as there are millions of us that wish we could get our fiber now but
can't.
And to Brigham City: Kudos to you all! We are all cheering you on,
inspired by your commitment to getting yourselves wired with the most
important infrastructure of the 21st century.
Update on the Ottawa pilot
http://www.techmediareports.ca/reports/content/ottawa_fibre_to_the_home_expe
riment_hits_a_snag
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