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Utah already has something like this called UTOPIA (http://www.utopianet.org/about-utopia/ http://www.utopianet.org/about-utopia/). The participating cities ru

Utah already has something like this called UTOPIA (http://www.utopianet.org/about-utopia/ http://www.utopianet.org/about-utopia/). The participating cities run fiber optic lines. The city pays for the fiber optic lines (lots and lots and lots of political controversy about this!) then subscribers can pick and choose what services and from which providers they want. I'm in a participating city and love it! Unfortunately politics, both the governmental and the organizational types, are constantly threatening the viability of UTOPIA (http://www.utopianet.org/press/ http://www.utopianet.org/press/). >UTOPIA (Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency) is not an Internet service provider. UTOPIA operates on an open access model, which means we own and manage the infrastructure, but lease the lines to private Internet Service Providers, who then deliver services to subscribers. This allows you to choose the provider that best meets your needs. edit: added press link

ChuckMcM 12y ago
That is pretty awesome, I've sent them email to see if we can use some of the work they have done in this space.
- dvanduzer 12y ago
  My work email archive from a decade ago is hard to search, but when I sent a similar email, I got back a reference to a study of broadband in Japan (?) about early adopters in fiber-to-the-curb communities... They essentially found that when you installed a network like this in a neighborhood, the economic growth in that neighborhood almost immediately changed trajectory (upward) relative to similar communities without these networks.
  - yaddayadda 12y ago
    When I bought my house, one of my absolute requirements was that the house be in a UTOPIA city. If I were a business owner, I would have the same requirement.
femto 12y ago
That sounds like a similar model to Australia's endangered National Broadband Network. The government owned NBNCo lays the fibres to customers' homes, then ISPs lease bandwidth to service their customers. It seems to be facing the same issues that you describe, with some politicians being unable to stomach publicly owned infrastructure.
- yaddayadda 12y ago
  Interestingly, there is an Australian corporation, Macquarie Capitol Group, that may take over the administration of UTOPIA - http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/57282051-79/macquarie-utopia-network-projects.html.csp http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/57282051-79/macquarie-uto...
  - femto 12y ago
    Macquarie Capital isn't little known here. They are famous for being able to extract maximum fees from public infrastructure. If they live up to past form [1,2], they will turn UTOPIA into a river of gold, and the source of that river will be the customers. [1] http://www.smh.com.au/travel/blogs/travellers-check/the-true-cost-of-our-airports-20110829-1jha7.html http://www.smh.com.au/travel/blogs/travellers-check/the-true... [2] http://www.smh.com.au/business/macquaries-sydney-airport-plan-backed-20131212-2za5b.html http://www.smh.com.au/business/macquaries-sydney-airport-pla...
    - yaddayadda 12y ago
      Good to know!
    - TheSpiceIsLife 12y ago
      I think we can fully expect that NBN Co. will be sold to some organisation or another just like this. That is the sort of thing the Australian government does with public assets.
- TheSpiceIsLife 12y ago
  God no! That is not how Labor's NBN works, nor how it is priced. Simon Hackett, the founder and former owner of Internode did a very good job of explaining by NBN Co.'s pricing model is retarded and why the network build is dumb [1]. In brief, the wholesale pricing model precludes new ISPs entering the market, and Labor's NBN is not dark fibre to the premises, again see [1], along with Simon's other talks on the subject. Frankly, the less of Labor's NBN that gets built the better. 1. http://simonhackett.com/2013/07/17/nbn-fibre-on-a-copper-budget/ http://simonhackett.com/2013/07/17/nbn-fibre-on-a-copper-bud...
ksec 12y ago
Interesting, I thought no government were competent enough to make this happen. Clearly I was wrong. Once the last mile is owned by the government / building / land owner. They should be able to choose what ever ISP they have without being locked into any one of them.
Fuxy 12y ago
Yay progress! Don't let it die that's a pretty significant step forward. Regarding Lever 3 and all other Tier 1 providers I suggest they build a database of all ISP's that let their connection saturate and if this keeps happening they cut connections and ban their ass. All ISP's on the ban list should be forced to pay a large fee to be able to connect back with any Tier 1 providers. At the end of the day regardless of how big you are you're not an ISP if you don't have access to the Internet. If Concast and friends want to play the who is more important game i would wager Tier 1 providers are in a better position to win it.
- throwawayaway 12y ago
  I can't help but think that Spotify's much derided torrent style streaming of data between users on their upload channels, would be a pragmatic workaround for netflix and others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify#Technical_information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify#Technical_information
  - darkr 12y ago
    Netflix is reportedly looking into this already: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/netflix-researching-large-scale-peer-to-peer-technology-for-streaming/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/netfli...
charrington 12y ago
I am also a happy UTOPIA user. I have a full symmetric gigabit pipe to my house for less than $100 per month. There are huge benefits to open choice networks.

ChuckMcM 12y ago

That is pretty awesome, I've sent them email to see if we can use some of the work they have done in this space.

dvanduzer 12y ago
My work email archive from a decade ago is hard to search, but when I sent a similar email, I got back a reference to a study of broadband in Japan (?) about early adopters in fiber-to-the-curb communities... They essentially found that when you installed a network like this in a neighborhood, the economic growth in that neighborhood almost immediately changed trajectory (upward) relative to similar communities without these networks.
- yaddayadda 12y ago
  When I bought my house, one of my absolute requirements was that the house be in a UTOPIA city. If I were a business owner, I would have the same requirement.

femto 12y ago

That sounds like a similar model to Australia's endangered National Broadband Network. The government owned NBNCo lays the fibres to customers' homes, then ISPs lease bandwidth to service their customers. It seems to be facing the same issues that you describe, with some politicians being unable to stomach publicly owned infrastructure.

yaddayadda 12y ago
Interestingly, there is an Australian corporation, Macquarie Capitol Group, that may take over the administration of UTOPIA - http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/57282051-79/macquarie-utopia-network-projects.html.csp http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/57282051-79/macquarie-uto...
- femto 12y ago
  Macquarie Capital isn't little known here. They are famous for being able to extract maximum fees from public infrastructure. If they live up to past form [1,2], they will turn UTOPIA into a river of gold, and the source of that river will be the customers. [1] http://www.smh.com.au/travel/blogs/travellers-check/the-true-cost-of-our-airports-20110829-1jha7.html http://www.smh.com.au/travel/blogs/travellers-check/the-true... [2] http://www.smh.com.au/business/macquaries-sydney-airport-plan-backed-20131212-2za5b.html http://www.smh.com.au/business/macquaries-sydney-airport-pla...
  - yaddayadda 12y ago
    Good to know!
  - TheSpiceIsLife 12y ago
    I think we can fully expect that NBN Co. will be sold to some organisation or another just like this. That is the sort of thing the Australian government does with public assets.
TheSpiceIsLife 12y ago
God no! That is not how Labor's NBN works, nor how it is priced. Simon Hackett, the founder and former owner of Internode did a very good job of explaining by NBN Co.'s pricing model is retarded and why the network build is dumb [1]. In brief, the wholesale pricing model precludes new ISPs entering the market, and Labor's NBN is not dark fibre to the premises, again see [1], along with Simon's other talks on the subject. Frankly, the less of Labor's NBN that gets built the better. 1. http://simonhackett.com/2013/07/17/nbn-fibre-on-a-copper-budget/ http://simonhackett.com/2013/07/17/nbn-fibre-on-a-copper-bud...

ksec 12y ago

Interesting, I thought no government were competent enough to make this happen. Clearly I was wrong. Once the last mile is owned by the government / building / land owner. They should be able to choose what ever ISP they have without being locked into any one of them.

Fuxy 12y ago

Yay progress! Don't let it die that's a pretty significant step forward. Regarding Lever 3 and all other Tier 1 providers I suggest they build a database of all ISP's that let their connection saturate and if this keeps happening they cut connections and ban their ass. All ISP's on the ban list should be forced to pay a large fee to be able to connect back with any Tier 1 providers. At the end of the day regardless of how big you are you're not an ISP if you don't have access to the Internet. If Concast and friends want to play the who is more important game i would wager Tier 1 providers are in a better position to win it.

throwawayaway 12y ago
I can't help but think that Spotify's much derided torrent style streaming of data between users on their upload channels, would be a pragmatic workaround for netflix and others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify#Technical_information https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotify#Technical_information
- darkr 12y ago
  Netflix is reportedly looking into this already: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/netflix-researching-large-scale-peer-to-peer-technology-for-streaming/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/04/netfli...

charrington 12y ago

I am also a happy UTOPIA user. I have a full symmetric gigabit pipe to my house for less than $100 per month. There are huge benefits to open choice networks.