Broadbandreports.com has an interesting piece about the largest municipal broadband project in the US. It is called Project UTOPIA (Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency) and should provide cable, phone and broadband service to some 723,000 residents in 248,000 households and 34,500 businesses via fiber. Broadbandreports.com has an interesting piece about the largest municipal broadband project in the US. It is called Project UTOPIA (Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency) and should provide cable, phone and broadband service to some 723,000 residents in 248,000 households and 34,500 businesses via fiber.
Utah is at the center of the largest broadband political debate. The project will cost $470 million and involve eighteen cities. It is also very controversial. The incumbents operators claim unfair competition from municipal governments funded by taxpayer money but supporters of Project UTOPIA point out that the incumbents have long ignored states such as Utah. Lack of service from the incumbents forced the municipalities to create an alternative communications infrastructure.
Building out the network will take three years and to get it up and running, one telecom provider will have a brief triple-play monopoly.
To find out more about the project and the controversy around it, go to Broadbandreports.com.
Resources:
UTOPIA website
UTOPIA project white paper (PDF format)
Technical details of the UTOPIA network
Map of service coverage
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