Open Letter to Salt Lake County Mayor: Regarding the Utopia Project and County Acceptance

Lately, I have to admit I have been impressed with Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon. While I opposed his election to begin with, he began to make sound choices within the county government that I was rather impressed with. To begin with, he denied the funding from the County to build a soccer stadium in Sandy City that would only benefit Sandy City financially. As I live in West Valley, I didn't see the financial benefits coming directly to my City, and saw it as a way to fund growth within only one aspect of the County. My understanding of the County government is to provide leadership and growth to benefit the whole county, instead of just one city. Well, the State is funding it now, and I'm OK with that. The State will get more funding from it, and it will be less of an impact on the taxpayers overall.

Well, with this understanding that the County government is there to benefit the entire county, I thought I would try contacting Mayor Corroon to see if the UTOPIA project could be expanded to the whole of Salt Lake County, instead of a few cities that ignored the interests of the communication monopolies, er, companies that oppose the measure. Here is the letter that I sent:

Dear Mayor Corroon,

I would first like to say that I have a lot of respect for you. Being one that normally votes with the Conservatives, I was rather impressed with your decisions you have made as mayor, and will probably vote for you again should you run for re-election.

But there is something that has been playing on my mind, and on the mind of many of your constituents within the Salt Lake County: That of affordable, usable network connections.

Now, this may sound like a small and simple issue, but businesses live and breath by the speed and bandwidth of their internet connection. New businesses are just waiting in the wings for the affordable bandwidth to start providing video streaming, network services, and various other services that require high speed, reliable connections.

Many cities, such as West Valley City (my city), has reacted by focusing on bringing their people and businesses the UTOPIA project. I'm sure you are aware of this project, and the arguments for and against it.

My interest is in those cities that have refused to participate in such a ground-breaking move. These cities have received assurances from various companies that communication companies that they will be able to provide the same services with the aging infrastructure that has yet to provide satisfactory service to their customers, let alone businesses. These companies seem to feel that a municipally organized and run infrastructure is a threat to their business model, and (in my opinion), their monopolies.

That is actually the case. No longer will they be able to charge inflated prices based on maintenance of their network. Instead, they are placed within a level playing field by the municipal network, and will have to compete with other companies that can now host their own services. Ultimately, it's a win for consumers.

So my request is that the County consider the Utopia project as the next possible leap to developing the county infrastructure.

I thank you for you time, and look forward to your response!

Jeremy Robb
Concerned Citizen

Now, I haven't had a lot of luck getting local government officials to respond to my emails. West Valley City Councilman Joe Coleman seems to have completely ignored my appeal for cycling lanes and paths in West Valley going East to West (which means I will not be voting for him again anytime soon). But I think I may be able to get a response from Peter Corroon, in that he's a bigger fish, and may have a more vested interest in keeping tabs on bloggers and what they say.

So, for those of you in cities that have refused to address the idea of the Utopia Project being implemented, I'm swinging for you. I think that everyone in the valley should have an internet connection that will allow for better living through communications. The benefits for Education alone would be outstanding. Imagine not having to build any more schools because we have distance education classes allowing kids to remain at home for part of the week. That would be a huge savings to the school districts in and of itself. All because the County did what cities were too afraid to do: wire their citizens up.

Utopia: The Mysterious Promise

This year there have been a lot of things to be excited about: Movies that I have wanted to be released for some time, books that have been of interest to me, electronic devices that have had me drooling since I had heard rumors of them. All of these have been holding me in suspense for the year, but none as much as the Utopia Project.

I've mentioned this before in previous posts, but for any that haven't heard of it, the Utopia project is a municipal project held within various Utah cities to bring fiber optic connections to every home and business within that city. Probably based off of the success of the iProvo project, this extends connections along the length of the State, principally along I-15. Not all cities are participating, in fact the one city that really needs it (Salt Lake City) has refused to participate based on various discussions with the principal broadband monopolies, er, providers within Utah.

Regardless, my city, West Valley City, has decided to invest in this infrastructure in order to benefit its citizens. Murray has also agreed, so those living in Murray will be pleased as punch with the news (if you haven't already got it, you lucky devils!). The only problem is, the infrastructure is growing at a snails pace. It makes sense, as they are installing enough switches to supply access to all the citizens at full speed, as opposed to the practice of piping as many people though the same switch and hope they don't all use the net at the same time. *cough* Comcast *cough*. This way the bandwidth remains strong for all users.

Because it's growing so slow, I don't have that option. In stead, I have opted for the Blue Zone, which offers wireless access for less than Comcast, and at about the same speed (for me anyway). But it is terribly slow, and it seems to get slower every day. Perhaps it's because I'm used to using the Internet pipeline here at the U (sitting on the backbone of Utah), but even my family that doesn't go to the U is complaining about the lag. Perhaps they are doing the same thing Comcast is doing, and connecting too many people to the same antenna, and are not going to upgrade because of Utopia. Whatever the reason, I am aching for the Utopia project to come to my area.

Why am I bringing this up? Because there was a sign of hope on the way to work. As I was heading down SR-201 to work this morning, I saw a Utopia truck pull onto the freeway from West Valley. Imagine my excitement in seeing evidence of the continued expansion of the best network project since Telegraph lines were ran throughout the area back in the day. Yes, it gives me that glimmer of light in the long tunnel of darkness that continues to trouble my network connection.

Broadband Blues: The West Side Story

For those of you who are not aware, various municipalities within Utah are working together to build an interlocal fibre-optic network called UTOPIA. Already currently running in some areas, the project allows for transmission of Internet, VoIP phone, and Digital Television to the participating municipalities for a relatively low cost. The revenue generated then go back to the municipalities that are participating.

The project is very ambitious, but worthwhile as participating customers can have a minimum of 10Mbps synchronus internet access, and for the same price as DSL connections tend to be. It's faster than Cable internet, faster than DSL, and even faster than wireless connections. It can allow home developers to build and host their own websites without a fear of bandwidth problems, or even host their own Television stations if they so choose. It's the Utopia that every tech geek would want... If they could get it.

There are a number of limitations to the UTOPIA project, the first of which is distribution. Currently only 14 cities within Utah are participating, and that means not everyone can have that kind of development. It's also highly distrusted by the dominant telecommunications companies in Utah (Namely Qwest and Comcast) because they see less-expensive competition moving on their turf that doesn't have to use their network. And finally, it's moving very slowly in it's deployment due to recent funding issues and construction costs.

In particular, West Valley City (the second largest municipality in Utah, and to the West of Salt Lake City) has been moving very slow. While they are currently building the project on the East side of the city, it is not expected to reach the West side (and incedentially, the side that I am on) until late 2008 - early 2009. This means that I have to settle for more conventional, and slower, internet connections until that fibre-optic cable is connected to the house.

The problem is, there are not a whole lot of broadband internet options within the west side of West Valley City to begin with. Qwest has yet to provide a decent DSL connection to the area, perhaps punishing the city for it's involvement in UTOPIA (but that's just my opinion). Comcast is available, but as the only wired internet provider in the region the connection speed is split too many ways to be useful.

Luckily there is a wireless option with The Blue Zone, which offers reasonable rates for it's connection speed and remains very reliable. But, while I don't want to sound disloyal to the best internet service currently available to me, it's not the 10Mbps or 100Mbps that I would want to have in order to explore the internet options that I have envisioned. Currently I have the option of hosting my own website (though no server to serve it up...yet), but I have a vision that includes distance learning options, video streaming, and perhaps even some VoIP communication options. But in order for these goals to be met, I need to have the bandwidth to handle the traffic.

So that's why I have the Broadband Blues... I have the vision, I have the projects outlined and ready for development, but I don't have all the necessary tools to get the job done. What is the major hole in my progress? Bandwidth. To get the bandwidth I need, I would have to host my servers at a data center (like Xmission) for more money than I can afford. So the ideas that I have are currently floating in mid air, waiting for the Utopia that can bring them to a reality.