UTOPIA: networking all of Utah (Can we do it in Montana too?)

Cities that build out their broadband telecommunication networks with fiber optics will have a
technological — and hopefully economic-development — advantage. It is a dream that has been bandied
about for almost two decades.

By Lois M. Collins
Deseret News staff writer

But what has been missing, according to Patrick Robbins, founder, president and chief executive officer of
Sandstream Communications and Entertainment Inc., is "critical mass — a large group deciding to band
together" in "one of the most important projects."

That’s changing, though. Earlier this year, UTOPIA — Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency
— was formed. The ever-growing interlocal governmental agency is a confederation of cities that want to
make the best data, voice and video transfer technology available to their residents and businesses.

Monday, representatives from more than 150 cities in Utah and nearby states interested in such
technology gathered to hear fiber optic MetroNet experts talk about everything from its potential to how
individual companies can help make it a reality.
The half-day conference was sponsored by Dynamic City MetroNet Advisors, which has signed a contract
with UTOPIA to help member cities research and plan installation of municipal fiber optic networks. They’ll
provide UTOPIA member cities with a preliminary assessment of what to expect in cost and revenues from
installing and wholesaling a fiber optic network to voice, video and data service providers. They also can be
hired to do in-depth feasibility studies for cities.

When people think of Internet Protocol technology, said Robbins, who gave the keynote address, they
think of Internet content and streaming media. Robbins believes that it will be important to television content
as well, a medium that consumers have "voted with their dollars" for, with 82 percent of homes paying for
cable, satellite or digital content.

The Internet, he said, has changed technology, driving a whole new host of standards. But cable, phone
and satellite television each have "issues supporting IP."
"Bundling services is the key to growth," he said. "No incumbent carriers are part of it. They don’t do well
with innovative new strategies."
That’s where the municipalities would come in, building a true "superhighway." Just as they build the
infrastructure roads, set basic rules and then let companies and individuals travel on them, helping the
community and the economy, the UTOPIA vision would include creation of fiber optic networks that the cities
would "own" and establish some rules for, but that others could use for personal or business benefit.

Robbins cautioned that companies using such an infrastructure must remember that "the customer is
king." When they forget that, it leads to the equivalent of the dot-gone debacle, he said.
He pictures television as a combination of what it is now, what’s available on the Internet and more. The
television, with which people are already comfortable, could be the outlet to rent games or movies, go
shopping, link from shows to related products and advertising, play games, access the Web, enjoy IP
telephony and video conferencing. It could be tied together easily on an IP network, but that would be difficult
on coaxial cable, Robbins said.

TV has the potential to be both entertainment and information source, he said.
"We are eventually talking about applications that subsidize what we all really want, a better quality of
life," he said. "TV becomes the device to help you provision all your devices as well as an IP phone."

But realizing its potential requires last-mile broadband access.

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