[sllug-members]: Bad UTOPIA news - let's do something about it

[Steve]

What exactly is Dynamic City?   I vaguely remember hearing about them,
but can't remember who they are/were and/or what they do.  Can someone
refresh my memory?

Sincerely,
Steve

On Jan 3, 2008 6:49 PM, Chris Brown <sllug at vpxp.com> wrote:
>   I'm glad Warren mentioned the NDA, although not for the reason he did.
>
>   Before I start what some might call a 'rant', though I would call it
> more of an explanation, I'd like to make it clear that I fervently hope
> that Utopia is successful and that it will become available at my
> downtown Murray home some day (with Xmission as the ISP, of course!).
> However my experience with Dynamic City/Utopia may explain some adoption
> issues from a provider's perspective.
>
>   I'm under NDA with Dynamic City as a result of meetings with them for
> our CLEC to become a Utopia Service provider.  Because of the NDA it's
> difficult to explain some of the reasons we chose not to go that route.
> It wasn't because of shortage of capitol or ability to provide the
> service, we wouldn't have approached them without it.  Dynamic City
> places some very strict requirements on how to provide some services to
> customers. Codecs, hardware, service packages, etc that make providing
> dialtone/VoIP dialtone (our primary products) difficult and would
> require more than tripling the price we provide those services at now.
> They desire to "micro-manage" the provider's services and delivery
> methods, methods not involving the fiber network itself.
>
>   The current price structure is such that a customer can get VoIP dial
> tone FAR cheaper over their Utopia connections if they get it from a
> provider OTHER than the ISP because the service provider would have to
> pay more to Utopia for the connection (and use different CPE).
>
>   Another issue was the massive secrecy/NDAs required. A provider may
> answer customer questions on if a specific address has service, but is
> not allowed to provide information on areas planned to be built out,
> areas currently being built, or even what areas currently have service.
> One can of-course say "Murray", a certain percentage of a city, or the
> customer can play "Battleship" with you asking to check various
> addresses until they determine the boundries.  Secrecy makes me nervous,
> and companies that are as hyper-sensitive as Dynamic City has been make
> me hesitant to do business with them.
>
>   Another issue is market penetration.  Only a limited portion of our
> existing customer base and/or target customers may be served by Utopia.
> Either because the area is not a participant (principally Salt Lake
> City, South Salt Lake City, unincorporated Salt Lake County, and Sandy)
> or because of Dynamic City's choice of where to build out in the
> participant communities.
>
>   Hoping to avoid being flamed,
>
>   Chris Brown
>
>
> warrenw at xmission.com wrote:
> > Quoting Steve <smorrey at gmail.com>:
> >
> >> Would it be feasible at all to price services at say $2/Mb below a
> >> certain threshold of say 10Mbps?
> >
> > Not under the current model.  Its just too expensive to get fiber
> > inside a residence for just this shallow return (realize that we only
> > pay part of the market price in wholesale costs to the network).  When
> > I made this same proposal to iProvo, I was asked if I shared their
> > plane of reality.
> >
> > That said, concepts like this are on the table as PacketFront and
> > UTOPIA reorganize.  I'm not sure if I'm allowed by NDA to discuss some
> > of the changes in the works yet, but they should allow for service
> > like this, particularly when bundled with VoIP and/or video.
> >
> >
> > Warren S. N. Woodward
> > Director, Broadband Services
> > XMission Internet
> > warrenw at xmission.com
> > (801) 303-0819
> > (877) XMISSION  ext 119
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