FTTH Con: Utopia retailers, customers grow

LAS VEGAS--More than a thousand customers are now being served by Utah’s multi-state public wholesale network, Utopia, according to Paul Morris, Utopia’s executive director, who provided an update on the project to attendees of the Fiber-to-the-Home Conference this week. Morris, who lives in Murray, Utah, became a customer himself about three weeks ago.

He apologized for not having a more exact customer count, adding, “They’re doing dozens a day, so I lose track.”

Construction is underway in 6 of the 11 cities participating in the project, and four service providers are currently using the network: AT&T, MStar, Veracity and XMission. Only two of them are marketing to customers now.

MStar is offering a bundle of phone service (with 10 features) for $30 a month, television for $34 a month and 10-Mb/s symmetrical broadband Internet service for $40 a month. Starting with broadband, MStar added the video component only a few weeks ago, Morris said, and is rolling out personal video recorders to test homes starting next week.

One provider (perhaps MStar) is claiming a 21% take rate after six weeks of marketing to residential consumers, he said.

Since becoming a subscriber of Utopia-delivered triple-play service, Morris has fielded exclusive discount offers from incumbent phone and cable providers, including at his doorstep.

“We’ve had the incumbent telephone company [Qwest] come to our door,” he said. “When’s the last time you had the telephone company come to your door and ask you how they can save you money?”