This is a rotten way for them to kill UTOPIA. I don't get any joy in the fact that my stance on this helps Qwest and Comcast.

I'm against UTOPIA because I agree with Senator Mayne...Utah doesn't need a government imposed communications infrastructure. the amazing advances in cell phone technology over the past 5 years alone should be enough proof that technology moves faster than UTOPIA ever could.

Sure the fiber will still be good in 20 years...it just won't be as good as the alternatives...and Utahns will be $540 million poorer with nothing to show for it.

Wireless will NEVER be as good as a land line. There are too many issues, security, interference, and line of sight. If fiber is such a risk, why are phone and cable companies using it for their back bone?

I agree with you on one thing, maybe government shouldn't be involved in technology, they obviously dont understand it...."He also reasoned that because his cell phone had reduced its size over the years, then obviously fiber would have no way of lasting 20 years."

There are NO credible experts anywhere that are claiming wireless will replace fiber! How do they connect all these cellular towers together and then to the central office? Fiber. How does the long distance call get transmitted to New York or London? Fiber.

I can provide you will a chart that lists all of the wireless spectrum available according to the current laws of physics, most of it is not usable or has very limited use. The majority of the rest of it is licensed spectrum that is not available.

When people talk about "wireless broadband" they mean wireless "internet" the ability to browse the internet is but one of many applications and one of the least beneficial to society that a truly advanced telecommunications infrastructure can bring.

According to the US Department of Commerce Technology Administration we will need 100 megabits of symmetrical bandwidth to the home and 1 gigabit to the business to remain competitive with the rest of the world. Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt recently stated in a report that broadband should be considered 100 megabits/1 gigabit to the home and 1 gigabit / 10 gigabits to the business and we should be deploying the infrastructure to make that a reality.

Japan is aggressively deploying Fiber-to-the-Home and will have the majority of its population with direct fiber connections. Subscribers in Japan can currently get 24Mbs for US $20 per month and they are now upgrading many of the connections to 40 Mbps with demand and productivity increasing...

Korea, Taiwan, China, Norway, Holland, Iceland, Finland, even Russia are now aggressively deploying or pursuing FTTH programs. Are they all stupid? Did they and their national telecom carriers not do any research? Don’t they have small cell phones there (Japan)?

Almost all of the above countries are pursuing "open access" fiber infrastructures with public/private partnerships similar to UTOPIA's

Qwest and Comcast say that government should not compete with the private sector... So, I called Qwest and Comcast to see if I could become a service provider over their fiber to the home/business systems. Guess what, they don’t have one, and Comcast does not have to provide access to their system to any service provider and Qwest, with the new FCC rules released in the latest triennial review that the Baby Bell monopolies don’t have to give access to any fiber infrastructure they deploy. This capitulation by the FCC giving the Bell's a total monopoly on fiber infrastructure was a last ditch desperate effort to promote the deployment of fiber to the homes and businesses. Why would our government be doing this if fiber was going to be obsolete.

The problem we have here in Utah is we have a few corrupt, pathetically stupid and hopelessly irresponsible legislators that have not taken the nearly two years to painstakingly research every aspect and detail of the UTOPIA project like the local city officials have. And, they seem to take delight in disrespecting our local elected officials!!

I for one will be casting my vote against those legislators who match the above description and vote for SB-66, are you listening Howard Stevenson?

I'm not arguing that wireless is better than fiber optics. I'm sure they'll both have a role in the future of communications in Utah. I'm arguing that there is a good chance that the market will deem UTOPIA a failure because it sets in stone decisions that should be fluid. Government won't be able to stop consumers who want to use the fancy new wireless gadgets that are being developed that threaten to bypass your huge government created infrastructure. I'm amazed that there are so many Utahns who are willing to bury their heads in the sand on the issue of how unwise it is to trust government with this one-size-fits-all program.

A big problem with UTOPIA is that when the government finances it there will still be that group of "corrupt, pathetically stupid and hopelessly irresponsible legislators" Mr. Payne was just complaining about who will want to muck things up! They'll argue (correctly) that they have a fiduciary responsibility for the new infrastructure and that it needs to be tightly regulated. There will always be politicians who are beholden to special interests. How is UTOPIA going to be affected when clowns like Senator Mayne start using it as a bargaining chip to futher their political careers?

The argument that somehow fiber will become obsolete by way of analogy to the progress made with cell phone technology is not a sound argument. The glass fiber in the ground is a passive carrier of light. It is true that technology may improve and in fact if you read the trade press about fiber, improvements are reported all the time. But these involve the terminating equipment at the ends of the cable. The main cost of the system is in getting the glass in the ground, to the homes. The rest of the cost is mostly irrelevant. It is the cost of the trenching and of the right of way that is significant.

Surely no one can seriously be thinking that wireless technology will ever improve to the point that gigabit rates will be possible? Or that it would be possible for a large populations to enjoy such rates universally?

Glass is the the only serious alternative. It lasts forever and will not become obsolete.