Bombgod3
join:2006-06-05
Lawrenceville, GA | Problem with iProvo I know that folks will offer plenty of reasons why iProvo is struggling. Most of those reasons will be based on religious beliefs (i.e. government shouldn't provide broadband, PON is better than P2P, etc). I believe that the real reason is their business model. "Open access" doesn't work. If open access networks worked in NA then Ma Bell and Comcast would have had open access networks from day one. If you don't know the history of the iProvo (and UTOPIA) project, the project started (like most muni projects) with the Incumbents spending tons of money to kill the project with lawsuits. Right or wrong, the politicians decided to appease both sides and allow munis to deploy fiber but required that they had to do it in an "open access" model (the fact the Incumbents went along with this compromise should have been a warning sign as they don't agree to anything other than monopoly). Unfortunately, if you don't control your own destiny - it is hard to build a solid business plan. iProvo needs to adopt a "retail model" and then they could compete with the regional price drops and marketing specials from the Incumbents. It is hard to be competitive when you have to keep paying the middleman, who you have know control over. |
| This is very accurate, but the big $$$ spent by incumbents to stop muni's from being in the business are stopping them from providing service.
So this is what they currently have to live with. The feds could open the market to competition and save them? But the incumbents will spend money there to stop them too.
We have the best government money can buy! |
