“Residents consider fiber”

The Sunday Advertiser runs a person-in-the-street story on fiber, talking to a few folks about their decision-making process. (In so far as they’ve formulated one. I doubt that most of us have.) Reported reactions range roughly from “I need to know more.” to “I can’t wait.”

There’s no doubt for me, of course. I’m thinking more like Dr. Feinburg:

…who lives along Twin Oaks Boulevard, said he is eager to sign up for LUS Fiber and is particularly interested in using its Internet service. Officials have said that the almost-unlimited amount of bandwidth and speeds will mean a faster Internet for LUS customers.

“I’m doing more than thinking about it,” Feinberg said. “I think it’s progressive and forward-thinking for our city.”

Sure there’ll start-up glitches. I’m looking forward to grousing about them. It’s all part of being able to brag later that I signed on first chance I got. In the end we’ll get much better service and the chance to use our money to develop resources in our city instead of lining the pockets of somebody in Atlanta or Dallas.

WBS: “After Five Years Of Fighting, Lafayette Gets Their Fiber”

What’s Being Said Dept.

Karl Bode over Broadband Reports is another that has been tracking Lafayette’s trials for years and his take on the long-anticipated launch is similar to others who have been watching. It was a fight; one that the citizens won:

We’ve been tracking the deployment of municipally-owned fiber in Lafayette, Louisiana for years, the project being particularly notable for some of the sleazy efforts made by Cox and AT&T (then SBC) to kill it. Those efforts, back in 2005, included everything from hinting at exporting local support jobs if the deal was approved, to hiring push pollsters to try and convince locals that the government-controlled project would result in politicians rationing consumer TV viewing. Needless to say, Cox and Bellsouth lost.

Bode also notes that we’re getting something for our efforts:

A few weeks ago, Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) unveiled their pricing for the service, offering triple play bundles ranging from $84.85 to $200, with downstream broadband services ranging from 10Mbps to 50Mbps (all symmetrical). LUS offers standalone symmetrical 10Mbps for $28.95, 30Mbps for $44.95, and 50Mbps for $57.95. There’s no caps, no contracts, and no installation fee.

Those prices handily beat not only local competitors Cox and AT&T (it’s now pretty clear why they fought so hard), but carriers in other markets too. Comcast offers a 50Mbps tier in select markets for $139.95 (when bundled), but its upstream speed is 5Mbps. Verizon’s 50Mbps/20Mbps service costs $144.95/month standalone, or $139.95 when bundled. The fastest speed AT&T currently offers customers is 18Mbps/1.5Mbps, which is $65 a month if you bundle TV service.

But the real treat for locals is the unalloyed envy exhibited by the usually raucous and dismissive crowd of commentators at the site. The first commentator says: “I would literally murder someone to get symmetrical 50Mbps…” and the ensuing debate continues with a review of which body part other discussants would give to have that access.

As a special treat Joey Durel logs in and plugs the 100 meg peer-to-peer network:

Thank you all for your comments. We are excited by the possibilities this brings to our community. We put together a very conservative business plan and should easily be able to sustain our pricing. Of course as programming costs go up, our prices will go up, and so will the competition. One thing not mentioned is the fact that we are also giving 100MBS peer to peer, for FREE. And, if this initiative doesn’t live up to the expectations, my neck is on the chopping block. I think it is worth the minimal risk. And, by the way, this is not backed by the government, so taxpayers are not at risk. These are revenue bonds backed by our utilities system, and while there is some risk it is actually very low. Thanks again,

Joey Durel
Lafayette City-Parish President

And, hey, on top of all that it is sunny and warm in the hub city.

“BREAKING NEWS: LUS Fiber launches”

The Advertiser is up with a brief breaking news story, a pdf of the description sheet, and—most interesting—the channel lineup.

Basic Tier ($17.00)

2 Channel Guide
3 Acadiana Open Channel 1
4 Acadiana Open Channel 2
5 KATC / ABC
6 KADN / FOX
7 KPLC / NBC
8 QVC
9 EWTN
10 The Weather Channel
11 KLFY/ CBS
12 KLPB/ PBS
13 KLAF/ MYNetwork
14 CSPAN
15 KLWB/ CW
16 WAFB/ CBS
17 WBRZ/ ABC
18 Louisiana Connection Network (KLFT)
19 LPB+
20 KAJN/ FAM

Expanded Basic Tier ($39.95)

2 Channel Guide
3 Acadiana Open Channel 1
4 Acadiana Open Channel 2
5 KATC/ ABC
6 KADN/ FOX
7 KPLC/ NBC
8 QVC
9 EWTN
10 The Weather Channel
11 KLFY/ CBS
12 KLPB/ PBS
13 KLAF/ MYNetwork
14 CSPAN
15 KLWB/ CW
16 WAFB/ CBS
17 WBRZ/ ABC
18 Louisiana Connection Network (KLFT)
19 LPB+
20 KAJN/ FAM
25 Home Shopping Network
26 TNT
27 TBS
28 Noggin
29 USA
30 FX Network
31 Fox Sports Southwest
32 ESPN
33 ESPNews
34 ESPN Classic
35 ESPNU
36 ESPN2
37 Cox Sports
38 NFL Channel
39 Golf Channel
40 Disney
41 Toon Disney
42 ABC Family
43 Nickelodeon
44 TV Land
45 SciFi
46 Black Entertainment Television (BET)
47 MSNBC
48 CNBC
49 CNN
50 Headline News
51 ABC News Now
52 Fox News
53 Hallmark Channel
54 Shop NBC
55 A&E
56 The History Channel
57 Animal Planet
58 Discovery
59 TLC (The Learning Channel)
60 Travel Channel
61 Comedy Central
62 Biography Channel
63 Lifetime Movie (LMN)
64 Lifetime
65 SoapNet
66 Oxygen
67 E! Entertainment
68 Bravo
69 America Movie Classics (AMC)
70 Turner Classic Movies
71 TV 5 Monde
72 Style
73 Fine Living
74 Food Network
75 HGTV
76 Versus
77 DIY
78 Spike TV
79 G4
80 Tru-TV
81 TV One
82 MTV
83 VH1
84 Great American Country
85 Country Music Television
86 History Channel International
87 MTV2
88 Univision

Digital Basic Tier ($51.44)

1 Video On Demand
2 Channel Guide
3 Acadiana Open Channels 1
4 Acadiana Open Channels 2
5 KATC/ ABC
6 KADN/ FOX
7 KPLC/ NBC
8 QVC
9 EWTN
10 The Weather Channel
11 KLFY/ CBS
12 KLPB/ PBS
13 KLAF/ MYNetwork
14 CSPAN
15 KLWB/ CW
16 WAFB/ CBS
17 WBRZ/ ABC
18 Louisiana Connection Network (KLFT)
19 LPB+
20 KAJN/ FAM
25 Home Shopping Network
26 TNT
27 TBS
28 Noggin
29 USA
30 FX Network
31 Fox Sports Southwest
32 ESPN
33 ESPNews
34 ESPN Classic
35 ESPNU
36 ESPN2
37 Cox Sports
38 NFL Channel
39 Golf Channel
40 Disney
41 Toon Disney
42 ABC Family
43 Nickelodeon
44 TV Land
45 SciFi
46 Black Entertainment Television (BET)
47 MSNBC
48 CNBC
49 CNN
50 Headline News
51 ABC News Now
52 Fox News
53 Hallmark Channel
54 Shop NBC
55 A&E
56 The History Channel
57 Animal Planet
58 Discovery
59 TLC (The Learning Channel)
60 Travel Channel
61 Comedy Central
62 Biography Channel
63 Lifetime Movie (LMN)
64 Lifetime
65 SoapNet
66 Oxygen
67 E! Entertainment
68 Bravo
69 America Movie Classics (AMC)
70 Turner Classic Movies
71 TV 5 Monde
72 Style
73 Fine Living
74 Food Network
75 HGTV
76 Versus
77 DIY
78 Spike TV
79 G4
80 Tru-TV
81 TV One
82 MTV
83 VH1
84 Great American Country
85 Country Music Television
86 History Channel International
87 MTV2
88 Univision
201 KATC/ABC HD
202 KPLC/NBC HD
203 KLFY/CBS HD
204 KADN/FOX HD
205 LPB/PBS HD
500 DMX – Symphonic
501 DMX – Lite Classical
502 DMX – New Age
503 DMX – Tranquility
504 DMX – Smooth Jazz
505 DMX – Jazz
506 DMX – Gospel
507 DMX – Contemporary Christian
508 DMX – Modern Country
509 DMX – Traditional Country
510 DMX – Hit Country
511 DMX – Roadhouse
512 DMX – Golden Oldies
513 DMX – 70’s Hits
514 DMX – 80″s Hits
515 DMX – Flashback New Wave
516 DMX – 90’s Hits
517 DMX – Adult Contemporary
518 DMX – Soft Hits
519 DMX – Coffeehouse Rock
520 DMX – Adult Alternative
521 DMX – Hottest Hits
522 DMX – Classic Rock
523 DMX – Alternative
524 DMX – Album Rock
525 DMX – Dance
526 DMX – Subterranean
527 DMX – Urban Beat
528 DMX – Edited Rap
529 DMX – Hot Jamz
530 DMX – Urban Adult Contemporary
531 DMX – Classic R&B
532 DMX – Blues
533 DMX – Reggae
534 DMX – Childrens
535 DMX – Holidays & Happenings
536 DMX – Hurbano
537 DMX – Salsa
538 DMX – Rock en Espanol
539 DMX – Latin Contemporary

Digital Plus Tier ($63.31)

1 Video On Demand
2 Channel Guide
3 Acadiana Open Channel 1
4 Acadiana Open Channel 2
5 KATC/ ABC
6 KADN/ FOX
7 KPLC/ NBC
8 QVC
9 EWTN
10 The Weather Channel
11 KLFY/ CBS
12 KLPB/ PBS
13 KLAF/ MYNetwork
14 CSPAN
15 KLWB/ CW
16 WAFB/ CBS
17 WBRZ/ ABC
18 Louisiana Connection Network (KLFT)
19 LPB+
20 KAJN/ FAM
25 Home Shopping Network
26 TNT
27 TBS
28 Noggin
29 USA
30 FX Network
31 Fox Sports Southwest
32 ESPN
33 ESPNews
34 ESPN Classic
35 ESPNU
36 ESPN2
37 Cox Sports
38 NFL Channel
39 Golf Channel
40 Disney
41 Toon Disney
42 ABC Family
43 Nickelodeon
44 TV Land
45 SciFi
46 Black Entertainment Television (BET)
47 MSNBC
48 CNBC
49 CNN
50 Headline News
51 ABC News Now
52 Fox News
53 Hallmark Channel
54 Shop NBC
55 A&E
56 The History Channel
57 Animal Planet
58 Discovery
59 TLC (The Learning Channel)
60 Travel Channel
61 Comedy Central
62 Biography Channel
63 Lifetime Movie (LMN)
64 Lifetime
65 SoapNet
66 Oxygen
67 E! Entertainment
68 Bravo
69 America Movie Classics (AMC)
70 Turner Classic Movies
71 TV 5 Monde
72 Style
73 Fine Living
74 Food Network
75 HGTV
76 Versus
77 DIY
78 Spike TV
79 G4
80 Tru-TV
81 TV One
82 MTV
83 VH1
84 Great American Country
85 Country Music Television
86 History Channel International
87 MTV2
88 Univision
100 TBN
102 Hallmark Movie Channel
103 Independent Film Channel
104 Game Show Network (GSN)
105 Cartoon Network
106 Sprout PBS Kids
107 The N
108 Nicktoons Network
109 Boomerang
110 CNN International
111 Discovery Kids
112 LPB Create
114 Nick 2
115 Jewelry TV
116 Discovery Health
117 Family Net
118 Lifetime Real Women
119 Inspiration
120 Inspirational Life
121 Gospel Music Channel
123 Fit TV
125 Women’s Entertainment
126 Fox College Sports – Atlantic
127 Fox College Sports – Central
128 Fox College Sports – Pacific
130 Fuel
131 Speed Channel
132 The Outdoor Channel
133 Fox Soccer Channel
134 The Tennis Channel
135 TVG
136 Fox Business
137 Bloomberg
138 Fox Reality
139 National Geographic
140 The Africa Channel
141 BBC America
142 BBC World News
143 Military History Channel
144 The Science Channel
145 The Military Channel
146 Planet Green
147 Investigation Discovery
148 Crime & Investigation
149 Chiller
150 Sleuth
151 Logo
152 CSPAN-2
153 MTV Hits
154 MTV Jams
155 MTV TR3S
156 FUSE
157 MTVU
158 VH1 Classic
159 VH1 Soul
160 CMT Pure Country
161 BET on Jazz
201 KATC/ABC HD
202 KPLC/NBC HD
203 KLFY/CBS HD
204 KADN/FOX HD
205 LPB/PBS HD
206 ESPN HD
207 ESPN-2 HD
209 Showtime HD
211 The Movie Channel HD
212 STARZ! HD
213 Encore HD
214 CNN HD
215 Animal Planet HD
216 Disney HD
217 ABC Family HD
218 Planet Green HD
219 Discovery HD
220 Discovery HD Theatre
221 The Science Channel HD
222 TLC (The Learning Channel) HD
223 TNT HD
224 TBS HD
225 USA HD
226 Lifetime Movie (LMN) HD
227 SciFi HD
228 QVC HD
229 Lifetime HD
230 HGTV HD
231 Food Network HD
232 MHD
233 A&E HD
234 History Channel HD
235 Outdoor Channel HD
236 NFL Channel HD
238 BIO HD
500 DMX – Symphonic
501 DMX – Lite Classical
502 DMX – New Age
503 DMX – Tranquility
504 DMX – Smooth Jazz
505 DMX – Jazz
506 DMX – Gospel
507 DMX – Contemporary Christian
508 DMX – Modern Country
509 DMX – Traditional Country
510 DMX – Hit Country
511 DMX – Roadhouse
512 DMX – Golden Oldies
513 DMX – 70’s Hits
514 DMX – 80″s Hits
515 DMX – Flashback New Wave
516 DMX – 90’s Hits
517 DMX – Adult Contemporary
518 DMX – Soft Hits
519 DMX – Coffeehouse Rock
520 DMX – Adult Alternative
521 DMX – Hottest Hits
522 DMX – Classic Rock
523 DMX – Alternative
524 DMX – Album Rock
525 DMX – Dance
526 DMX – Subterranean
527 DMX – Urban Beat
528 DMX – Edited Rap
529 DMX – Hot Jamz
530 DMX – Urban Adult Contemporary
531 DMX – Classic R&B
532 DMX – Blues
533 DMX – Reggae
534 DMX – Childrens
535 DMX – Holidays & Happenings
536 DMX – Hurbano
537 DMX – Salsa
538 DMX – Rock en Espanol
539 DMX – Latin Contemporary

Digital Hispanic Tier ($5.00)

180 Telemundo (Mundo)
182 Mun2
183 SiTV (coming soon)
184 Discovery En Espanol
185 Discovery La Familia
186 CNNe
187 ESPN Deportes
189 The History Channel in Espanol

HBO Premium Movie Suite ($12.80)

301 HBO east
302 HBO west
303 HBO Plus east
304 HBO Plus west
305 HBO Comedy east
306 HBO Family east
307 HBO Latino
308 HBO Signature east
309 HBO Zone east

Cinemax Premium Movie Suite ($6.08)

310 Cinemax east
311 Cinemax west
312 MOREMax east
314 OuterMax east
315 Action Max east
316 Thriller Max east

Showtime Premium Movie Suite ($8.47)

317 Showtime east
318 Showtime west
319 Showtime Too east
320 Showtime Beyond east
321 Showtime Extreme east
322 Showtime Showcase east
323 Showtime Family east
324 Showtime Women east
325 Flix
326 The Movie Channel east
327 TMC Xtra east

Starz!/Encore Premium Movie Suite ($7.43)

328 Starz!
329 Starz! Cinema
330 Starz! Kids & Family
331 Starz! Comedy
332 Starz/ Edge
333 Starz! In Black
334 Encore
335 Encore Action
336 Encore Drama
337 Encore Love
338 Encore Mystery
339 Encore Westerns
340 EncoreWAM

“LUS Fiber delays start” (Updated)

LUS has missed its deadline to serve the first customers in January of this year. They point to uncompleted contracts for cable channels as the reason for the delay—contracts LUS has signed but the folks that control the channel packages have not returned. All the recent coverage has hinted at such a delay: Huval has said for at least a month or six weeks that the only thing standing in the way of a launch was those contracts.

———–
As to the story and the situation: Arrrgh. Let’s start with the headline.

“LUS Fiber delays start”? Start? Really? How ’bout “LUS Fiber delay starts”? *(See update below) See what a difference the accurate placement of a single letter can make? I’ve complained endlessly and without effect about the tendency to sensationalize in the Advertiser so I won’t belabor the point today. Just note that it’s not a new frustration. I’ll also take the opportunity to renew the plaint that the Adverstiser not ignore what has really delayed this project for years: the unremitting opposition of the incumbent providers: AT&T and Cox. As story about “delays” that carefully doesn’t mention the source of years of delay is simply suspect reporting.

Ok, glad to get that off my chest. Still, there’s a bit more complaining to do. 🙂

The story does report on a real question that does need to be covered. The only thing worse than sensationalism would be to not cover it at all: LUS has missed its self-imposed deadline to serve the first customers by January of this year. And it let that date pass without making a public announcement in advance of the event. That’s just not good public relations—or marketing. Better, much better, would be to hold a press conference lay it all out explicitly and to put it in the context of a huge project the people have been patiently waiting for — and a minor delay in comparison to the other painful delays that have occured as a consequence of outside interference. Get ahead of this sort of thing is the advice I would have given. My honest hope is that LUS intended announce this at last Tuesday’s Council meeting—but if so I think they were mistaken to have honored the council’s request to put it off. Granted the Council was right about their agenda and that did turn out to be an ungoodly long meeting. But LUS and the administration would have been smart to have asked for 5 minutes of the council’s indulgence for a quick update that covered the change in plans if they could not stomach a full press conference. I strongly suspect that we will hear about it tonight’s council meeting…I do expect that LUS will send out those promised blue announcement cards as soon as possible; possibly even this week. But the PR mistake will linger.
—————

Beyond my frustrated complaint about the way the Adverstiser and LUS have handled this affair there is likely a really interesting story to tell. Or several. Which contracts with national providers have not completed signing? (We know the ones with local stations are done—including one that ended up in an FCC complaint.) What factors are playing into the decision to not launch with an incomplete linup? What is the source of the dispute? Was there another way to handle these contracts? Any one of these would make a useful story.

The question of which providers have neglected to return signed contracts might be interesting because we know that some packages are actually owned by incumbent cable providers who might well think it useful to embarass a standard bearer for municipal broadband. For instance, Time-Warner includes among its subdiaries major cable provider Time-Warner Cable as well as a huge set of cable channel packages including HBO, Turner Broadcasting (TMC), WB, CNN, and the Cartoon network. Comcast owns Cox owns the Travel channel. It’s not a big stretch to think the cable companies might find this an easy tactic to use: Comcast, for instance, is famous for using its control of various sporting channels and contracts to its advantage in larger contract negotiations.

Why not just launch without the last few channels? You could always give a price break/rebate on the portion of the final package that customers don’t get. The factors that are in play in deciding to delay the launch, and bear the cost of bad publicity, must include the so-called “Fair Competion” Act that the incumbents initially wrote and the legislature finally passed. The purpose of the act was far from “fair competition,” instead it consists of a series of restrictions that apply only to the publicly-owned competition. (Only LUS in our state.) One of the elements in that law starts a time clock with dire consequences for LUS if it doesn’t make a paper profit by a particular date. So any slow start imposes penalties by law…LUS needs to start off fast, and could easily conclude that not having the channel lineup complete would lead people to take a “wait and see” stance—not something they can afford to encourage.

If there are contracts outstanding one has to think that there have been disputes over carriage terms. LUS has apparently not just accepted anything that they are offered and have tried to hold out for good terms. The most obvious reason to hold out might well be simple cost: there is some push and pull on cost and providers naturally want to get as much as possible for their product and could well think that LUS doesn’t have as much to bargin with as the monster companies like Cox or Comcast. But there may well be more subtle and even more disturbing possibilities. We here in Lafayette think its a great thing to get a 100 meg intranet and set-top boxes with even limited internet capacity. But content providers in this country are well known for their at-times irrational response to the rapidly growing dominance of the internet and all digital media. They’ve been noticeably antsy about IPTV (Internet Protocal TV as opposed to RF-based cable) and I’ve heard that the mention of opening the settop boxes through which “their” media flows to the evil internet for digital divide reasons causes them some irrational spasms. Trying to step in and dictate local policy as to who does and does not get internet access under the guise of protecting their interests would be all too in-character for an industry everyone has learned to disdain. (Video owners would be wise to learn from the painful experience of the music industry.—Standing in front of the engine of change and trying to slow it down only gets you run over.)

Finally, LUS initially intended to join a coop to get its programming and probably could do so in the future. But at the moment they became set on trying to write their own contracts that window was closed by an odd set of events that temporarily closed the coop to new membership. I’d heard that they’d actually managed to secure some improved deals on the contracts they were able to close early on…but that may not have proven a consistent consequence. They may eventually decide to backout and take advantage of the coop offerings in some cases—contracts that might be cheaper or have fewer use restrictions. This is a murky area, but like I said, an interesting one to follow-up on.

Laigniappe: There’s also a story on the line cuts that have followed digging up a big chunk of the city. While any breaks in service, and especially gas breaks, are disturbing they are also inevitable as the utility digs up a huge chunk of the city.

Update 12:42 am 2/4: My wife suggests another interpretation of the headline “LUS Fiber delays start” that points out that “delays start” is ambiguous it could mean that the delays are beginning (what I took umbrage at) or that the startup is delayed (a fair depiction). The first she primly informs reads delay as a noun and starts as a verb while the latter reads delays as a verb and starts as a noun. She’s the grammarian. My best guess is that the misinterpretation is mine and the headline poorly written but not mean-spirited. Mea culpa. (She now leans over and insists I say that she brought in the paper and supplied the initial interpretation. True enough…but I wrote it up without noticing anything else. Partners. 🙂 )

LPF’s Fiber FAQ

I’ve been pouring over the good, but largely inaccessible information on the new LUS Fiber network on the net, in the Advertiser Forums and in the back pages of LPF and have decided to put together a FAQ on LUS Fiber that brings the most frequently asked questions together in one place. Much of the interesting matter is buried in references to tangental matters so I’ve tried to simplify things.

What you’ll find at LPF’s Fiber FAQ is pretty standard fare for an internet FAQ: an index at the top of the page, a simplified question and a basic answer to the question. As a recovering academic I’ve tried to include references and the actual words of LUS or its spokesperson.

If folks find it useful I’ll try and keep it up. If you want me to take a stab at some question ask in the comments….

LUS Announces Pricing at the Council Meeting

Terry Huval made another appearance during the “President’s Address” portion of last night’s council meeting. In this one he provided more details on pricing and installation….

My trusty TiVo picked up the broadcast; it will be rebroadcast by AOC on Channel 16 Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday at 1:00 p.m. It is also available anytime on the newly established ustream channel “lcg-council-auditorium.”

If your interested in the details (and who isn’t?) I recommend you take a look at Huval’s presentation. It’s well-organized and packs a lot of information into a small time frame. You can also check out the press release at the LUS Fiber site and pages there on video, phone and internet pricing.

Some highlights & notes of interest:

  1. There will be “no deposit, no contracts, and no charge for a standard installation.”
  2. There will be some very low prices for some cable services—lower than had been previously anounced. The basic, no-box “analog,” tier will only cost $17:00 and includes “20 channels including local channels and The Weather Channel.” (Interestingly the “analog” channels on the local system are analog largely in the sense that they don’t require a set top box: the system itself is all IP. Customers who don’t want a box and have an analog TV will have their digital signals transformed into coaxial-happy analog at the fancy box on the exterior wall.)
  3. That low price, and other low prices for local phone service and internet will be mitigated by a minimum required purchase of $44 dollars. No customer will be signed up unless they initially agree to purchase $44 dollars worth of service. That’s a marketing mistake, I believe. You want everyone to sign up, even if they are low-return initally. Of course, without a contract I don’t know what is to prevent a frugal customer from signing up, paying for one month and dropping any extra services. Frankly, I don’t see the point of this requirement. Without a contract it won’t prevent folks from doing the obvious; will give the naysayers something pretty concrete to complain about; and will be used to by the opposition to undercut the city’s otherwise legitimate claim to be lowering prices and offering poor and working people a break. (This isn’t conjecture on my part—that was the response of the incumbents to a similar condition to join Bristol VA’s municipal system.) [Yes, sure, I do understand the rationale: that fancy box on the side of the house that translates light into analog and digital cable over coax, internet over cat6, and emulates a Plain Old Telephone system is very costly…and LUS reasonably wants to recover that cost in some reasonable period. Still; IMHO, dangling unattainable low prices in front of the public is a mistake that only accountants and engineers would make. It’s logical and sensible but mistaken. Where are the political, PR, and marketing folks? LUS needs a citizen’s advisory council.]
  4. The internet service will include email, 70 megs of personal web space, Instant Messaging, personal calendaring and file sharing….pretty nifty. Making those service available universally will potentially open up a huge range of network effects akin to having universal phone service. All these are more valuable if all have them.
  5. It looks like only HD digital boxes will be deployed, some with and some without DVR capacity but all with HD. Planning for the future, I presume.
  6. There will be “an interactive TV Web Portal, Video On Demand, Pay-Per-View and Digital Video Recording.” I’m still interested in that TV Web Portal.

Still missing: a channel lineup, details on the premium channel packages and any wireless hints.

PS: The Advertiser has a short piece up this evening. Expect a fuller story tomorrow and one from the Advocate as well.

LUS Fiber Email #2

FYI:

LUS Fiber sent out its second email today with links to a fuller, but not yet complete, account of its pricing plans. To wit:

Welcome to your future!

On January 6, 2009 LUS Fiber unveiled information regarding our full suite of residential TV/Video, Internet and Phone products and pricing. We wanted to share this ground-breaking information with you. We invite you to visit our website and view all of our feature-rich residential offerings. This way when you have access to LUS Fiber services (via Lafayette‚s only 100% fiber optic network) you will know whether you would like to select one of our conveniently packaged VIP (Video, Internet and Phone) Bundles or build your own to meet your specific needs. Our pricing philosophy is simple…savings for all customers on all products.

Visit our website to view details regarding our residential products which include:

TV/Video offerings to meet your entertainment needs including digital services like a unique TV Web Portal, Digital Video Recording, Video On Demand, Pay-Per-View, and an Electronic Program Guide.

Internet speeds that are lightning-fast (up to 50 Mbps upload & download!) and features that keep you connected including access to our 100 Mbps Peer-to-Peer Community Intranet; up to 7 email accounts; webmail access with personal calendaring, IM capabilities and file sharing; 70 MB of personal web space; and a security suite with virus protection, spam filter, pop-up blocker and more.

Phone service that brings value back to your home phone including a wide array of features like 3-Way Calling, Voicemail and Caller ID; unlimited long distance calling plan; and budget-friendly International long distance rates like 5¢ per minute to places like France, Spain and Canada.

Beginning this month we will be notifying customers through mail when service is available to them and we are ready to take their order. If you would like to speak with someone on the LUS Fiber team regarding our products and pricing or want to sign up for updates, call us at 99-FIBER (993-4237) or visit our website at LUSFIBER.com.

Sincerely,
Your LUS Fiber Team

How My Internet Connection Spent New Year’s Eve — Or, Please Hurry LUS!!!

I recently shot some video for some friends of mine in a band when they played at the Blue Moon Saloon. It’s going to be released as a DVD in the next month or so.

The band members are scattered across the South but I wanted to let them see the near final cut of the video. I saved it as a Quicktime movie in a small (480 x 270 pixels) widescreen format and it came in at a grand total of 1.69 gigabytes. Too big to send via conventional email.

I tried Pando (a service a friend in New Orleans and I had used to exchange video) but that service has a 1 gig file size limit.

Googling around, I found Filemail.com which has a 2 gig file size limit. Ah, we’re good to go.

So, I signed up, linked to the file and began sending it.

There is a handy/scary network speedometer on the upload page. I finally got that baby up to 104 kbps via my Cox Internet connection. But what was really scary was the “Time Remaining” figure: four hours and fifty-plus minutes!

Well, it was what it was, so I went to read a couple of things on my laptop while the iMac, Cox and Filemail did their thing.

A couple of hours later, I returned to the iMac only to find an error message!

Not knowing the source of the error, I decided to try to FTP the file to a domain that I own. FTP is supposed to be pretty fast (faster than email, any way). But, looking at the progress dial on Fetch, it was clear that this process would take about five hours at the connection speed I was able to achieve.

Sure enough, five hours later, the file was on the website. I linked to it and it began to play.

Still, knowing that video over the Internet is network speed sensitive, I went back to Filemail to see if I could successfully send the file so that the band members could download it onto their respective desktops and get a better playback experience.

I figured out that the original problem had been that my hard drive had ‘gone to sleep’ in the initial transfer process — and who wouldn’t after three or four hours? 😉

So, I resent my system preferences to keep the hard-drive ‘awake’ no matter how long the transfer took.

Sent the file again and — again — delivery time was going to be about five hours.

This time, the process was completed without a glitch.

But, using that great Cox fiber to the neighborhood network with the asymmetrical upload and download speeds, I spent at least 12 hours of time moving a 1.69 gigabyte file to a mail service and/or a website for viewing.

I am happy to see that LUS has announced their pricing on packages and I’m thrilled about the network speeds. But, they can’t get here soon enough as far as I’m concerned.

I’m tired of the giant sucking sound Cox’s network is making in my wallet and with their underperforming network.

“Locals curious about fiber”

This morning’s Advertiser has a short (though front page) article on public reaction to the imminent launch of the Lafayette fiber project. It’s a color story, with not much in it but the public reactions to what they’ve been informed (and misinformed) about concerning the new system.

On the upside they get the basic reactions of people on the street pretty much right: cautious excitement.

Two things on the downside: 1) The Advertiser persists in repeating the mistaken idea that all LUS has announced so far is the prices of the three “VIP” tiers when Huval clearly has said that the prices announced for services were the same whether you bundled them together or not both in the council presentation and in their own comments pages. (Incidently, this is a feature; something to like…) 2) that bit of repeated misreporting gives the Advertiser’s coterie of local Lafayette-haters something semi-concrete, if mistaken, to whine about…every city (and every barbershop) has its little group of nay-sayers. But it is a pity that the Advertiser has chosen to give their ugliness both anonymity and a semi-legitimate forum.

Its-a-Thought: It’s not about the bundles

Its-a-Thought: “your choice packages,” not “bundles.”

It was probably inevitable in our commercial culture that the news about product, pricing, and availability would be almost the sole focus of reporting and comment about yesterday’s fiber announcement. At one level that really isn’t the most important point: ownership of our own resources and the bare fact that the system is real will have much greater impact down the road than today’s list of commercial details.

But even on the level of commerce…you know, “bundles” in the usual commercial sense are not really the best focus of conversation. That’s because LUS is not offering bundles, not in the usual commercial sense.

Bundles in the usual sense are special “deals” for a range of services put together by the operator that includes a long-term contract and lower prices for an introductory period. The idea is common across business sectors but has become an article of faith in the telecommunications industry with triple-play and even quad-play industry focal points.

In the world of telecommunications retailing bundles do two things, one good and the second bad: 1) they provide a convenient one-stop alternative for consumers weary of tracking 3 or 4 different communications bills, and 2) they serve to lock-in consumers into one provider by making the best prices only available if you take multiple services from that provider. Lock-in works in pretty directly: You can be locked into a contract—like the one-year deals Cox is pushing right now—with a penalty for leaving early to go to a more attractive competitor—like LUS. Lock-in contracts also usually include a promise of a cost increase during or at the end of the contract period. Much of the good deal is a temporary come-on designed to entice you to buy beyond your comfort zone and become dependent upon the service by the time the real price reappears. That’s all standard economics. (And one reason why thoughtful people still call economics “the dismal science.”) More subtly: the near-monopoly that some users find themselves facing can result in lock-in as well; if a bundle is the best way to eke out a decent price and, for instance, only one company offer decent internet or cell service in your neighborhood you can feel forced to buy their bundle–for the price–even though you’d be better served by choosing a phone from AT&T, cable from Cox, and cell service from Verizon….

Bundles are all about reducing customer freedom in exchange for a (usually temporary) price break.

But that’s not the way LUS’ bundles work — and why bundles are a misleading way to think about the LUS Fiber offerings. The focus should really be on how much it costs to put together a package that serves you best.

What’s missing from LUS’ systems is lock-in. 1) There is NO contract involved. The deal you get on day one is the only deal. Leave the moment you want with NO penality. NO programmed-in cost jump because there is no contract to hide one in. 2) There is NO linkage involved. Buy one service. Buy two. Buy three. Buy all the extras, Buy none. NONE of that has any effect on your base price for another service. One price, all the time. The price for 250 cable channels or 50 megs of symmetrical service remains the same. No linkage also means NO penalty for using one service from LUS and one from Cox or AT&T.

That’s NOT a bundle in the usual commercial sense. Which is why “bundles” is not the best way to think about the question of getting the best deal on your telecomm services. First ask which services from which providers are best for you? Make up your own “freedom package” —”your choice package.” Then add up the real costs for that “package.” My guess is that mostly that will be three services from LUS. But you can mix LUS tiers freely and tack on services from a competitor without penalty…or at least no penalty from LUS. Do the math. The real math not the fake “bundle math” the incumbents will try to stick you with.

I can pretty easily imagine customers who will decide to pony up for 50 megs of symmetrical internet, drop all phone and cable services and limp by with cell service and downloadable video. I think that’d be rare. But the point is: LUS won’t punish you by jacking up the price on your internet if you drop their phone line. Try dropping Cox’s cable and keeping the phone service. Don’t think you’ll keep the same price on phone…

The reason for the difference, and it can’t be stressed too much or too often, is that LUS’ consumer is also LUS’ owner. LUS is treating you, the customer, with some fundamental respect because, in the end, it is motivated to do best by you, the owner. The privately owned competitors have the same motivation—to do the best by its owners. But, for the private sector, acting in the best interests of its owners is NOT the same as acting in the best interests of its customers. With LUS it is. And, in the end, it is just that simple. We made the right decision on that July 16th, 2005.

So comparing Cox’s or AT&T’s offerings to LUS’ offerings is a little hard. But it’s not really apples and oranges. Maybe more like comparing oranges and grapefruit. You’ll get your vitamin C from either. But you’ll probably find one version goes down a lot more easily.