Fiber Internet and TV Services, Cord Cutting

[David Greene]

I'm surprised we don't see a co-op model for multiple dwelling unit complexes and Internet... I'm sure there are vendors who would be happy provide the infrastructure to bring in a trunk line and serve all the units at a low cost. The concept of the ISP seems rather dated.

On the other hand, it is a huge cost to run your own ISP. Even just keeping the router working can be a pain. Such places would most likely have to hire professional staff to do it. That may very well be cheaper, but I don't think ISPs are dated. They take a lot of burden off the hands of consumers.

I do absolutely think that we ought to be separating the infrastructure provider from the service provider and allow more flexibility and choice.

[seanrichardryan]

... Whereas I get 40 Mbps down 20 Mbps up from CenturyLink in uptown.

Really? I can only get 7mpbs where I live in the wedge. It's a bit like the HD channels on Comcast- NOT AVAILABLE IN MINNEAPOLIS

[ECtransplant]

Yup. Speeds are always within 2 Mbps of the advertised 40/20 too. I've been really pleased with the service, but know what a rarity that experience is, which is why I strongly advocate for greater ISP competition

[Anondson]

I can only get 7mpbs where I live in the wedge.

DSL maxes out around 7mbps, fiber goes a lot higher.

[ECtransplant]

Newer VDSL lines can surpass 100 Mbps symmetrical.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-hig ... riber_line

[mattaudio]

I've had 40-50 mbps DSL (CenturyLink) on and off for over four years now.

[David Greene]

... Whereas I get 40 Mbps down 20 Mbps up from CenturyLink in uptown.

Really? I can only get 7mpbs where I live in the wedge. It's a bit like the HD channels on Comcast- NOT AVAILABLE IN MINNEAPOLIS

Last time I checked I could only get 1.5mpbs from DSL. I assumed I was too far away from the exchange. I did at one time have a dedicated DSL line because it was the only option.

Just checked again. Yay! They're up to 3mbps.

[mattaudio]

In my neighborhood, CenturyLink apparently installed fiber to intermediate distribution points around the neighborhood about 5 years ago. I'm surprised they wouldn't have made a similar investment in denser places like the Wedge where they could have probably double the market size per block.

[sean]

Back in the '90s, I remember people talking about the concept of pulling fiber, and at least at that time you were likely to get reamed by the phone company, even if you were going between two isolated sites, because you had to rent space on their telephone poles.

I suspect this is one reason among many for why we are burying. USIW pays Xcel to rent space on their poles. It is not cheap, and you would be surprised by how often a pole is taken out by a car or the weather. With wireless it helps to be close to power and up high though.

When I lived in Stevens Square, Comcast was cabling on Xcel's poles past my window. A friend at Comcast told me they were running fiber, but I'm not aware of any residential fiber service from Comcast in Minneapolis yet, and this was years ago. I wonder if it was really fiber or if they were just replacing aging copper.

[travis]

Hi all, my name is Travis and I am in charge of the Fiber rollout here at USI, I will try to answer any questions I can about the 2014 installation plans.

Today we started installation on 1st and Stevens, see; http://fiber.usinternet.com/coverage-areas/ for street info "Zone 2", we expect underground work to take approximately 4-5 week and fiber installation 1 week to follow.

After these streets are completed we will start in Zone 4 and work their for 4 months and should be able to get everything done on the map and hope to extent north to complete the entire area this summer up to the Walker Art Center.

We are actively installing Apartments and MDU's in the "lit" areas as we get agreements in place from management companies, if there is a specific building that is not lit please let us know and we will try to work with that management company to get a agreement in place.

A few questions that have been asked;

We do not limit bandwidth or do any traffic shaping on the fiber network, you get "all" the bandwidth you pay for, so a 100mb service is 100mb up and 100mb down.

We are trying to install on streets where we have adjacent fiber, some street are difficulty at this moment due to the lack of a boulevard.

We hope to get Columbus and part of Lyndale installed this year weather permitting.

Thanks for everyone's input, any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks.

-Travis

[ECtransplant]

Thanks for the info, Travis. Why are the expansion plans skipping over Lake St and Lagoon Ave? Do you intend to include them in future expansions?

[travis]

Due to hard surface issues currently, we are still trying to work out a scenario on how we can economically deploy in areas that do not have a traditional grass boulevard, these issues have plagued us on a few streets.

The good news is we have an idea and if weather permits will try a couple blocks of Bryant this year to see how it works.

Thanks.

-Travis

[mister.shoes]

Travis, thanks for dropping by. Like many people I had no idea USI was doing full fiber in MPLS until reading this thread. A little public education/advertising would go a long way to getting those of us in other areas of the city clamoring for your service. I'll ditch Comcast the day you finish installing on my block and I imagine there are lots of others who feel the same way. Keep up the good work!

[travis]

Well I wouldn't say we are committed to rolling fiber out to the entire city, we are installing where it makes sense for our wireless network at this point.

You can probably appreciate that our phone already rings off the hook with people outside our current "lit" area asking when we will get to their location. If we advertised more it would compound the problem to the point I think people would just get upset and frustrated.

It is a large task installing an underground fiber network in an urban setting like Minneapolis, since we don't have access to the poles in the alleyways it will take many times longer to complete each phase of the project.

We have the 2014 plans in stone at the point, but, we are analyzing the data we have and are starting to determine what 2015 will look like.

Thanks.

-Travis

[mister.shoes]

Fair enough. Thanks for the responses!

[seanrichardryan]

Timely: I bet this won't help with all those calls to US Internet.

http://www.startribune.com/business/256252191.html

[mnjimn]

We have the 2014 plans in stone at the point, but, we are analyzing the data we have and are starting to determine what 2015 will look like.

Fingers crossed that you'll venture over North/Northeast this decade.

[talindsay]

This would be great in Southeast Minneapolis - seems like Seward and Cooper would be logical near-future phases.

[David Greene]

Timely: I bet this won't help with all those calls to US Internet.

http://www.startribune.com/business/256252191.html

Excellent! The more people know about this, the faster we can get things ramped up in Minneapolis, whether via USI or something else.

[Wedgeguy]

Looks like fiber is going in south of 29th on Bryant. Tore up some side way and there were yellow tubs that would up in.