"Dore clarifies position on LUS rate hike"

That title might better be: "Dore commits to LUS rate hike."

According to the Independent blog Sam Dore is now a committed supporter of the LUS rate hike and will both vote for it himself and work for its passage. Dore explains it as less a shift in position than a matter of timing but that commitment changes the odds on the measure's passage.

In a LPUA meeting late last year Dore was sided with Ken Boudreaux and Brandon Shelvin to make a 3-2 majority in favor of voting down a rate hike. The five-person LPUA board must approve any changes concerning the city's utility assets and that loss made a vote by the larger council pointless. Dore, and in particular Boudreaux, cited timing, a lack of information and the feeling that the administration had put forward and a take-it or leave-it position that didn't brook compromise or negotiation.

Among the non-LPUA members of the council, the so-called rural districts, it rumor has it that Purvis Morrison who is planning a run for mayor of Scott is now in support of the increase. That decision could only have been reinforced by the power outage in Scott during Monday's frigid night that was attributed to an overtaxed connection by Entergy and when that same connection went out again Tuesday night LUS' Huval pointed to outages as just the sort of problem that he wanted to avoid by doing the timely capacity upgrades the rate increase would fund.

That brings the pro-rate increase count up to 4...with 3 of those votes being mostly out of the city and thus having few LUS customers to contend with— and the few that they do have are in the more prosperous southern reaches. It seems likely that this time around the administration and LUS have done a better job of vote counting.

Time will tell.

"LUS sacks Cox with Saints vs. Cowboys game"

From the Independent blog:

"If you’re paying $39.95 a month for LUS’ 83-channel expanded basic cable service, breathe a sigh of relief. You’ll watch the undefeated Saints take on the Dallas Cowboys (8-5) on Channel 38 Saturday night at 7:20 p.m. But if you’re one of Cox Communications’ approximately 100,000 Acadiana customers who subscribes to expanded basic, 72 channels for $52.99 per month, it’s going to cost you more."

Couldn't have said it better myself. —You can sign up with the local guys or you can pay more for less and still not get what you want from Cox. It's a choice that ought to be easy. What do you think Lafayette?

The Saints Mania that has taken hold here (and across south Lousiana) has made people more than a little crazy and I've got email this week asking whether LUS will have the game. I had a hard time understanding what folks were anxious about since it is on expanded basic, and expanded basic is pretty much the default level for most folks. Now that I see that Cox is only carrying it on a more expensive tier I have to suspect that the truly fanatic were hearing about that and worried that the same would be true of LUS...there was a big blow-up in the Baton Rouge media earlier this week and apparently Cox worked hard at getting it set up there even though BR wouldn't normally be allowed to see it. I'm sure they'd like to have been able to do the same in Lafayette—if only to avoid the unfavorable contrast with LUS Fiber.

It's not really just about this game and single, immensely popular show...it is more about the contrasting corporate policies that Cox and LUS Fiber pursue. Cox has, time and again, moved "must have" weather, French language, TV guide, and sports channels off the basic tiers and pushed them up into the upper, more costly, tiers in unpopular if financially understandable, moves. After all they are in it to make money for their owners. LUS Fiber, on the other hand, really doesn't have nearly the same pressure to "upsell" its customers since those customers are its owners. Keeping your owners happy means entirely different things to a large corporation and small town utility.

And that's the real lesson of this story.

Curtis, Cox, and LUS

Today's "Curtis" syndicated comic, found in this morning's Advertiser could easily have been inspired by the marketing tactics we're seeing Lafayette... (The story line involves young Curtis hoping to con his dad into a special cable "deal.")

A friend tells me he was recently offered 3 months of free cable service when he called to cancel his Cox service and move to LUS. That, apparently, is just how desperate Cox is beginning to get as LUS continues to roll out its service—ahead of schedule. The incumbents have repeatedly insisted that "goverment-owned" LUS would never be able to meet its ambitious roll-out goals but that particular canard hasn't been repeated recently as it became obvious that the service would not only achieve its goal but that our community-owned utility is actually ahead of schedule (LUS recently announced that it would finish its roll-out in July, about six months early.)

Incidentally, LUS' is a great service and my friend (IMHO) was right to spurn the short range savings for the long-term savings, no-nonsense, no "deals" package the hometown alternative offers. Not to mention: our money stays here and it builds infrastructure we own.

Cox Raises Rates...

The Independent, the Gonzales Weekly Citizen and the Baton Rouge Business Report all have up stories based on a Cox press release that announces rate increases for both cable and internet packages in South Louisiana starting December 8th. Price increases range from 2 to 3 dollars on each effected service...with 1 dollar bumps on some (unspecified) premium packages. So if you get both internet and cable from Cox you'll be looking at at least $4 on the low end to $6 and up on higher end combos. It would be pretty easy for all those small changes to add up to a substantial surcharge of 10 dollars and more a month and it will be interesting to see a more detailed accounting of the changes.

Merry Christmas!

Details are still murky (expect pieces with some real reporting in tomorrow's news cycle) and "Along with the channel launches, some channels will move within tiers and into new service levels." Thats' pretty vague and sounds like it might mean that some tiers will actually lose channels. At any rate Cox is claiming cost increases in retransmission fees (that refers to fees paid to local stations) and cable channel packages to account for the increases cable side. Nobody is saying why internet has to increase as well.

Cox's "Ultimate Tier" —that 50/5 tier was introduced in Acadiana to compete with LUS Fiber's 50/50 tier—is the only internet package that will not see an increase.

(Hmmn...I justed checked the Cox site for Baton Rouge and Gonzales zip codes. Baton Rouge's announces that you can't get the Ultimate package there. But in Gonzales, where small local provider EATEL is also providing fiber to the home, the site now shows that Cox is willing to sell the "Ulitmate" service there as well. My...doesn't Baton Rouge wish that it had something more competitive than AT&T's UVerse to spur a little competitive energies?)

Cox announced some service increase candy alongside the bitter medicine of a rate increase. Among them are more HD channels, and speed increases on some of the internet tiers. The intent behind announcing them together is, pretty clearly and sensibly enough, to encourage folks to think that Cox is giving you something extra for your money. But they extras don't line up that neatly: on the cable side the lower-priced tiers and the movie packages get an increase but the higher-priced tiers are the ones that benifit from new HD channels.

Cox has been holding off on price increases in South Louisiana and especially in its Acadiana branch since LUS Fiber came onto the scene but apparently that long drought has ended. Cox is not going to continue to give all of South Louisiana a break just to keep its prices lower in Lafayette. You can look for semi-permenant "special introductory offers" to be given at a drop of the hat if you zip code is right, of course. But those things are time-limited and I doubt many people will be fooled for long.

LUS Fiber's First Commercial Customer Goes Live

The headline is pretty much the story: "LUS Fiber's First Commercial Customer Goes Live." The Independent reports that Lafayette Convention and Visitors Center (LCVC) has taken a 50 meg symmetrical service for $119.50. They like it; Breaux, LCVC Director Breaux is reported as having said:

"Unbelieveable,” he says. “It’s been a major difference [in speed] and the whole group at LUS has been incredibly cooperative to get this whole thing going.” Plans are already in the works for a media event or open house demonstration of the service at LCVC. “We want everyone to come in and see how great it really is."

The IND notes that having only a single business customer is part of LUS Fiber's perhaps wise but surely frustrating measured roll-out strategy:

This follows LUS’ slow rollout strategy that allows it to carefully monitor and work out any service issues before expanding its clientele.

Ok, so that makes sense. Still. We want our fiber.

LUS Fiber HYPE

It'd be funny if it weren't so overburdened with irony.

Those of us who still get a daily newspaper will have been amused by Cox's latest attempt to "me-too" ("fiber is nothing new" cough, cough) the LUS network's offerings. As my wife was going through our morning ritual of removing the 3/4 of the paper that is glossy ad inserts and sections we never open out slipped an 8 1/2 x 11 Cox flyer with the screaming bold headline "LUS Fiber HYPE." The irony, of course, is that the hype and FUD is entirely being performed by Cox. Have you seen any LUS advertising "hyping" —or even promoting— LUS Fiber in the major media yet? I haven't. And I watch. Now no doubt the day will come when LUS will hype its network. When it is offering the service to a large enough base that it makes sense to advertise in the paper or other local media. But that day has yet to arrive. My guess is that this flier is the best evidence available that LUS' "controlled roll-out" is beginning to significantly cut into Cox's base of subscriptions; painfully enough to buy an insert which will be distributed almost solely to people who can't—Yet—buy LUS services. Now the motivation may be to just try and insert the headline into the "LUS fiber HYPE" into the community unconscious. If so that shows a pretty profound misunderstanding of this community. Cox has played the game of playing fast and loose with truth with Lafayette before and it's proved embarasssing. Who can forget the disastrous story of the "local blogger T. J. Crawdad" or the infamous "push polls? Even more than embarrassing...folks got to saying tha "you can't trust anything they say." This flier is in that (ig)noble tradition.

The thing Cox forgets is that to be truly effective attack advertising has to be true. And it has to be about something that people care about. Otherwise you just end up looking desperate. Cox is hyping its "digital TV," claiming to have more digital channels than LUS...and is using that hype to sell what's on the backside of the flyer: it's lowest triple play tier. For 89.99. For 12 Months.

"It's a day late and a dollar short" as the old saying goes. You're supposed to assume that the claim on the front supports the offering on the back. That you'll get more with Cox's cheapest "digital TV" offering.

But you won't.

Take a gander at the slideshow below; it's from Terry Huvals presentation at the recent (and fantastic) F2C conference. The relevant slides are numbers 31, 32, and 33 which detail the "expanded basic," "digital basic," and "digital basic plus" tiers for both companies.

What Cox wants you to buy, on the basis of their claims on the front of the sheet, is the product on the back of the sheet, that 89.99 (for 12 months) sale offering. If you go to Cox's "Greater Louisiana" website & drill down you'll get to a page that shows you get their "expanded basic" cable tier with that deal. So surf on over to slide 31 on the display below....

Terry Huval

View more presentations from f2c

You'll see that in truth LUS offers more channels in their lowest tier combo deal than Cox. If that strikes you as strange soldier on to slide 32. There you'll notice that LUS offers more channels in the middle tier too..only at slide 33 the highest tier do you find Cox offering more channels that LUS. So the (hyped) claims on the front, while not entirely untrue at every level, do not support the product they are selling on the back. A little bait and switch, that.

And LUS' low tier combo deal is cheaper too: Cox's "Good" comes in at 89.99 (intro price) vs LUS' "VIP - $84.85" (allathetime price).

(And, while we're at it you also get 30 megs up and down with LUS but only 10 megs down and 786 k up... with video shifting to the web and more and more people doing their telephony through 3rd party VOIP that's going to be more and more significant. I already do a healthy amount of my TV viewing over my shiny new computer-TV hookup.)

One Big Happy? Family

Cox has announced that it is combining its New Orleans operations with "Greater Louisiana" Market — Greater Louisiana is made up of the former Baton Rouge and Lafayette divisions which were combined three years ago.

The new division has half a million customers and will be Cox's 3rd largest market.

But Cox the spokesperson is careful to note:

Ann Ruble said the move would not affect rates.

Now that might sound reassuring. But what it means at the current moment is that Baton Rouge and New Orleans should not expect to share in Lafayette's good fortune with a cheaper, installation-cost-optional version of Cox's only-in-Lafayette 50/5 mbps ultimate tier.

WBS: "Municipal Fiber Competition Benefits All Lafayette Citizens"

What's Being Said Department.

Geoff Daily over at Apps-Rising has put up a post whose title says it all: "Municipal Fiber Competition Benefits All Lafayette Citizens." Daily too thinks that Cox's competition is good for Lafayette—and he can see it from D.C.

What this says is that municipal fiber deployment doesn't just bring the best broadband to citizens, it also introduces competition that spurs investment by incumbent providers to upgrade their networks.

And in fact the citizens had already been reaping the rewards of its municipal fiber project before it even went live. After the fiber initiative started Cox stopped raising its rates for cable TV in Lafayette, but it kept raising them everywhere else.

Go take a peek. And while you are there you should take note of Geoff's two sponsors; including a new one. I'll think you'll find it interesting.

"Cox builds Internet speed"

This morning's Advocate weighs in with an interesting view of Cox's new 5o mbps down/5 mbps up service. The report focuses on the reactions from most of the principals including Cox, EATel and AT&T but oddly excluding a direct reaction from LUS.

The article makes it clear that while Cox denies any direct influence, (apparently the local folks are making that mistake after all) knowing that LUS Fiber is offering a 50/50 mbps fiber-based internet service is the key to understanding why Cox would debut its new flagship service in such a small market.

The gist of the story as far as LUS vs. Cox is concerned is contained in the following paragraphs:

The introductory price of Cox’s “Ultimate” Internet service in Lafayette is $89.99 per month, plus $99.95 for the required modem and an installation fee that will vary by customer, according to information from Cox.

The company has set the standard suggested price for the service at $139.99 a month.

That price is comparable to similar offerings by Verizon and Comcast, though those companies generally provide their top-tier Internet services only in large markets.

LUS Fiber is selling its premium service of 50 Mbps download and upload for $57.95, with no additional cost for installation or equipment.

LUS Fiber customers can exchange information with others on the local fiber network at 100 Mbps.

The 50 Mbps residential Internet service options in Lafayette Parish are unique in the state.

The larger story is that competition is good: Lafayette has two 50 mbps providers, one with real symmetrical service and the rest of the state has NO such providers. The rest of the country will get this service, when Cox gets around to it, for 1 1/2 times as much, 50 bucks a month more...and it looks like the installation fee locally will "vary by customer" instead of being the 99 dollar pro install that others will uniformly pay. My guess is that, more precisely, the installation fee will vary by customer location...if you live in Lafayette and want this then tell Cox that you don't want to pay for installation—after all the competition, LUS, isn't charging for it. :-) Cox will probably be happy to put you on the hook for only the 100 dollar modem that you will have to dump when LUS gets to you. Like I said: Competition is good.

Reports from other providers flesh out the local and regional competitive picture. AT&T gets pitifully aggressively vague:

AT&T is preparing to launch its U-verse package in the Baton Rouge market with download speeds of 18 Mbps and upload speeds of 1.5 Mbps, AT&T spokeswoman Sue Sperry said.

Sperry said she could not give a specific timeline for Baton Rouge or plans for other markets...

AT&T will be a third run competitor in the city of Lafayette's already competitive market. Since Cox is battling LUS's full 50 meg offering with the best it can muster for the lowest price it can muster AT&T will surely be shut out of the city broadband market. It is hard to imagine that they see much upside to the costs of upgrading in-city only to remain in third place. What AT&T has on its side is wireless mobility — but both Cox and LUS have plans to minimize that strong point.

EATel in East Ascension and Livingston parish is a privately owned rural telephone company that has rolled out a FTTH project in some of the fastest growing parishes in the country.

A pocket of 30 Mbps service is offered in portions of Ascension and Livingston parishes by EATEL, a privately owned communication company that launched its own fiber-optic system in 2005.

The company charges $99.95 per month for download speeds of 30 Mbps and upload speeds of 15 Mbps, with $20 shaved off if Internet is bundled with phone and video, EATEL Sales and Marketing Director Brad Supple said.

He said EATEL’s fiber-optic system still has much capacity to offer faster service in the future.

EATel is running a very aggressive billboard campaign in its footprint. But has yet to elicit cheaper new services for its customers.

Finally, the Adovcate story makes sure its Baton Rouge readers understand the pickle they're in:

In Baton Rouge, Cox’s top-tier Internet service provides standard download speeds of up to 15 Mbps — with boosts of up to 20 Mbps — and upload speeds of 1.5 Mbps.

What the reporter neglects to mention is that AT&T back in March of 08, while it was successfully hoodwinking the state legislature in to passing an industry-sponsored bill to set up state-wide video franchising in Louisiana took the capital city off the table as a player by cutting a separate deal to offer the capital city many of the priviledges it was insisting that other city's not receive. At the time LPF insisted that this was a ploy and that AT&T was likely to treat Lousiana, and Baton Rouge, exactly as it had treated North Carolina where a similar successful move to infringe on the property rights of communities had lead to exactly NO new service launches by the incumbent AT&T. But the law had helped get a long, long list of cable providers off the hook to the communities whose land they use to provide cable services. AT&T has yet to launch any new services in our state and any it eventually launches in Baton Rouge will be, at best, second rate.

Competition, where you get it, is good. And in our state competition that boosts services and reduces prices has ONLY come from a municipality, a local government. State laws that gift the private duopolists with further privileges have had exactly no beneficial effect. It is never smart to feed the bully. And it's always a good idea to do it for yourself.

Cox Gets 50 megs (Updated)

Cox announced yesterday that it is launching its first DOCSIS 3 product, a 50 meg down "ultimate" tier in, of all places, Lafayette, LA. That's a huge feather in the cap of Lafayette and is certain to get Lafayette press across the country.

Despite the fact that yesterday was April fools this appears to be no joke even though it has yet to make it onto the official Cox page... Cox really is launching it first offering of the much ballyhooed DOCSIS 3.0 service in Lafayette. DOCSIS 3 involves "channel bonding" —taking up a mutliple "chunks" of the available bandwidth on its hybrid fiber-coax systems and its current rollout by Comcast is widely seen as a response to the FIOS fiber to the home project being marketed by Verizon in its territories.

I first heard about Cox's launch through the Lafayette Technology Google group where the press release was posted but have since found references on Broadband Reports and the Baton Rouge Business Report, both of which add interesting details.

Here's the lowdown as gleaned from the press release and stories....

• Speed down: 50 megs
• Speed up: 5 megs
• Install cost: $99.95 for a "pro install"
• Modem cost: $99.99 from Cox (you must buy a Cisco DPC3000)
• Introductory/Louisiana/Lafayette Price: $89.99/month
• Regular/not Lafayette Price: $139.99
• Contract length: ? not specified
• Extras: 3 IP addresses, no transfer caps "at this time,"
• Offered in Cox's footprint in Lafayette Parish--Broussard, Carencro, Duson,
  Lafayette, Scott and Youngsville
  

What's interesting about this announcement, of course, is that it represents an attempt to challenge LUS' just-launched service. The Business Report, however, posts that Cox national spokesperson

Ruble says the high-speed Internet was launched in Lafayette because of "loud and vocal demand." The Lafayette Utility System has launched its own fiber-optic Internet, phone and cable service. Ruble says LUS wasn't a factor in introducing the new service in Lafayette first.

That's a bit of newspeak if ever I heard it. "Loud and vocal demand" probably can be fairly interpreted to mean that Cox has finally heard what Lafayette said on July 16th four years ago when the people overwhelmingly voted to get LUS to provide them with fiber to the home. If you can look at it that way I guess that LUS wasn't a factor.....but it seems a pretty far stretch and I hope the local PR folks won't keep up such an unlikely position. Reasonable people have to think that what Lafayette has to recommend it as the place to launch a major new initiative is that it has a unfinished FTTH project. It is not a major market by Cox's standard...and is, in fact, the smallest market in Louisiana that Cox retained after shedding mot of its rural and small city holdings (Alex and Lake Charles got the boot).

As a response to LUS' 50 meg offering it doesn't come off too well. Cox only matches LUS on download speed; upload is a 10th of what LUS offers and both monthly cost and upfront costs are higher. A comparison:

• Speed down: 50 megs
• Speed up: 5o megs
• Install cost: 0
• Modem cost: 0 (what modem?)
  
• Introductory/Louisiana/Lafayette Price: No special pricing
  
• Regular Price: $57.95
• Contract length: No Contract
  
• Extras: 100 meg intranet, Internet on cable box, Money stays in hometown (my favorite),
  
• Offered in LUS' footprint in Lafayette Parish (the city of Lafayette currently)
  

On the upside is, mainly, that folks in the neighboring smaller cities can get 50 megs—and that has got to be a good thing. Theyll be able, for a price, to join the elite few in our country who have that much bandwidth. I've got family in Broussard and I know they've looked longingly at what the city is getting. Demand is great in the surrounding cities. What's interesting is everything I've heard Huval say recently has lead me to believe that LUS will move into the surrounding areas as soon as they are done with Lafayette proper. All the folks in the parish have to do is ask. It seems likely that Cox making this treat available is intended make take some of the fire out of those requests.

But will folks really be happy to pay more for what the people in the city are getting for less? Especially when they will still be outside the 100 meg intranet and have to make do with 1/10 the upload? It seems risky to me: It's one thing for fast bandwidth to be a "city" thing. It's another thing all together to be offered a product but to find out that you will be paying more for one that isn't of the same quality as what those in the city is getting.

Interesting times.

UPDATE: 1:25 PM, 4/2/09: The national prss release release is also available on PR Newswire. The Advertiser has a story up on the topic this morning: "Upgraded Internet launched." MarketWatch, reporting on a speech by Dallas Clement, Cox's senior VP of strategy and development, noted that Cox was rolling out their 50 meg docsis 3 service in Lafayette:

He added that the company will be careful about rolling out the service more widely, as it would be an expensive proposition. It will rely on what it learns about consumer demand for the service in a given location before committing to a new launch.

That explaination is a little puzzeling...a slow rollout makes sense in general if you are afraid that the demand won't be there. But if so, Lafayette seems an odd place to roll it out first: They can't possibly assess how it works for them in most of their footprint since our situation is uniquely difficult for them. In most places the 50 meg product would blow away the competition. It doesn't here.

UPDATE: The Independent Blog has a post on this subject as well. In it the national Cox representative takes a more realistic stand than the one she apparently took with the Baton Rouge Business Report:

While Cox says the decision was not based solely on the competion it faces here from Lafayette Utilities System, it clearly was a factor. “It has to do with competition period,” says Cox spokesperson Ann Ruble. “I think Greater Louisiana was chosen because we have competition from many different sides. This is described as a hyper-competitive market across the entire footprint, the Baton Rouge market and the Lafayette market. We put so much investment into Lafayette that it made sense for the first place to launch.”

That makes a little more sense; obviously launching your first docsis 3 product in a place where you have a competitor that is offering much greater speed than you are makes a certain specie of sense—especially if you realize that "Greater Louisiana" aka the Lafayette-Baton Rouge market is NOT getting this service. ONLY Lafayette is...Baton Rouge where there is no LUS doesn't get ANY access, not even at the 139 dollar level. The only thing that is "hypercompetitive" about the "Greater Baton Rouge" market is the presence of two fiber-based competitors. EATel in East Ascension also offers a FTTH alternative. Maybe Cox will offer it in Ascension Parish, where EATEL is offering Fiber To The Home if EATEL puts up a 50 meg tier too. Either way, Baton Rouge is out of luck....

"LUS FIBER: Company working to expand network's reach"

This morning's Advertiser ran a short story on LUS Fiber derived from the presentation given last night at the Upper Lafayette Economic Development Foundation meeting. In a change from the usual Huval-led LUS presentation Amy Broussard from LUS sales and marketing made the presentation.

As one might expect given the venue the presentation focused on economic development with LUS reporting in on buisiness costs and new economic development opportunities. Probably the headliner for the evening was the announcement of the pricing structure for LUS Fiber's internet business offerings:

Those are $64.95 per month for 10 megabits per second; $119.95 per month for 50 megabits per second and $199.95 per month for 100 megabits per second. The speeds refer to both uploading and downloading.

Those are good prices for businesses. Note that business users were given the opportunity to pay for 100 meg connections (not on the price list for residential customers). I attended the IEEE VR event alluded to in the text of the story—where a questioner from the floor asked if residents could buy the 100 meg package if they wanted to. Nonplussed, Terry allowed that if they wanted to give LUS their money, yes he'd sell them that. (The general reaction was laughter but the questioner clearly was pleased. I'd be fascinated to know what he has in mind.)

It was surely at that IEEE Virtual Reality event that Huval found interest among gamers:

LUS Director Terry Huval recently spoke to a meeting of several international engineers, and several in the international gaming industry asked Huval about how they might be able to apply LUS' system.

"They are interested in what LUS Fiber has to offer to their businesses," she said.

What LUS has to offer the gaming industry is unbelieveable speeds, low latency and a whole population that has affordeable access to the fastest speeds available in this country for the lowest prices around. A large, diverse, population on a next-generation network is the PERFECT testing ground for next-generation games. It's "an in the wild" realistic place to test. The alternative is lab testing with controlled populations or relying on the upper-crust population that can afford Verizon's top speeds. I assume that game developers know that that population is not the one that they will be selling to eventually. I'm not at all surprised that once the advanced gamer group that attended the international meeting of the the IEEE VR grop saw what was available that they swarmed Terry with questions. Not at all surprised. (Here's an idea: LUS should sponsor gaming tournements leagues in the city and be prepared to support international gaming competitions when, inevitably, everyone wants to come here to play.)

The IEEE Virtual Reality Conference was quite a "catch" for Lafayette and the LITE center where much advanced VR work is done. This is a feather in the cap of Carolina Cruz-Neira who worked hard to bring the international gathering to a small city without a major airport. Having participated in esoteric academic conferences myself I can imagine the resistance. It is a testament to her energy and the existence of LUS Fiber and LITE in the same small city that the conference choose to come here. The effort may well pay off handsomely if any of these contacts decide to bring the gaming industry (now larger than the movie industry) to Lafayette.

During the meeting Steve Creeden (the article mispells this "Creeton") hinted that LUS was not adverse to bringing fiber to areas outside the city. Huval at IEEE was also fairly direct about expansion when asked. Yes, the focus for now is on getting the network up in the city—but nobody is being coy about the eventual prospects for expansion. And that, in and of itself, represents a healthy maturation. The question is clearly on the table. Folks in the outlying districts should start getting their arguments together and start looking at those stimulus funds....there's a once-in-lifetime opportunity available to only a very few communities in the US staring you in the face.

The Fiber Availability Mailer

I know if I were out there I'd want details...so I scanned the mailer I got and am posting them below. What you see are index pics. Click on them to get the absurdly large images that I made for archival purposes.

Here's how the experience went for me: My wife brought in the mail, looked up smiling and said: "There's something here I think you'll want." One look told me she was right. (Layne's always right.)

What I got was a slim glossy mailer taped up on three sides; right there on the front it said: "Service is now available to you."


And on the back "LUS Fiber is here. Welcome to YOUR Future."

I slit it open with my trusty, rusty pocket knife and it unfolded to an 81/2 by 11 brochure. The cover was pretty dramatic but what caught my eye was the phrase "Waiting was the hard part." My sentiments exactly.


Setting aside the two black and white sheets of 12 point type found inside I found a double truck with a note from Terry Huval on the left hand page touting the technical quality and hometown services of the new network.


The right hand page laid out the advantages of the fiber network and gave five reasons to switch. Can't say as I paid much attention at first; I knew I was going to buy into the system. But they seem pretty sensible to me as I go back over it.


I wanted to sign up as soon as possible (natch) and scanned for that number Huval has been telling us we should only call after we get the notice in the mail. And there it was: 99-Fiber. My wife and I quickly poured over the details; we'd thought about what we wanted before; we were not going with one of the packages but wanted to get the various pieces at different levels and since we wouldn't be penalized for doing so by LUS it was easy to do without a lot of complex calculation or second guessing. We talked briefly and confirmed our choices with each other quickly. (Yes, she was ok with it if I indulged in the 50 megs symmetrical...you've heard smiles described as indulgent? Like that.) Here's what we looked at. Don't take it as current necessarily. As I understand it channels are still being added daily. But as an historical artifact...here you go:

Fiber Availability Mailer Appears!!

I'm thrilled to announce that at least one person has gotten his fiber announcement delivered through snail mail: ME!

Thrilled is not really the word. :-)

Look for the distinctive blue (Cyan, or pretty near) that dominates.

After you cut through the tape that holds it closed it'll unfold into a glossy brochure with two pages of inserts detailing the services and pricing offered.

At right are what mine looked like when I threw them down on the dining table to take these pics. Click on them to get a larger version.

The cover turns out to be the "newsflyer" I fell across via Google back in January...

"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.

Fiber Plans:Deployment, Tiers, Pricing, Digital Divide and More

LUS Fiber is here. Welcome to your future. That was the message as LUS director Terry Huval stood before the City-Parish Council and laid out the near-term deployment plan and the basic products that will be offered by the new community-owned network. Joey Durel, in his introduction, took visible pride in the system, saying that they had under-promised and over-delivered—something which he's a bit paradoxically claimed was his startegy from the start. If that was the plan; they've met their goal. The network's first offering of services is more than I'd have said possible or likely when we were first thinking about it. —But not more than I and others fought for as ideas about the community's network matured. (One of the huge advantages of owning your own network is that you can make suggestions, fight for them and sometimes help open the door to new directions. Local, public ownership, frankly, is an innovation as important as any technology to LUS' success.) It's a world-class network that we're building. We've every reason to be proud.

I'm goining to hit the highlights here but if you want to see the goods for yourself visit the LCG Auditorium channel at ustream.tv and watch the archived video there.

As always, the LUS presentation was tightly and logically structured: Huval broke the power point into news about the rollout & construction, pricing, unique features, and customer service.

Rollout & Construction
First and foremost, the January date for lighting up the first customers is holding. Just who, when, and how many remains vague but the system will launch with paying customers next month.

Fiber will rollout first at the two ends of the "phase 1" area building out from fiber huts—"hubs"— located on the grounds of the power substations at each end of the build area. The first customers will apparently be signed up in the area around the Acadiana Mall at the southwest end of the build area and those in the Northeastern segment served by the "PEC" substation will also start seeing availability. (See my Google map, or LUS's version to get an ideaof the geography involved.)



click in to examine your neighborhood or View Larger Map

When fiber becomes available on your street every address will get a nifty piece of mail announcing: "LUS Fiber is here. Welcome to your future" reversed out of a light blue background. Watch closely for that distinctive piece of mail. And then call.

Pricing & Tiers
The big announcement today was was the service plans and prices. The short story is that more-for-20%-less promise is being kept. And in some situations it MUCH more.

Here's a list of the pricing bundles. In some ways it's misleading to call it a bundle since bundle's usually mean some complicated formula for discounting the price of the services if you buy an approved bundle. LUS' packages won't work like that. There will be no penalty for mixing and matching service levels like there are in the incumbent's bundles. All the service are offered for a single straightforward discounted price. Clean and simple and easy to understand. And no attempts to entice you into spending more for service levels you don't really want in order to get a price break for something you do want. (Why? Hint: you're being treated with the respect accorded an owner.) So you could order the top tier internet and the cheapest Video and Phone, or NO video and phone, without penalty.

VIP (Video, Internet, & Phone, get it?)

Video: expanded basic: more than 80 channels $39.95
Internet: 10 Mbps Up and down. $28. 95
Phone with services: 15.95

VIP Silver

Video: over 250 channels incld High Def $63.31
Internet: 30 Mbps Up and down. $44. 95
Phone with a long list of services & 5 cents a minute long distance: 28.95

VIP Gold

Video: over 250 channels incld High Def plus Premium Movie suits $98.09
Internet: 50 Mbps Up and down. $57.95 (wow)
Phone with a long list of services & unlimited long distance: 43.95

More for less. —Now some will try to point to the cheapo bundles that Cox is already offering (and for whose existence you can thank the threat of competition) but those aren't "real" prices, lock you into a set of services for a year or more that you might not want, isn't customizeable, and is a LOT less product. How much for an internet tier to compare with LUS' 30 or 50 meg tiers? There really is no similar product from Cox or AT&T. For value the LUS prices can't be beat considering the number of channels or speed of the offering. But there is no truly cheap, low end offering. Cox offers a 768 kbps thing they call "high speed internet" for goodness sakes. That's cheaper than LUS' 13 times faster 10 meg low tier...but not, I think, much of a value. Of course, LUS really low price for internet is access free...and probably works at at least 768 Kbps—see below.

Unique Features: Digital Divide & 100 Mbps Intranet
These are the bragging points—and pretty impressive they are too...taken together I think they are truly unique to Lafayette.

LUS' response to the Digital Divide question is to enable the internet capacities of their digital set top box. Using a limited browser a user will be able to read email and do basic web surfing on their TV. And Lafayette is going to do it For Free. There is not surer way to get folks online than to package it into their cable service. Once the rollout is complete Lafayette will inevitably become the most connected city in the nation. Technically, at least. Now helping folks use that capacity fruitfully is a whole 'nother matter. And properly something the community shold pitch into to do. (Any takers?)

The 100 Mbps intranet has been discussed on these pages for a long time. Suffice it to say that any regular customer will have access to blinding 100 meg speed over the internal community intranet. Want to download the 6 hours of one of those interminable contensious council meeting? In HD? No problem. It will come down in a flash. Video telephony. Shuttling those huge files will become trivially easy—if only inside our net. That will encourage businesses and tech-oriented citizens to locate inside the city...which might do more to encorage "smart growth" than any suggestion I have heard to date.

Customer Service
There'll be two customer service centers down the road. The customer service people—both in the buildings and on the streets—will be your neighbors.

And....
Finally, I'd have to say that LUS didn't talk about one of the greatest features of our network: the money you spend on LUS, the money that gets you more for less, will stay here in Lafayette and won't be shipped off to some high rise in San Antonio or Atlanta.

Frankly, it's all we asked for initally and more...it's fiber to the home with its near-infinite expandability. It's cheap. It will be offered to every last person and business in the area. We will own it and can do with it what we like — and both the 100 mbps intranet and the digital divide initiative are the products of local folks pushing for them and evidence that community ownership can make a huge difference right off the bat. Sure there's more that I can hope for and fight for now. But on this day to have all the hopes that we held back in 04 realized is enough...It's amazing. A dream realized.