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Woods Cross to study fiber-optics

I sure wish Sandy would join up. Unfortunately, Sandy City has some leadership that is not very savvy when it comes to high-tech. It shows in things like its web site and a lack of foresight in not joining UTOPIA.

Maybe in the future. :-/

Woods Cross will be getting high speed broadband delivered by Wireless Beehive starting in October. They will give every resident and business 10.2 MBps. I already have them and it works much better than a comcast cable modem or dsl. I presume most of the folks in Woods Cross get good phone service from Qwest and the cell phone companies. TV can be had for free off the air or from directv and dish. What more do people need? UTOPIA seems like a boondoggle to me.

It will be impossible to get anything close to 10.2Mbps once you have to start sharing the wireless bandwidth with others. Your speeds will go down significantly as more customers are added to the wireless network. It will quickly become impossible to run any high-bandwidth application such as streaming video over your wireless connection.

Our appetite for bandwidth will tend to increase almost as quickly as it is made available to us. Makes much more sense to invest in infrastructure such as fiber optices that is capable of delivering what is needed for decades to come, rather than only looking at what is needed today. Fiber is the only solution. The private sector hasn't seemed willing to do it, so I commend Woods Cross and the others that have joined or are considering joining UTOPIA for their vision.

I'm in the Woods Cross area. Lots of new homes are going up in areas without much more then telephone service, and qwest and comcast are not willing to commit.

There are at least 3 wi-fi internet providers from private companies already in the area. Most homes are finding these servies work for them. But with so many people houses hooked up with wifi in such a small area I belive that there are bandwith and reliably issues.

I'm open to see the costs involved and would support the investment if there are benefits for the long team. I think Ken's on track to find out the best solution for our community.

Wireless versus Optical Fiber

Wireless is susceptible to interference. Fiber is not susceptible to interference.

Wireless requires line-of-sight or the signal degrades. Fiber can go around any number of corners without degrading the signal.

Wireless has range limitations. Fiber optics can carry a signal much farther without degradation.

Wireless has limitations for how much information can be transmitted. Since everyone shares the medium (the air) there are restrictions on how much of the medium you can use. Within one fiber strand is a private universe for communication on any number of frequencies. It has been said that all of the phone calls being made right now in the entire world could cross a single hair-thin optical fiber.

Wireless is an inherent broadcast medium. This means, everyone must listen while one person uses the medium. The more people that use wireless, the more you'll have to wait your turn. The Internet is point-to-point: one person talks to one other person. Fiber is inherently point-to-point.

UTOPIA fiber is already very superior. UTOPIA gives you a 100 megabit fiber connection to start, and they *can* give you a gigabit fiber connection. The only thing that limits this is the equipment, not the fiber.

I live in Woods Cross and use comcast currently. I used to have a fixed wireless connection and it was horrible. I would love to see Utopia approved in Woods Cross and other cities in Utah. As said before the technology is superior. Why shouldn't we be on the cutting edge? Why should we 'settle' for inferior service from wireless, or limited (port blocked) comcast, or barley availble (good luck qualifying) Qwest. Please write to your politician and support the decision to go with Utopia!