Utah is in the midst of a broadband arms race, and Utah consumers stand to benefit from the battle.
Qwest Communications, Comcast Corp., wireless providers and dozens of smaller competitors that include many of the state's 14 rural telephone companies are spending millions to deliver ever-faster Internet connections.
Those investments mark a level of competitiveness unimaginable only a few years ago when even the fastest connections were excruciatingly slow. The capital spending is occurring at a time when the Federal Communications Commission is considering overhauling the nation's broadband policy, ostensibly to make it easier and more affordable for Americans to access the Internet at high speeds.
"People are hungry for faster connections," said Pieter Poll, chief technology officer at Denver-based Qwest Communications. "Our goal is to deploy the right technology at the right time so we can provide the speeds our customers want, when they need it."
Demand is being driven by a host of new products and applications. They include streaming video services such as Netflix and Hulu.com, live online conferencing and increased business-to-business data transmission, all of which eat up the bandwidth available over land line and wireless networks.
The FCC's broadband plan, which was mandated by last year's stimulus bill, is being designed to offer a road map for bringing additional high-speed Internet access to Americans who don't have it and to dramatically increase speeds for those who do.
Mobile broadband arms race » Yet even as federal regulators are talking the talk, wireless providers such as Sprint and Verizon already are planning to launch their 4G next-generation networks in Utah that hold out the promise of bringing land-line speeds to mobile devices.
"If there is a broadband arms race going on (in the wireless arena), then we are way ahead," said Sprint spokesman Dave Mellin.
Sprint said last week its advanced 4G network, which will offer download speeds of up to 10 million bits of data per second, or 10 Mbps, will be launched in Salt Lake City later this year.
"We're offering 4G service that is up to 10 times faster than the existing 3G networks in 27 markets right now," Mellin said. He went on to describe Sprint as the "first national wireless carrier to actually test, launch and market 4G technology."
Verizon Wireless invested more than $21 million in Utah last year, part of $370 million it invested in the state since the company's founding a decade ago. Its goal is to ensure that its existing 3G network can smoothly handle the increased demands being placed upon it by its customers, even as it prepares for the future.
"Our customers are texting, e-mailing, downloading music, visiting Web sites with embedded videos and sharing pictures at a record pace," said spokesman Bob Kelly. "And all that activity just chews up the bandwidth."
Not to be outdone, Verizon also is moving toward rolling out its own 4G wireless network that it anticipates will cover its nationwide 3G footprint by the end of 2013. AT&T also is in the race, having announced a year ago it will begin trials of its 4G network this year with plans to begin deployment in 2011.
Qwest's Poll pointed to a couple of his company's initiatives. On the one hand, Qwest is expanding its existing high-speed Internet network in Utah that allows its customers to access connection speeds up to 40 Mbps. It also is working closely with the state's wireless providers to run fiber-optic lines to their cell towers.
The fiber lines enable wireless providers to use Qwest's land-line network for data transmission when needed. "We're doing a lot of (information) backhaul for them," he said.
Encouraging adoption » In addition to increasing access in unserved areas, the FCC's plan also is designed to encourage more people who already have access to tap into available broadband services. It hopes that 90 percent of the population will eventually adopt and use the high-speed technology.
About two-thirds of U.S. households have high-speed Internet access today. Most of the other third could get broadband but chose not to buy it, either because they think it's too expensive or because they don't see the need for it.
"We like the FCC's plan to the point where they want to encourage access for the 5 percent of the nation's population who don't now have broadband available to them," said Anne Veigle, spokeswoman for the U.S. Telecom Association, which represents phone and cable TV companies.
Veigle pointed to FCC data that estimates 200 million Americans had broadband connections in 2009, up from 8 million in 2000. "Broadband investment is occurring at an extremely rapid pace, and it is the private sector that is stepping up."
And Utah consumers are benefiting from the competition for broadband supremacy.
Comcast feeds the need for speed » Comcast in December launched a 50 Mbps product available in most of its Utah service territory at a cost of around $112 a month. For those who do not feel the need for that much speed, the cable company doubled the download speeds for many of its existing customers at no extra cost.
Utahns who subscribed to the company's 6 Mbps service saw their download speeds double and their upload speeds double to 2 Mbps. Those who paid for 8 Mbps saw an increase in speed to 16 mbps, although their upload speeds remained the same, at 2 Mbps. And Utahns with 16 Mbps saw the download speeds of their connection jump to 22 Mbps, while their upload speeds increased from 2 Mbps to 5 Mbps.
Using Comcast's new 50 Mbps service, which is known as Extreme 50, a user can download a 6 gigabit, high-definition movie in 16 minutes or a 2 gigabit standard-definition move in five minutes. At 12 Mbps it would take a little over an hour to download the high-definition move and about 22 minutes for the standard-definition film.
Comcast's Extreme 50 product is based on the cable industry's Docsis 3.0 modem technology.
"Docsis 3.0 eventually will allow us to offer download speeds up to 160 Mbps," said Comcast spokesman Ray Child. "It is a technology that will allow us to offer new benefits to our customers, which is what competition in this industry is all about."
Tech savvy in rural Utah » Even Utah's rural telephone companies, which serve more than 96,000 customers over 80 percent of the geographical area of the state, are in the broadband race, having armed themselves with the some of the latest technology.
"We're years ahead of the game," said Chuck McCown, president and CEO of Beehive Telephone. He estimated that about 5 percent of Beehive's 7,000 customers have a fiber-optic connection, but more are added on a regular basis.
Beehive has a standing offer to its customers, McCown said. "If they can get six of their neighbors within a quarter mile of one another to commit to fiber-optic service, then we'll build a line to the area."
Although Beehive charges around $750 as a connection fee, McCown said the company will reduce that amount by half if the customer digs his or her own trench for the fiber-optic line that runs from the street to their home. "We also give them a $50 credit for each year that they have been a customer of our high-speed wireless network."
McCown said all of the rural phone companies in Utah are making similar efforts.
"We compete in the Tooele Valley right along with Qwest and Comcast, and between us the people living in that area can get about any kind of service they want. But unlike Qwest and Comcast, we invest almost every penny we make back into our company."
The financially struggling Utopia system, short for Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, now typically offers speeds of 15 Mbps to 50 Mbps both up and down, although much faster connections are possible. Utopia, a consortium of 11 Utah cities that have pledged millions to back bonds for the development of a fiber-optic network in their communities, only claims around 13,000 customers and its network is available only in limited areas.
