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Utah consumers interested in getting ultrahigh-speed Internet service may no longer have to wait for the financially struggling Utopia network to keep its promises.
Qwest Communications International Inc., as part of a $300 million company-wide initiative, this year plans to invest millions of dollars to beef up its Wasatch Front network by running fiber-optic lines to many of the neighborhoods it serves.
The technology, known as "fiber-to-the-node," initially will provide Internet users with speeds of up to 20 megabytes per second, and eventually 40 Mb/s, said Jerry Fenn, who oversees Qwest's operation in Utah as its president.
Qwest later this month will reveal how much it intends to spend in Utah and where the new service will be available, he said.
Service providers on the fledgling Utopia network now typically offer speeds of 15 Mb/s to 50 Mb/s, although much faster connections are possible.
"We're planning to have this [fiber-to-the-node technology] available to over 200,000 homes and businesses in Utah by the end of the year," Fenn said, indicating the footprint will be expanded as customer demand grows.
Unlike fiber-to-the-home networks that bring fiber-optic connections directly to dwellings, fiber-to-the-node brings the fiber optics just to a central neighborhood location. Connections to individual homes are through copper wires with speeds varying depending on the distances the home is from the neighborhood node.
"Just four years ago hardly anyone would have thought it possible that we could achieve these kinds of speeds using our existing twisted copper pairs," Fenn said. "Since then, new [data] compression technology has made it possible."
Qwest's decision to launch its company-wide fiber-to-the-node initiative is part of a telecommunications industry-wide trend to bring fiber-optic connections as close to homes and businesses as possible.
"Some companies, such as AT&T, are making business choices to bring fiber to neighborhoods while others like Verizon are taking it all the way to the home," said David St. John of the nonprofit Fiber-to-the-Home Council.
The decision basically comes down to a judgement call, he said. "All of those companies are looking into the future and doing their best to decide what their customers and future technology are going to demand from their systems."
Acknowledging that he has a bias toward fiber-to-the-home deployment, St. John said as technology evolves it is demanding "bigger, better and faster" connections. He said companies going with the less expensive fiber-to-the-node options eventually may have to revisit their decisions.
Yet Fenn said Qwest, in deciding to go with the fiber-to-the-node, is responding to the demands of its customers.
"We've said all along that we not pursuing a 'Field of Dreams' strategy," Fenn said, referring to the movie in which an Iowa farmer plows up his cornfield and builds a baseball diamond under the theory that if he builds it, customers will come.
Fenn said prices for Qwest's high-speed Internet services will be competitive.
XMission, a Salt Lake City-based Internet service provider, charges its customers $40 a month for a 15 Mb/s connection over the Utopia network where it is available. It charges $55 a month for a 50 Mb/s connection though for that particular service it requires customers sign a one-year contract.
"At the end of the day it [Qwest's fiber-to-the-node] is still going to pale to what is available over Utopia," said Warren Woodward, who manages broadband services at XMission. "In those areas where Utopia is available, I don't see it being much of a [competitive] threat."
XMission uses both Qwest's and Utopia's network to serve its customers.
The UTOPIA network was born in 2002 amid a sense of frustration by some Utah community leaders that the state's private telecommunication providers such as Qwest were too slow in bringing high-speed Internet and other broadband services to their cities.
In all, 11 Utah municipalities pledged to financially back the construction of a state-of-the-art fiber-optic system that could serve all the homes and businesses within their boundaries. Yet four years after construction began, the Utopia network has yet to be deployed as promised and is losing money.
Fenn looks upon his announcement that Qwest is ready to deploy fiber-to-the-node technology with a sense of vindication.
"They [Utopia's promoters] said private industry wouldn't provide the speed and wouldn't provide the services that were needed," he said. But "we're here providing serves as the market demands."
Qwest's fiber-to-the-node initiative
What does it do?
* It will offer ultra high-speed Internet connections initially to 200,000 Utah homes and businesses.
When and where will it be available?
* It will be available by the end of the year. Later this month Qwest will reveal where the new service will be offered.
How fast will it be compared to Utopia's network?
* Qwest: Initially up to 20 megabytes per second, later 40 Mb/s.
* Utopia: Currently from 15 Mb/s to 50 Mb/s, although faster speeds are possible.