What started out as The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) in 2004 has now become one of the most promising success stories for the open access model in the industry. The original 11 cities that teamed together to form the inter-local entity are part of a group of 16 municipalities that enjoy fiber-to-the-premises service.
Utopia is a network/ ISP open access service and fiber service in areas near Salt Lake City, and at one time made a proposal to the Las Cruces City Council for a similar open access fiber to the home system here, in 2006/2007.
Such was supported by organizations like The High Tech Consortium of Southern NM and some who would go on to start PSA. Perhaps it was ahead of its time for those in power who didn’t feel comfortable taking the large financial risks of being in the tech avant-garde. Las Cruces meanwhile has yet to achieve what Utopia promised was doable.
In any event, we learn here that the Utopia model has been alive and well in the interim, a good 16 years since their Las Cruces presentation.
Kudos to Richard Lowenberg and Its Mile NM for the link.
's Pioneering with Open Access