Sunday, November 21, 2004
Even more J.O.B.S. in Lafayette, Louisiana
In Lafayette, Louisiana, municipal utility company Lafayette Utilities System (LUS) is planning to install fiber to the city's 55,000 homes -- and do it at prices so reasonable that even the town's poor can afford it.
The [Baton Rouge, Louisiana] Advocate reports:
Advocates of the LUS plan argued that when BellSouth and Cox targeted 30% penetration, that this was an indication that they would cherry-pick the most profitable neighborhoods and curtail its investment in the rest of the town. LUS is planning on signing up at least 50% of the homes and businesses in town.
The Lafayette City Council last Tuesday it voted 8-1 to go ahead with the LUS plan. One City Council member said:
The [Baton Rouge, Louisiana] Advocate reports:
"A lower-income family that has phone and cable service today, could start receiving high-speed Internet at no net increase in monthly cost," [LUS Director Terry] Huval said.Ed Gubbins at Telephony Online reports:
BellSouth and Cox Communications [are] contentiously lobbying residents that municipal FTTP is too risky and unproven. (LUS supporters say those companies even used “push polls” to scare taxpayers away from supporting the project. Cox and BellSouth declined to comment for this story.)Cox scrambled to draw up a telephony over cable plan, and BellSouth said, "Wait, wait!" and prepared a plan for fiber to the curb plus DSL. But FTTH Council President Michael DiMauro commented on the plan, "Fiber to the curb is not fiber to the home."
Advocates of the LUS plan argued that when BellSouth and Cox targeted 30% penetration, that this was an indication that they would cherry-pick the most profitable neighborhoods and curtail its investment in the rest of the town. LUS is planning on signing up at least 50% of the homes and businesses in town.
The Lafayette City Council last Tuesday it voted 8-1 to go ahead with the LUS plan. One City Council member said:
"This is about controlling our own destiny. This is not being at the mercy of anybody else."Here's the link to the LUS Fiber Project website.
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