Dane DeValcourt

It really sucks but I think I have to stop myself from caring and being curious about the LUS Fiber project out here in Lafayette.  Seems anytime I ask a question or make a comment about anything related to it certain people feel I am doing so in a negative way towards LUS.  I think many believe I am some how trying to defend my employer which hasn’t really been my intent.

It sucks because its only one or two people that do this but man they are vocal.  They are drunk on the LUS fiber koolaid and if you say anything that they may take to be a slight against LUS they will rant about it.

I have said it before I am NOT against fiber.  LUS maybe, not fond of government getting into private enterprise.  I am also NOT a cheerleader for my employer.  Is fiber technically better than a cable provider?  Yes technically it is, I would be lying to deny that.  Is fiber to homes needed?  Thats very questionable and up for debate.  It’s one of those debates though that no one can truly answer.  No one knows what technological advances will be made tomorrow or 10 years from now, so we dont know for certain.

These people can’t let me be a citizen of Lafayette who is interested in the technology or the business.  Nope I am simply an employee of a competitor and thats it.  They can’t look past that.

I look back now and I dont even know why I cared enough to ask questions or comment on things.  Like anything I said mattered or would make a difference to anyone.  And yet I did and I let a couple of people get to me.  They make things personal and I go and get concerned about what they have to say as if they got on the 6′oclock news and said bad things about me.  Stupid me.

The fact is very few people listen to or care about them and what they have to say either.  They think they are talking for a city when in fact they are talking for such a small percentage of people who actually care and keep up with this stuff.

No the LUS fiber system is not perfect, yes I can point out the flaws in either the network design or their marketing.  Yes they are feeding a lot of bull to people and over exaggerate things.  No cable providers are not perfect, have many more network flaws and marketing snafus and over exaggerate way more in my opinion.

So there they all have issues, they all think they are right and the other is wrong.  NONE of them can provide what they advertise all the time, yes they ALL oversubscribe their service its the nature of the business.

Yes I am still worried about how the failure of the project will impact us citizens.  Yes I think that these people are wrong about the way the harshly criticize incumbents about practices and principles which LUS is going to and is doing themselves.  Just because its fiber and the bandwidth is bigger does not exclude LUS from the same criticism if the principles or practices are the same.  Example of what I mean is oversubscription.  Don’t tell me its wrong of a competitor to oversubscribe, but immediately after defend another because they have a bigger pipe?

Its also funny how they criticize the competitors for not offering these higher speeds they claim they need and yet can’t identify one real application that is going to truly take advantage of it.  AND even better is they proceed to tell me that I know no one will ever really use up all that bandwidth they are offering.  If no one is “NEVER, EVER” going to be able to use it all then why have it even?

It’s really funny when you think about what most of these people are ultimately going to use their bandwidth for.  Youtube.  Yep, they need it to watch funny videos of laughing babies or crazy cats.  Maybe some porn, and surely some pirated movies and music.

Another pointless point to make is how I think its so funny that these PRO fiber folk rant about how the citizens passed this whole thing with an “overwhelming” majority.  Seriously?  74,000 registered voters and 12,500 votes for it is some how an overwhelming majority?

Like I said its pointless to make that comment now but if I am being honest it is something that has always bothered me.

And another issue I have is how when its convenient for LUS to say it we are the “owners” of the system.  But ask any question you would think an “owner” should be able to ask and nada.  It sounds good to say I will give them that but don’t actually try to take them up on it.

I guess if anyone reads this rant they are going to say I am surely being biased and siding with my employer.  No way that someone who doesn’t work for a competitor would say all of this stuff.  No amount of me saying that is really not it is going to change how others view this.

So… there I have laid most of my issues out there.  No one cares.  And after this I don’t care either.  I WILL NOT make one more comment or question regarding any of this again.  I am done.  I can’t keep getting frustrated with the fact that others are simply full of spite and hate and need someone or someplace to take it out on.  I can’t care how people feel about me or my employer because well if I did I would constantly be consumed with worrying about it.

To each his own they say right? You can’t please everyone?  There is always going to be someone with nothing else better to do then to berate others to make themselves feel good.  And there is always going to be those who complain just to complain.  Working in IT for almost 15 years now I know its rare to ever hear about the good things you do, you only hear from people when they have an issue or complaint.

The End… time to free myself and my mind and my worries from all of this.

Well it looks like Huval and Durel tried to sneak some announcements in regarding the LUS fiber pricing at tonights council meeting.  I suppose this short notice was an attempt to keep the incumbents from being on hand.  I also believe the only reason they announced the pricing tonight was because of the recent questions and concerns by the citizens over recent articles where Huval was very vague and basically hiding info and not being up front to the citizens of this city.  They “Durel and Huval” took a lot of flak in the comments for these various articles by the citizens who feel that both Durel and Huval seem to forget they work for the citizens of this city and that they are public servants.  These guys run things like a business (which can sometimes be a good thing) but they are very secretive and keep things from the public too often.

Anyway, I got wind of that they were making this pricing announcement tonight and so I tuned in and documented everything I could.  I posted everything as quickly as I could to LFT411.com and Twitter to reach as many people as possible.  It was nice to scoop The Advertiser and provide more details then what they did on their website.  Simple pleasures I know.

Here are the basics:

VIP (Video, Internet and Phone) – This is what LUS is calling things.  Personally I do kinda like this better than the “Triple Play” or “Bundle” that everyone else calls it.

Basic VIP –  Total $84.85  (Does not include taxes and fees)
80 Channels – $39.95
10 Mbps (up/down) – $28.95
Phone $15.95 and .05 min LD (Basic Features)

VIP Silver – $137.21 (Does not include taxes and fees)
250 Channels – $63.31
30 Mbps (up/down) – $44.95
Phone w/ extra features – $28.95

VIP Gold – $199.99 (Does not include taxes and fees)
250 Channels and Includes HD and Premium Movie Channels (Suites) 45+ HD? – $98.09
50 Mbps (up/down) – $57.95
Phone with Unlimited LD – $43.95

 

They also announced some business fiber internet plans:

Business Internet Plans:

10 Mbps – $64.95

 50 Mbps – $119.95

 100Mbps – $199.95

They rushed through things pretty quickly, I did record it (video) and could provide that but its not very good quality and hard to read the power point presentation.

Many people commented else where that they were more interested in the “A La Carte” pricing for TV services.  Well what they don’t know is that LUS stated (Huval) at the CampFiber event that they will not be able to offer “A La Carte” the content providers make this impossible with how they negotiate contracts, same thing the incumbents have been saying for some time but no one believes them because they are just after money, at least now that LUS is saying this people will finally understand that most of the incumbents have their hands tied in what they can and cant do by the content providers

I happen to be reading the latest “Independent” today and came across an article about the whole LUS fiber project.  LUS is still being very silent about the whole architecture and service offerings and what not.  I have to admit this is a bit upsetting to me as a geek and a citizen.  I hate when government hides stuff from the people and isn’t transparent about things.  Apparently they get to do this some how because of some stupid law that excludes them for some reason.

Anyway, the article sums it all up and is a decent read if you have any interest in this project at all.  I warn you though its going to leave you wanting more and so I started looking for more based on the little bit we know about the project.

First here is the link to the article - http://www.theind.com/content/view/3592/1/

Ok, so we know LUS is using an Alcatel-Lucent solution.  I have already posted a few things about that and what I suspect they will be using.  We also know they plan to have the “triple play” as every service provider wants to call it these days.  We also know that the box that will be in the subscribers home will have the ability to surf the internet on the TV, and that caller ID will be able to show up on the TV.

So, I started googling and checking out the Alcatel-Lucent site to see what I could find.  It’s important to note that this is purely done in my own interest to better understand what LUS has cookin.  I am fascinated with all things related to networking and particularly this project since its happening in my backyard and affects me as does everyone else in Lafayette.  Also, I do not know with any certainty any actual specifics other than what I have previously mentioned in this post.

Ok, first stop is this page about the Alcatel-Lucent Triple Play Service Delievery Architecture.  Good info but not what I am really looking for.

Well what are you looking for?  I think for me the most intriguing part of the whole LUS project has to be the set top box that they will be using?  This is to me is going to be the most significant part of the whole thing.  I know I know.. everyone else is talking about the bandwidth and especially the peer to peer aspect but really for me I am a bit underwhelmed with all that.  I know that I simply have no need for it.  I rarely download movies or music to be honest.  And there just isn’t an application “yet” that would push me to really need it.  I am quite content with what I have strangely enough.

Back to this set top box.  Why I think this box will be important is that its going to have an integrated web browser.  My understanding is that subscribers who simply sign up for TV service would still be able to surf the internet on this thing for free.  Sure it will be pretty limited in what it can do for an integrated appliance browser.  But this can be a huge deal in that it may introduce people to the internet who have never before had the opportunity or the need to justify paying for a computer and internet access.

This would go a long way towards bridging that digital divide and would be a significant advantage over the various competitors.

There are so many set top manufactures that one cannot really even begin to guess what has been selected.

I started out by googling “alcatel ftth set top web browser” and well I guickly realized that it does not appear that Alcatel currently makes a set top box.  There was some info though about a company “ANT Software Limited” that they seem to partner with on this vary topic.  Seems this ANT Software makes a browser for set top boxes that utilize the Alcatel-Lucent solution.

http://www.antlimited.com/ant_galio_browser.asp?menu=153

http://www.antlimited.com/pr_061005.asp

As I kept digging I also came across something that was simply interesting and new to me.  I was looking at various Motorola set top boxes for IPTV solutions and learned about this “Microsoft Mediaroom”  http://www.microsoftmediaroom.com  which until now I hadn’t heard about.

Apparently the Microsoft Mediaroom is what is driving the AT&T U-verse boxes.  It’s pretty cool to say the least but nothing in the demos show anything about a web browser which I found to be absurd for Microsoft.   They again they did miss the boat early on when it came to the internet so it figures they would miss it on this too.  I kid I kid

The ironic part about the Microsoft Mediaroom and it lacking a web browser it seems is when you read a whitepaper MS put out back in 2004 about IP Set Top boxes.  In that paper they even talk about “superior browsing capabilities” on a set top box back in 2004!  They never cease to surprise me.

So with all this I still am no where closer to knowing anything about the set top box in question.  Maybe I should go stake out the LUS headend and possibly do some dumpster diving!  They did mention in the article about boxes in dumpster, seems the Independent was almost asking someone to do this very thing.  If the dumpster is within a caged area might have to wait for the dump truck to come empty it and follow the dump truck. 

Who am I kidding, I am to old and tired to do that anymore.  :-)