Given the high costs of deploying fiber to the home, we're starting to see new models emerge whereby if customers really want it, they can share the cost of having it installed (one Norwegian ISP gives a $400 rebate if you dig your own fiber trench). Now Utopia, the nation's largest municipal fiber deployment, is testing a new model whereby communities who want the fiber deployed can share the cost of installation. As more Utah cities look to connect to Utopia but debate how they should pay for it, Brigham City has decided that if users want fiber they can pay for it themselves. 1,600 local residents have already ponied up $3,000 a piece, helping the city install a $5.5 million network while the city itself only puts up about $700,000 of the required cost.

Wisconsin-based TDS Telecom (see our user reviews) today announced that the company will soon launch 50 Mbps downstream and 20 upstream upstream fiber service in Monticello, Minnesota. According to the company, the service will cost customers $64.95/month when bundled with local phone service.

Telephony Online explores how two Louisiana fiber to the home outfits are forcing local cable operators to lower prices, something that rarely happens (especially with cable TV) when cable operators are simply facing competition from the local phone company. Cox has frozen the cable rates in Lafayette, after the city deployed incredibly well-priced fiber to the home service early this year. "We figured our citizens saved over $3 million in cable rates even before we could offer them service," says Lafayette Terry Huval. Of course if the local incumbent operator is willing to take a local loss in order to drive these carriers out of business, the fun won't last long.

Back in 2006, the 5,500-resident town of Powell, Wyoming decided to spend $4.9 million on a private-public (no taxpayer risk) fiber network. According to the project pricing sheet, the outfit is offering a 10Mbps/5Mbps tier for $42.45 standalone, $39.95 when bundled with voice or TV, or $35.95 when bundled with both VoIP and TV service.

For many years we've tracked Chattanooga, Tennessee's attempt to wire the entire city with fiber to the home using the local public utility, Electric Power Board (EPB). Back in 2007, the city council voted 8-0 to approve the $200 million project, and despite two failed attempts by cable industry lawyers, the plan is moving forward. The EFB is now offering somewhat pricey (at least when compared to municipal fiber in Lafayette) symmetrical tiers of 15 Mbps ($58), 20 Mbps ($70) and 50 Mbps ($175), in addition to phone and TV bundles. According to Business Tennessee, the now well-weathered debate over the project continues, though EFB continues to insist that 2,600 new jobs will be created in the Greater Chattanooga area as the project evolves.

We've well-documented how Fairpoint Communications has all-but imploded from the acquisition of Verizon's Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont DSL networks. The carrier has skirted close to bankruptcy, faces state investigations for incompetence, and is now looking at a possible delisting by the NYSE.

According to the St. Louis Business Journal, the State of Missouri is looking to drastically ramp up fiber penetration in the State while using the first round of Federal broadband stimulus money.. The MoBroadbandNow project is using public-private partnerships to build a fiber-optic broadband backbone that will connect "every cluster of 50 or more dwellings," anchored by schools and municipal buildings. The State is now screening private-sector applicants, which can apply via e-mail at transform.broadbandinterested@mo.gov. As Telephony Online notes, such private-public partnerships increase the chance of being chosen by the broadband stimulus fairy.

The Minnesota State Supreme Court has given the Minnesota city of Monticello the green light to deploy its own broadband, according to the Pioneer Press. The plan, which will run fiber connections to every home and business, was opposed by local phone company TDS Telecom. The project is funded with $26 million in revenue bonds backed by investors, not taxpayers. "The lack of judicial action on the part of the Supreme Court will likely discourage other private enterprises from doing or expanding their business in Minnesota," said Drew Peterson, director of legislative affairs for TDS. In reality, we've often seen local incumbents offer better services at lower prices when faced with municipally-driven competition.

Starting next month, the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga will begin offering Fiber to the Home-based internet, television and telephone service to select neighborhoods -- and it should available to their entire service area next year according to the Chattanoogan. There's still no word on pricing for the service, but the project's website insists they'll offer symmetrical 10-50Mbps broadband at prices that are 5-15% lower that standard local market prices. As with most of these types of projects, local incumbents (in this case Comcast) tried to tie the project up in court.

As we've frequently discussed, a broadband mapping organization by the name of Connected Nation stands to grab a huge chunk of the government's new $300 million budget set aside for broadband mapping. But consumer advocates believe the group is little more than a front organization for giant carriers like AT&T and Verizon -- tasked with over-inflating broadband penetration numbers to make carriers look good and keep government regulation at bay.

We've frequently discussed how AT&T and Verizon have lobbied hard to pass laws that strip video authority from towns and cities, under the premise of speeding up telcoTV deployment and promoting competition. Unfortunately, many of these bills are little more than rubber-stamped wish lists for the carriers that erode eminent domain rights, strip all authority from local government, eliminate consumer protections and gut public access funding.

UTOPIA, the largest municipal fiber to the home deployment anywhere, has announced that the operation is now offering "the first symmetrical, non-shared 100 Mbps fiber-optic Internet connection in the United States." Technically that's not true, since Wilson, North Carolina has been offering unshared 100Mbps symmetrical service since last summer, and Lafayette, Louisiana offers 100Mbps symmetrical connectivity between users of their fiber to the home service. Still, the price is nice: the tier is being offered through a company called FuzeCore for $147.00 a month.

Instead of competing, Time Warner Cable is pushing for legislation that would cripple community broadband efforts in North Carolina. According to city officials, the new law, crafted by lobbyists, would bog the city's FTTH service down in restrictions and prohibit them from using broadband stimulus funds.

We've discussed how regional incumbents are busy trying to crush community developed broadband in Wilson, North Carolina -- where the city has started offering consumers symmetrical fiber service up to 100Mbps. According to the city of Wilson blog, local incumbents are busy "push polling," or polling local residents with skewed questions designed to sway opinion.

On Tuesday we mentioned how Time Warner Cable is lobbying to crush community deployed fiber service in Wilson, North Carolina. These lobbying efforts, which have been going on for years, normally don't garner much attention from the gadget and Steve Jobs obsessed technology media, but that's changed.

The city of Wilson, North Carolina launched a $28 million municipal broadband operation named Greenlight last year, offering symmetrical speeds up to 100Mbps -- far surpassing the best local incumbents Embarq and Time Warner Cable have to offer. Embarq and Time Warner Cable did what any carrier in a government-protected duopoly would do: they began a several year campaign to lobby state legislators to not only pass laws that would effectively cripple or ban such operations, but also prohibit this community from getting access to broadband stimulus funds. In response, local city officials have launched a new website and FAQ arguing against the bills. This IndyWeek report on the Wilson network is a must read, and notes the city went first to Time Warner and Embarq to build the network, but they refused.

Australia's government has announced plans to build a A$43 billion ($31 billion) national fiber network. The network will be built under the banner of a completely new private/public company -- after the government rejected bids from a number of companies because they "failed to offer value for money." The build will use the cooperation of private enterprise -- and on an interesting note -- the Australian government says they'll sell their ownership stake in the company five years after the network is completed. The network, which will operate under a wholesale-only, open access basis, should take 7-8 years to complete.

Incumbent phone and cable companies have spent years successfully lobbying state lawmakers to pass laws banning towns and cities from wiring themselves -- even in cases where incumbents wouldn't. The laws, usually written by incumbent lawyers, were passed in more than a dozen states without much public debate -- though momentum slowed in recent years due to media attention and consumer advocacy opposition.

• Australia's Blacklisted Hyperlinks to Cost Webmasters $11,000 a Day [maximumpc.com]
• Recession Isn't Holding Back Mobile Broadband Subscribers [cellular-news.com]
• Telus to invest $500-million to improve B.C. broadband [theglobeandmail.com]
• AT&T takes smart grids residential [telephonyonline.com]
• Is BT losing its bottle on Phorm? [pcpro.co.uk]
• CEA: Cable Should Rely On Common Downloadable-Security Scheme [multichannel.com]
• Irish ISPs Point Out They're Under No Obligation To Follow Three Strikes Policy [siliconrepublic.com]
• Discovery sues Amazon over Kindle patent infringement; won't seek to stop sales [cellular-news.com]

For years, incumbent phone and cable companies were lobbying state lawmakers to pass laws banning towns and cities from wiring themselves with broadband, even in cases where incumbents wouldn't wire them because they weren't deemed profitable. The goal for the nation's largest carriers was to have their cake and eat it too: they wouldn't have to take on the high ROI of deploying into under-served areas, but they wouldn't have to worry about competing with local projects if they someday decided they wanted to.