San Francisco is spending hundreds of millions to dig up the streets for a new sewer system, leaving some city officials wondering why they don't just lay fiber and get into the telecom business. As this San Francisco Examiner story explores, the construction is the perfect opportunity to upgrade the city's broadband infrastructure. Since they're already digging up the streets, Supervisor Tom Ammiano wonders why they shouldn't just get into the telecom game.

Naturally the idea is triggering the same debate we've seen in countless other regions. SBC spokesman John Britton claims that many muni-cities "have not been so happy with the results," stating that "What they would be doing is spending taxpayers' money to duplicate and compete with the same services that already exist in The City right now." Mike Jackman, head of the California Internet Service Providers Association, supports the push, opining that "Competition is a good thing," though "if you already own a monopoly it's not a good thing."

San Francisco planners have begun conducting a feasibility study to determine the appropriate course of action, and have begun eyeballing other municipal operations to quickly educate themselves. Of particular interest is municipal operations in Utah, where a multi-city network is set to begin construction in January.

At the heart of Utah's municipal push is The Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency, or UTOPIA, which was born in April of 2002 after the state declared municipal competition legal. Unlike San Francisco's efforts, Utopia was developed as a reaction to a lack of broadband deployment in the state, and is considerably broader in scope. The group is spearheading a massive effort to wire Salt Lake City and 17 surrounding cities together under one massive fiber umbrella.

When completed, the network should encompass nearly 250,000 households and 35,000 businesses, and could cost more than half a billion dollars to complete. Converge Network Digest has an excellent breakdown of both the legal and technical specifics on the massive project.