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March 26, 2005
UTOPIA makes it to the masses
Had an experience this week which brought UTOPIA back to mind.
My family is generally much less-technical than I am. But during a family get-together tonight two siblings announced that they had signed up for UTOPIA broadband (voice and cable TV coming in a couple of months), and they were excited to get rid of Comcast at last. They live in Orem so they are some of the first to get UTOPIA. Comcast had been in their neighborhoods announcing a special rate for one year (Comcast must be expecting UTOPIA to fail quickly, or people to forget quickly), but my family was more interested in asking Comcast about why that hadn't been the rate all along, and giving Comcast the boot (after giving them a piece of their minds).
What's interesting is that in spite of all of the controversy surrounding UTOPIA in years past, the general concensus (by people who I believe represent the general population much more than I do) was that UTOPIA was an idea that should have been realized a long time ago, but thank goodness it was available now.
With the recent activities happening in the telecom industry (AT&T and MCI/Worldcom bought up by RBOCs, Qwest on the verge of bankruptcy, competitive carriers gone or on their way out, '96 Telecom Act all but gutted, etc), I think Utah will quickly find itself very fortunate to have UTOPIA as an alternative.
Posted by pete at 11:36 PM | Comments (1)
March 24, 2005
Signs you're living in a big city (Salt Lake)
First Salt Lake got the Olympics
And to support the Olympics (and future needs), a light-rail system called TRAX was built
Today while riding the train, I had my first experience in Salt Lake with someone on the train asking for donations for their next meal (I had no change, sorry)
I will not be surprised when someone (usually deaf or mute) walks through the train handing out trinkets for sale, then collects them before the next stop from anyone not interested in buying
(If you've ridden the subway in larger cities, you know what I'm talking about).
Posted by pete at 10:31 AM | Comments (1)