LUSFiber
Encyclopedia
LUSFiber is a municipally owned subsidiary of Lafayette Utilities System providing Cable Television
, Broadband Internet, and Telephone
services to the citizens of Lafayette, Louisiana
. It is notable for being the first municipally owned company providing Fiber-To-The-Home services in the state of Louisiana
, and one of the first municipally owned FTTH companies in the country.
technology. In 2002, after installing the system for their needs, they used the surplus fiber optic strands to provide wholesale service to hospitals, universities and the Lafayette Parish School System.
In 2003 during the campaign for City-Parish President, candidate Joey Durel expressed in a Chamber of Commerce debate with his opponent that he would not be in favor of LUS competing in the private sector. This statement was made on more than one occasion.
In 2004, the city announced its proposal for a municipal fiber network providing broadband internet, cable tv telephone services to the City of Lafayette. 70 percent of residents, and 80 percent of businesses responded positively to a market survey conducted by LUS. This was not a scientific poll. The questions asked and the raw results of the telephone poll were requested by interested parties in the public but were never released. The announcement of the project came within 4 months of Durel's inauguration, just one day after the closing of submission of new bills in the state legislature. This would presumably prevent a challenge in the state legislature by the incumbent phone and cable provider, as there are many laws on the books regulating phone and cable TV providers, but no laws regulating a local municipality entering such business sectors.
Representatives from the ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange Provider) Bellsouth
(now AT&T
) were able to lobby representatives in the legislature to modify an existing bill (since new bills could no longer be submitted) to establish rules that would allow some regulation over a municipal entity entering into telecommunications. Prior to this, there were no laws on the books preventing a municipal entity from subsidizing a telecom business with proceeds from a true monopoly utility system (such as the monopoly utility system operated by the City of Lafayette). This bill, negotiated between representatives from Bellsouth, Cox Communications
, LUS and reportedly Governor Kathleen Blanco
herself became the Local Government Fair Competition Act of 2004.
As per the requirements of Local Government Fair Competition Act (LGFCA), LUS conducted a Feasibility Study and presented the study in November of 2004. The Lafayette City-Parish Council voted to adopt the study and proceed with the sale of bonds by resolution in December of 2004 and opted to forgo a referendum. This resolution resulted in a petition for a referendum in January of 2005 and a subsequent lawsuit in February. The petition was conducted by a non-profit group calling themselves Fiber411.com. The group was founded by 3 citizens of Lafayette who spoke out at the public hearings against the Feasibility Study and later joined by other volunteers and concerned citizens. While some accused the group of being shills for Bellsouth and Cox, the three were of backgrounds in oil and gas leasing, home building and oilfield engineering respectively, had never met prior to November 2004 and had no ties to the communications industry nor local government.
The petition was participated in by members of Fiber411.com and community volunteers as well as volunteers from Bellsouth and Cox. The petition was highly contested by the administration and was ultimately not recognized as a valid petition. Fiber411.com, being a volunteer group, decided not to sue to enforce the petition due to lack of funds. Bellsouth filed suit over the petition and won. The decision was based on the judge's determination that the City had used the incorrect set of Louisiana State laws to seek sale of bonds that precluded a referendum mechanism. The district court decision further ruled that the petition used by Fiber411 was written to appeal to the correct set of state laws that the City should have been using. The City of Lafayette then had to decide if it would try again for to sell bonds with or without a referendum. The City decided to have a referendum.
The Council members of the City-Parish Government prior to 2005 had stated that they did not want a "media bloodbath" between the City and he incumbents and that was their reason to deny a referendum. In the end, the City of Lafayette spent undisclosed sums to host a series of "Town Hall" meetings where it actively promoted the Fiber project. Local Political Action Committees calling themselves LafayetteYes and LafayetteComingTogether made up largely of political allies of the Administration, consultants, etc. raised and spent over $300,000 for media campaigns. Fiber411.com spent approximately $10,000 and Bellsouth spent less than $5,000. Cox spent $0.00 on the campaign. As such, the media campaign was very one sided.
On July 16th, 2005, the proposal was put to a vote. In a low turnout special election, by a margin of 62% for and 38% against, the residents of Lafayette approved of the City's plan. The City's legal troubles weren't over however. In order to raise money for the project, the city had to borrow money through tax-exempt bonds. Again the state cable association and BellSouth sued Lafayette, alleging the bond ordinance didn't comply with state law. The suit was won by the city in district court but an appellate court panel ruled 3-0 that the City's ordinance to sell bonds violated the Local Government Fair Competition Act's requirement that the money to fund the fiber project must not be subsidized by funds from the existing utilities system.
Lafayette followed up the court loss with a new ordinance that amended the original. Two citizens of Lafayette sued (known as Elizabeth Naqui et al) as well as Bellsouth. Bellsouth inexplicably declined to pay court costs for submission of the suit and ended up dropping the suit. Naquin et al remained. LUS won in district court, but the appeals court again decided 3-0 that the City's ordinance violated the Local Government Fair Competition Act in a similar manner as the original ordinance, thereby allowing the City to illegally use funds from utilities customers to pay for services for telecom subscribers. This time the City appealed to the Louisiana State Supreme court. The high court decided that the appeals court's ruling to enjoin (prevent) the city from selling bonds was based on a brief that was filed too late. When the high court threw out this brief, the argument that had succeeded in appeals court was no longer allowed, and thus the state supreme court reversed the appeals court's decision. This allowed the City to proceed with the sale of the bonds to fund the project.
In 2007, Lafayette was finally able to start issuing bonds. Construction started in 2008 on the network, and the first customers were receiving service in February 2009.
services.
The company provides basic analog cable along with a digital
option. They offer HD TV
, DVR
, Video on demand
, and Pay-per-view
with the digital option. They also offer their TV Web Portal. The portal allows users limited access to the internet through the TV, without the use of a computer.
Broadband internet is provided to homes and businesses from 10Mbps to 100Mbps. The service is symmetrical, meaning the download and upload speeds are the same. Many current telecommunication companies provide asymmetrical speeds, having a high download speed and lower upload speed. LUS's fiber network also allows for peer-to-peer
transfers at speeds up to 100Mbps for all of its internet service customers.
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
, Broadband Internet, and Telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
services to the citizens of Lafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette, Louisiana
Lafayette is a city in and the parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States, on the Vermilion River. The population was 120,623 at the 2010 census...
. It is notable for being the first municipally owned company providing Fiber-To-The-Home services in the state of Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, and one of the first municipally owned FTTH companies in the country.
History
In the late 1990s, the Lafayette Utilities System (the municipally owned utilities company) needed to upgrade its outdated microwave system for connecting their substations. LUS chose to upgrade with Fiber OpticOptical fiber
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
technology. In 2002, after installing the system for their needs, they used the surplus fiber optic strands to provide wholesale service to hospitals, universities and the Lafayette Parish School System.
In 2003 during the campaign for City-Parish President, candidate Joey Durel expressed in a Chamber of Commerce debate with his opponent that he would not be in favor of LUS competing in the private sector. This statement was made on more than one occasion.
In 2004, the city announced its proposal for a municipal fiber network providing broadband internet, cable tv telephone services to the City of Lafayette. 70 percent of residents, and 80 percent of businesses responded positively to a market survey conducted by LUS. This was not a scientific poll. The questions asked and the raw results of the telephone poll were requested by interested parties in the public but were never released. The announcement of the project came within 4 months of Durel's inauguration, just one day after the closing of submission of new bills in the state legislature. This would presumably prevent a challenge in the state legislature by the incumbent phone and cable provider, as there are many laws on the books regulating phone and cable TV providers, but no laws regulating a local municipality entering such business sectors.
Representatives from the ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange Provider) Bellsouth
BellSouth
BellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...
(now AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
) were able to lobby representatives in the legislature to modify an existing bill (since new bills could no longer be submitted) to establish rules that would allow some regulation over a municipal entity entering into telecommunications. Prior to this, there were no laws on the books preventing a municipal entity from subsidizing a telecom business with proceeds from a true monopoly utility system (such as the monopoly utility system operated by the City of Lafayette). This bill, negotiated between representatives from Bellsouth, Cox Communications
Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a privately owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises providing digital cable television, telecommunications and wireless services in the United States...
, LUS and reportedly Governor Kathleen Blanco
Kathleen Blanco
Kathleen Babineaux Blanco was the 54th Governor of Louisiana, having served from January 2004 until January 2008. She was the first woman to be elected to the office of governor of Louisiana....
herself became the Local Government Fair Competition Act of 2004.
As per the requirements of Local Government Fair Competition Act (LGFCA), LUS conducted a Feasibility Study and presented the study in November of 2004. The Lafayette City-Parish Council voted to adopt the study and proceed with the sale of bonds by resolution in December of 2004 and opted to forgo a referendum. This resolution resulted in a petition for a referendum in January of 2005 and a subsequent lawsuit in February. The petition was conducted by a non-profit group calling themselves Fiber411.com. The group was founded by 3 citizens of Lafayette who spoke out at the public hearings against the Feasibility Study and later joined by other volunteers and concerned citizens. While some accused the group of being shills for Bellsouth and Cox, the three were of backgrounds in oil and gas leasing, home building and oilfield engineering respectively, had never met prior to November 2004 and had no ties to the communications industry nor local government.
The petition was participated in by members of Fiber411.com and community volunteers as well as volunteers from Bellsouth and Cox. The petition was highly contested by the administration and was ultimately not recognized as a valid petition. Fiber411.com, being a volunteer group, decided not to sue to enforce the petition due to lack of funds. Bellsouth filed suit over the petition and won. The decision was based on the judge's determination that the City had used the incorrect set of Louisiana State laws to seek sale of bonds that precluded a referendum mechanism. The district court decision further ruled that the petition used by Fiber411 was written to appeal to the correct set of state laws that the City should have been using. The City of Lafayette then had to decide if it would try again for to sell bonds with or without a referendum. The City decided to have a referendum.
The Council members of the City-Parish Government prior to 2005 had stated that they did not want a "media bloodbath" between the City and he incumbents and that was their reason to deny a referendum. In the end, the City of Lafayette spent undisclosed sums to host a series of "Town Hall" meetings where it actively promoted the Fiber project. Local Political Action Committees calling themselves LafayetteYes and LafayetteComingTogether made up largely of political allies of the Administration, consultants, etc. raised and spent over $300,000 for media campaigns. Fiber411.com spent approximately $10,000 and Bellsouth spent less than $5,000. Cox spent $0.00 on the campaign. As such, the media campaign was very one sided.
On July 16th, 2005, the proposal was put to a vote. In a low turnout special election, by a margin of 62% for and 38% against, the residents of Lafayette approved of the City's plan. The City's legal troubles weren't over however. In order to raise money for the project, the city had to borrow money through tax-exempt bonds. Again the state cable association and BellSouth sued Lafayette, alleging the bond ordinance didn't comply with state law. The suit was won by the city in district court but an appellate court panel ruled 3-0 that the City's ordinance to sell bonds violated the Local Government Fair Competition Act's requirement that the money to fund the fiber project must not be subsidized by funds from the existing utilities system.
Lafayette followed up the court loss with a new ordinance that amended the original. Two citizens of Lafayette sued (known as Elizabeth Naqui et al) as well as Bellsouth. Bellsouth inexplicably declined to pay court costs for submission of the suit and ended up dropping the suit. Naquin et al remained. LUS won in district court, but the appeals court again decided 3-0 that the City's ordinance violated the Local Government Fair Competition Act in a similar manner as the original ordinance, thereby allowing the City to illegally use funds from utilities customers to pay for services for telecom subscribers. This time the City appealed to the Louisiana State Supreme court. The high court decided that the appeals court's ruling to enjoin (prevent) the city from selling bonds was based on a brief that was filed too late. When the high court threw out this brief, the argument that had succeeded in appeals court was no longer allowed, and thus the state supreme court reversed the appeals court's decision. This allowed the City to proceed with the sale of the bonds to fund the project.
In 2007, Lafayette was finally able to start issuing bonds. Construction started in 2008 on the network, and the first customers were receiving service in February 2009.
Services
LUSFiber provides what it calls "VIP" service, Video, Internet, Phone Triple PlayTriple play (telecommunications)
In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning of two bandwidth-intensive services, high-speed Internet access and television, and a less bandwidth-demanding service, telephone, over a single broadband connection. Triple play focuses on a combined business...
services.
The company provides basic analog cable along with a digital
Digital cable
Digital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
option. They offer HD TV
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
, DVR
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
, Video on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
, and Pay-per-view
Pay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
with the digital option. They also offer their TV Web Portal. The portal allows users limited access to the internet through the TV, without the use of a computer.
Broadband internet is provided to homes and businesses from 10Mbps to 100Mbps. The service is symmetrical, meaning the download and upload speeds are the same. Many current telecommunication companies provide asymmetrical speeds, having a high download speed and lower upload speed. LUS's fiber network also allows for peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
transfers at speeds up to 100Mbps for all of its internet service customers.