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wholesale model (0.00 / 0)

Paul,
Perhaps you'll permit me to ask you a question about UTOPIA.  The question is a basic one:  can you earn a return on your investment by only providing wholesale service? John

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by: John Windhausen @ Fri Jul 27, 2007 at 18:09:07 PM CDT

Investment and ROI. (0.00 / 0)

John,

Excellent question!

I would like to the know what the average cost to connect a user on the Utopia project is as well as OPEX for each user on a monthly basis.

Thanks,

Ken

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by: Ken DiPietro @ Fri Jul 27, 2007 at 18:12:08 PM CDT

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wholesale model (0.00 / 0)

I think that can be a real challenge for a private sector company to get an adequate ROI based on the wholesale payments. But we are a governmental entity and our ROI is economic development. We don't need an ROI. What we want is a return of our investment. In other words, we would like sufficient revenues to pay the opex and debt service but we don't need to make a "profit."

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by: Paul Morris @ Fri Jul 27, 2007 at 18:15:50 PM CDT

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wholesale/retail (0.00 / 0)

Paul,
Some telecom providers maintain that they can only generate a return by providing retail service to consumers.  But I can think of a few examples (Level3, British Telecom) that seem to be doing quite well providing only wholesale access.  I wonder whether UTOPIA fits that description of an entity that can operate quite well under a wholesale-only model?
John

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by: John Windhausen @ Fri Jul 27, 2007 at 18:23:11 PM CDT

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wholesale/retail (0.00 / 0)

Those type of wholesale companies are long haul/medium haul wholesale providers. We are a last mile solution. That is when it gets expensive. My sense is that it would be a challenge for those companies to run fiber passed every home and business and reap a return in the timeframe they would want on a wholesale basis only.

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by: Paul Morris @ Fri Jul 27, 2007 at 18:34:32 PM CDT

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