UTOPIA places initial order of Minerva Networks' IP television platform to deploy "triple play" services over largest FTTH network in the United States

Fiber Optics Weekly Update, Sept 17, 2004

Minerva Networks announced that UTOPIA (Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency), the largest municipal fiber-to-the-premise project in the country, has placed its initial order of its iTVManager service management platform to offer advanced video services to subscribers in fourteen Utah cities. The services will include interactive television, video-on-demand (VOD), and eventually broadcast-quality video telephony and "always-on" video monitoring. Video monitoring will allow elderly and disabled people who wish to live independently to be constantly monitored by caregivers.

The new service will be first made available to 50,000 households in the cities of Murray, West Valley City, and Midvale in Salt Lake County, and Orem, Payson, and Lindon in Utah County. The broadcast television feeds for the UTOPIA network will be sourced via a fiber connection from the City of Provo's Video Headend, featuring Minerva encoding technology.

The project is expected to take three years to build at an estimated cost of $300 million. The network will utilize a patent-pending Open Service Provider Network (OSPN) model, developed by DynamicCity Inc., who assisted in arranging the financing and is managing the construction as well as the operations of the network. The OSPN model keeps network ownership separate from the service providers, enabling several competing service providers to simultaneously offer triple-play services.

"Minerva iTVManager supports the OSPN model and provides superior performance, scalability and ease of use enabling service providers to equitably compete with their enhanced video services," said Jeff Fishburn, DynamicCity's Chief Technology Officer. "The result is a unique interactive television experience for the end-users."

For more information, go to www.utopianet.org