Young people in the 18 to 34 age group continue to ignore traditional cable and satellite TV packages in favor of Internet-based Over The Top (OTT) packages like Netflix and Hulu, among others. With ESPN and HBO joining the OTT revolution, cable and satellite TV are dead, dead, dead, as live sports and specialty programs (think HBO offerings like the hugely popular Sopranos) are now available without that bloated and over-priced cable TV subscription.

The cable companies response to losing market share has been to simply switch their tired old "annual rate increase" strategy to their Internet package, while trying to cram more bandwidth onto the creaky old 20th century copper coax cable.

We have a different strategy: Build modern fiber networks and operate them as a Local Transport Provider (LTP). We are separating the infrastructure from the services completely, which opens the local network up to multiple providers and hundreds of commodity and niche services--customers pick and choose the provider and the services they want. It's called shopping for the best product at the best price. Cable TV and telephone companies are offering the 1950s Soviet economy style of business: "One product, take it or leave it, and we'll tell you what you are going to pay us."

Old model: command economy run by the giant incumbent companies with mediocre service.

New model: free market economy where the customers decides what they want to buy and how much they want to pay.

How can we do that? It's simple. The key concept is the switch to understanding the local network as the Local Transport Provider, completely separate from the Service Provider. We are unbundling the network, completely and unequivocally, which was the original goal of the 1984 and 1996 Telecom Acts.

Trust me...it's finally here, and we are revolutionizing broadband.

Welcome to the world where the Local Transport Provider puts customers first.

Thanks to everyone in the Deer Run and Indian Run neighborhoods who have already filled out a survey! We still need more responses, and if possible would like to hear from as many as possible, even if you say "No" to fiber right now.

People are asking, "What is the next step?"

Once we are reasonably certain we have heard from most of you in a neighborhood (or as many as seems reasonable), we will organize a neighborhood meeting so we can tell you more about our plans and how we would go about building the fiber out in your neighborhood. We will hold the neighborhood meetings in our offices in Blacksburg on a weekday in the early evening--we know folks are busy, and want to make it as easy as possible for you to get the information you need to make a decision.

Thanks again for the enthusiastic response, and be sure to tell your friends and neighbors.

Best regards,
Andrew Cohill
Manager and Founder, Blacksburg Broadband LLC

Welcome to WideOpen Blacksburg! Our goal is to bring Gigabit fiber to Blacksburg area homes and businesses.

We are building a multi-provider, multi-service network.

What does that mean?

• Multi-provider means that you will have a choice of providers on the network. As the WideOpen Blacksburg subscriber base grows, we will add more providers offering a wide range of services and price points for both residential and business customers.
• Multi-service means lots of services, not the just the old, tired "triple play" of telephone, TV, and Internet. Our goal is have not just super-fast Internet, but affordable voice telephone options, great support for the new generation of video services like Netflix, Hulu, Roku and other TV options, but a wide range of other services, including telehealth services to help lower the cost of your healthcare, data back up services to give you safe online storage of business data and those important family pictures and videos. We will bring affordable home security services to the network, and many other services.

Right now, BizNet Technologies is joining the network, and as we begin hooking up neighborhoods, we will be adding more providers and more services.

Want super-fast Internet in your neighborhood? Take the survey and let us know.