Archive for April, 2008
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
UTOPIA Rebonding: Midvale, Lindon, Tremonton, West Valley All Say Yea
The news is out: four of the seven cities approved the new UTOPIA bonds at city council meetings last night while 3 city councils opted to delay their decision. Orem will meet again on May 2 to further discuss the matter and Centerville delayed their final decision until April 29. While Payson has been [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in News by Jesse
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
BREAKING: Midvale Approves Rebonding, Payson Rejects It
I attended the Midvale city council meeting tonight and the city council unanimously approved the new bonds for UTOPIA by a 5-0 vote, much to the dismay of many of those in attendance. I know I was somewhat ambiguous about the new bonds but after the presentation by Kirk Sudwicks (?), I knew they had [...]
6 Comments » - Posted in Cheers, Jeers, News by Jesse
Monday, April 21st, 2008
iProvo’s Blue-Ribbon Panel Unveiled
Provo's Municipal Council has decided that they want to take a fresh look at iProvo on their own. To that end, they've setup a blue-ribbon panel of elected officials and local businessmen to evaluate the just-released consultant's reports from CCG and Franklin Court. The list of members reads like a who's who of Utah [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
UTOPIA’s New Model: Kill It to Save It?
The news is out: UTOPIA is undergoing some radical changes in the near future as it copes with lower than expected take rates and cash flow issues. What kind of changes you might ask? For starters, it's going to concentrate new deployments only on areas where a large number of users will commit to service. [...]
10 Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
Provo to Create an iProvo Committee
The Provo City Council plans to discuss a resolution appointing members of a committee to review matters related to iProvo at their meeting on Tuesday April 22. If you won't be busy at one of the many UTOPIA-related meetings that day, drop by the council chambers at 351 W Center St around 5:30PM to provide [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
Public Meetings for UTOPIA Re-Bonding Announced
I've received the following schedule for city council meetings regarding the UTOPIA re-bonding. If you live in these cities, it is vitally important that you show up at these hearings to voice your support for UTOPIA. The schedule is as follows:
Brigham City: Thursday April 24 at 7PM, 20 North Main, Brigham City 84302
Centerville: Tuesday [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Friday, April 11th, 2008
Evaluating Qwest’s “Price for Life” Program (hint: It Sucks)
I've noticed a few random web surfers coming by looking for information on Qwest's heavily-advertised "Price for Life" program for DSL and thought I should let them know what exactly they're getting into. On the surface, it seems like a great idea: you guarantee that your price won't increase for as long as you have [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Essays, Jeers by Jesse
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
From the FUD Department: Qwest’s Fiber Pipe Dreams
Get your Reality Distortion Fields ready: the Salt Lake Tribune reports that Qwest is planning on building fiber. Despite the catchy headline, it looks like this plan is a lot of smoke and no fire. Qwest plans to build a FTTN network capable of 20Mbps by the end of the year at a cost of [...]
5 Comments » - Posted in Jeers, News by Jesse
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
Do or Die: iProvo May Be Cut Off By the City Council
According to a source familiar with Provo politics, the city council will not extend any further funding to iProvo from this year's budget to cover bond payments. The city's fiber optic network has been experiencing steady losses as revenues have failed to completely cover the bond payments. When combined with the failure to fill up [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in News by Jesse
Monday, April 7th, 2008
More Details on UTOPIA’s Build Progress
A surprisingly accurate story from the Deseret Morning News (no, really) reveals further details on UTOPIA's current build progress. Here's a list of the current completion per city:
Lindon: 95-99%
Payson: 95-99%
Tremonton: 95-99%
Perry: 50%
Orem: 50%
Murrary: 50%
Midvale: 40%
Brigham City: 33%
Centerville: 25%
Layton: 15%
West Valley City: 15%
We also get some more critical details on the financial picture. With [...]
