Wed 11 Jun 2008
Centerville is taking a proactive role in making sure UTOPIA's health stays under close watch by forming an advisory committee composed of both residents and city officials. The city council is currently accepting applications from residents who are interested in participating and the word on the street is that three will be chosen to help provide feedback on UTOPIA and participate in promotional efforts. If you're interested in serving on the committee, contact your city council member. If you don't get selected, there's still going to be plenty of opportunities through U-CAN.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:08 am
My advice to any/all advisory committees: Watch the money. Make sure it is only being spent where absolutely necessary. Utopia doesn’t have the luxury of using money for anything but the essential now. Squeeze the current investment as much as possible and don’t spend any more than absolutely necessary until it can prove through it’s merits that it is making enough money for further build-outs.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:10 am
Utopia still has a great chance to succeed if it is managed well. We are counting on you Todd Marriot and others. A successful Utopia network could revolutionize the way broadband and related services are delivered in this country and hold telecom incumbents’ feet to the fire. We have a unique opportunity, let’s not squander it.
June 12th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I was surprised to hear that they’d only be pulling $11M out of the deal. You’re absolutely right that it’s going to take some very cinched belts for that money to last two years. I imagine that’s why they want to encourage a word-of-mouth campaign and guerrilla marketing efforts.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:10 am
I also think they should encourage the providers to do some heavy advertising. Utopia makes TONS of sense for businesses, especially any of those currently using T-1’s or other dedicated services. It’s both light years faster and a lot cheaper. As soon as Utopia is available in parts of Layton, I’ll be ready to start signing up businesses!
By the way, I was talking to another business owner today that was searching for a good city in Utah to put his business in, he settled in Murray BECAUSE of Utopia.
June 15th, 2008 at 11:52 am
i think utopia has completely understated the size of their stranded investments, they probly dont need much more then 11 million and they have set up their bond so they wont pay the interest for 2 years meaning after their stranded investments are turned on all the money made above their operational break even can be reinvested during that period of time.