Fri 3 Oct 2008
The name of the game is frustration. Residents in Brigham City are eager to see UTOPIA get deployed, but they’re a bit sour on the Real Soon Now(TM) deployment date, one they’ve heard and seen missed before. Many aren’t going to wait around forever, instead going for cable modem, DSL and even wireless or cellular connections to sate their high-speed cravings. Some have even gone so far as to use ISDN to move away from dial-up connections.
The problem is the uncertainty. Without certainty of a specific date and location of deployment, residents are willing to sign lengthy contracts with existing providers instead of holding out for UTOPIA service sometime in the future. I’m personally confident that Brigham and neighboring Perry will see the first homes and businesses lit by year’s end. That means little to residents that want to support UTOPIA but feel as if they have been left in the dark for far too long. There’s also still lingering questions on what the install fees will be, if any. Qwest and Comcast hammered UTOPIA on the possibility and that leaves residents spooked.
Still, it’s encouraging to see that residents are supportive of UTOPIA and are eager to see it come to town. What it will take now is walking the walk, hooking up services to subscribers, in order to win over the city.
October 3rd, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Seems like these are not new issues. They are things we have discussed on this list…many times!
UTOPIA’s failure to communicate construction info?
UTOPIA’s failure to share their plan for install fees?
September ended with no significant new installs for UTOPIA. As each day goes by with no significant number of installs is more that are needed the following days.
It sounds like you might expect October and November to also have no real install activity….not good news for the number.
October 4th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Agreed.
It’s difficult when I’m speaking with the Senators and Representatives in the State Capitol about it. I of course mention that it’s pretty damn difficult when these companies keep suing Utopia but from the sounds of it the Judge tossed it out and they won’t be coming back with any further lawsuits.
Guess we’ll see on that front.
As for the construction, the West Jordan city council is waiting for Utopia to meet any of their promises whether it’s finances or construction. They see another iProvo brewing despite the differences.
If Utopia could be more forthcoming and meet some of their milestones it would go a long way when I meet with these people.
Speaking of which, I’m spending some time writing letters with Senators/Representatives in the Fed about the problem of the Internet. I”m at the point now where I’m most likely to vote for anyone who’s not running for the Republicans or Democrats unless they change their party stance on the Internet.
Non interference has brought us these problems while other countries are now making the Internet a basic service along with water, power and electricity.
At this rate I may move to Europe
October 20th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Is there a link to the U-CAN report? For that matter, is there a canonical source for annual and/or quarterly reports from UTOPIA? I’d like to look at some of the numbers, and haven’t been able to find the information from some non-trivial Googling about.
October 20th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
if you want that you will have to file a GRAMA request, though about filing myself but haven’t gotten around to it yet, maybe after midterms at college are over.
October 20th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Official numbers are as rare as hen’s teeth.
The best I’ve found are actually from the Utah Taxpayers Association report on the UTOPIA audit that was done last year.
Some city council minutes also contain a bit of useful information here and there. I too have done considerable Googling.
I’m not sure a GRAMA request would get you what you want either. I suspect UTOPIA would fight to keep their “Secret Society” secret. Claiming reporting numbers would put them at a competitive disadvantage (and reporting some info would do so), but not everything they have elected not to share with the public.
I have likely been their most vocal critic of them failing to share information. Set goals and report progress toward those goals.
I am amazed that no official representative from one of the cities with tens of millions at risk has pressed the point.
In the past the cities did not provide proper oversight and some were shocked to find UTOPIA had spent much more and gotten much less that expected. In my opinion to give them even more money without increasing the level of public scrutiny is very poor management of the project.
October 21st, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I really am not worried about weather or not utopia will be able to pay their bond payments(i don’t think they will pull it off). I am worried about weather of not they are going to get all the fiber turned on in the city’s where they starting laying it out but never finished, Layton is going to be out 55million dollars(more with bond interest) and not have a single strand of lite fiber to show for it. I hear that they are spending a couple hundred installs worth of money on some sort of advertisement bus!?!? record keeping has been so poor they had to send personal out to phase 2 city’s to figure out where they actually had conduit and fiber already pulled, they just layed off several workers, and we still have no solid information on what is going on.