Layton Languishing: No New UTOPIA Construction for 1-2 Years

I received word from a reader that an engineer with Layton City has indicated that new UTOPIA construction in the city will be on hold for at least a year, possibly as long as two years. That’s right, up to two years without the men in work boots, that’s is going to retard progress. The existing fiber will be served, but new installs will now entirely depend on either developers or members of a special assessment area to foot the bill. The city blames the slow economy and lack of federal funding for the halt in construction. Given that the first tranches of broadband stimulus funding from the feds is meant for rural and underserved areas, I wouldn’t count on any federal assistance to get things moving anytime soon.

(h/t: Dan Langford)

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9 Responses to Layton Languishing: No New UTOPIA Construction for 1-2 Years

  1. Anon says:

    Call me a pessimist, but I’d be shocked to see any construction in any UTOPIA cities within the next 5 years, unless it is funded by an SAA or stimulus money. I moved into a UTOPIA city 2 years ago with the understanding that construction was progressing and eventually my entire city would be served. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been any construction anywhere in my city since then, and from the looks of things, construction is on hold indefinitely since there is no money to pay for it. I’m crossing my fingers that UTOPIA will pull a rabbit out of the hat, but if they do, it’ll be a complete surprise to me.

  2. luminous says:

    Jesse could you ask your contacts if in the area’s with stranded assets would the sign on rate required to execute an SAA be lower?

    Anon Utopia got screwed by the bond market crash, It is rather amazing that they are doing as well as they are. But I sadly don’t think your statements are being pessimistic franky I think that is the reality of the situation.

  3. Bill says:

    Internet3 project.
    Is a Public-Private initiative to roll out Exa/Peta Scale high performing networks. The primary fiber route will pass very near to UTOPIA project. We send a invitation to Utopia official to evaluate this project for the benefits of Utopia, until now no answer.
    We offer the same basic principle Utopia was created. Open Access Our Proposal is to connect the Consortium for two(2) mayor International Gateway one in Santa Clara, CA and the other one in Miami, FL. One those IG we called marketplace resident connected to utopia can choose from a variety of Service and content provider physical based on those marketplace.

    We are waiting for Utopia official for a least evaluate our proposal.

  4. Capt. Video says:

    The list is out and UTOPIA has asked for $57,433,588 in stimulus money.

    http://www.ntia.doc.gov/broadbandgrants/applications/search.cfm

    By far the largest request in Utah.

    On a related note, UTOPIA made a presentation to Lehi City trying to get them to allow UTOPIA to use the power company conduits and poles and proposing to build in Lehi with no contribution from the city.

    They would do the Special Assessment District plan….asking residents to pay ($3000+ over some 20 years?)and get a discounted rate on the service. Details on the web site suggest that the triple play would be slightly cheaper than other providers?

    Lehi is considering it!

    I have always been very skeptical of this plan attracting much support from home owners. Given similar services are already available to most home-owners via Comcast/Qwest who would lock themselves in for 20 years (or any long term binding contract).

    Of course you would be taking a BIG gamble betting that they would still be providing service in 20 years.

  5. Capt. Video says:

    Layton is one of the cities covered (mentioned by name) in the UTOPIA stimulus money requests.

    UTOPIA has filed 3 separate requests for money.

    $10.5 million
    $13 million
    and
    $34 million

  6. Anon says:

    Sorry to join the good Capt. with the thread hijacking. (Obviously not sorry enough not to do it though.)

    Here’s a link right to the three UTOPIA requests.

    I’m going to agree with previous posters that UTOPIA is unlikely to get any of these since the areas they mention are not rural and are probably not underserved by their definition.

  7. Jonathan says:

    I see the short descriptions. How are you guys seeing the details of the submissions?

  8. Capt. Video says:

    I’m sorry if I caused the confusion by adding a number of different topics in the same post. (My bad!)

    I’m not seeing any detail on the government stimulus web site.

    I’m seeing the $3000 install fee and 20 year pay back on the UTOPIA site when talking about Brigham City.

    The UTOPIA Lehi City proposal is not on any web site. That’s word of mouth from an inside source.

  9. Jonathan says:

    It’s ok I just saw this line “Layton is one of the cities covered (mentioned by name) in the UTOPIA stimulus money requests” and wondered what link I missed on the site.

    Seems like there was another commenter that said a similar thing but I can’t find that comment. Must have been a different thread.

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