How To Bring UTOPIA To Your City, the UIA Way
I had previously written about how to get UTOPIA where you live, but a lot has changed in the model since then. While the old model required you to convince the city to get on the hook for a significant chunk of change, the UIA model alleviates a lot of the risk. Many of the steps are the same, but the particulars are slightly different.
- Put together a strong proposal to make your case. Make a brief 5 to 10 minute presentation that explains how the UIA works (see post here) and why joining would be beneficial, then summarize those remarks in a 3-4 paragraph letter. Brevity is key, so stick to the main points and be prepared for questions. It’s better to have your arguments together first and then find someone to present them to. Don’t know where to start? I’m happy to help.
- Get organized. There’s strength in numbers, so make sure you start finding other people who want UTOPIA, especially in a concentrated area like a neighborhood or particular block. You’ll also want to get business owners and leaders on board since they often carry a disproportionate amount of weight in city government. If you want to lead an effort in your city, I’m happy to setup a subdomain (i.e. yourcity.freeutopia.org) for you to post on. You may also want to consider setting up a Facebook group or an email list (which I can also host).
- Identify city council members who would be interested. Look for those with a background in technology, research, real estate, or construction. They’ve likely had to work with sending or receiving large amounts of data that took forever to finish or can best understand why UTOPIA matters. Make contact with those most likely to support membership in UTOPIA before presenting to the city council as a whole. Don’t forget the try the mayor’s office while you’re at it.
- Ask for an agenda item at your next city council meeting. Believe it or not, you too can speak to the city council about whatever you want. Find out who’s in charge of city council agenda items in your city and ask them if you can do a presentation on UTOPIA. More often than not, you can get about 5-10 minutes to speak. I’ve managed to get a slot at a legislative committee hearing, so it’s not that big of a deal. Some cities hear about it so much that they limit any discussion on the matter. West Jordan, for example, will only have UTOPIA as an agenda item once a year. Find out when the last time was and try to plan appropriately.
- Be ready for an intense Q&A session. The city council will hammer you with financial questions. Make sure you’ve prepared to explain that the UIA assesses all costs of network construction to those who sign up for service, that the city will need to issue a bond for the money, and that no money is released until there is enough demand in a compact area to cover all costs of the bond plus some of the shared network costs. A city may also need to conduct a feasibility study on their dime to determine if sufficient demand exists. Above all, don’t be afraid to defer questions to a UTOPIA representative if you don’t know the specifics. Some Q&A sessions can last a half hour or longer depending on the council.
- Plan for follow-up presentations. Cities don’t jump into these things based on a single presentation no matter how slick it might be. Plan for future city council meetings as representatives from UTOPIA, Qwest/CenturyLink, Comcast, and the Utah Taxpayers Association may be invited. Make good use of the public comment periods and make sure as many supporters as possible do so as well.
- Above all, thank the council for their time. They’re pretty busy folks who are sacrificing as much time as you are to hear what you have to say. You’re also asking them to put some money (and their future election prospects) on the line. They need to know what you appreciate their hard work and sacrifice.
Still getting stuck? Feel free to e-mail me for help. I’m glad to put together and even conduct presentations to help spread UTOPIA as far as possible. I can also put you in touch with some representatives at UTOPIA who are happy to give your council members a tour of the facilities and provide their own presentations.
Hi
I live in Draper in a condo community that shares a 4 meg line between 104 units. Comcast is not an available option and Quest/Century link are only able to provide a 1.5 meg line to our units. I would love to approach the city counsel to bring faster speeds to Draper but I am not too familiar on how to gather the information you have suggested above. Has anyone else already contacted you about getting Utopia into Draper?
Thank you,
David
I would love to participate in bringing Utopia to South Jordan, UT. I will be moving to where there is limited Internet coverage and this will highly impact my productivity. Anyone else interested in bringing this to South Jordan?? Please let me know.
I’m not aware of much of a groundswell in either Draper or South Jordan. The most active people seem to be in Lehi, West Jordan, and Sandy.
Unfortunately I will be leaving Sandy. I’ll just hope that more South Jordan an Draper folks come out of the woodworks for Utopia. I foresee a sad, sad, Internet future with a 7mbs (if that) connection or worse, one from DirecTV or Hughes net. I currently have Comcast and hate to downgrade from 25mbs by that much. I work in IT, have a lot of devices on my network and also stream media frequently. We really should have Utopia in many more places by now, and I will support it wherever I can.
I am a resident of West Jordan. What can I do to help move this along?
The West Jordan city council allows UTOPIA to be brought up once a year as a courtesy. It’s kind of a tacit admission that 1) there’s a vocal groundswell of support and 2) the city would rather just ignore it. About the only way around that will be to talk to other people who want it and target one council member at a time. It takes ground game and time.
I have contacted one of the Utopia companies or 3 and they all say the same thing. We are 6 months from your neighborhood, so give us a call in 6 months. Six months pass and I call, the same response. Six months later I call and guess what the same response. The funny thing is the fiber line is 19 feet from my house, I measured it and guess what I can’t get it. Unless I pay a one time fee of $2700 to hook it up to my house. I would still have to pay the monthly fee to Utopia and the service provider. Meanwhile my local city council continues to approve more bond money to Utopia. So I continue to pay my taxes for a utility we are all being taxed on that we can never use.
Service providers aren’t always the best-equipped to provide estimates. It’s best to ask UTOPIA directly. They have an expanded customer service department to help handle those calls.
If you’re being quoted a one-time fee for hookup without the option to spread it over 10 or 20 years, it’s likely that your member city isn’t participating in the UIA. Something to consider with the install fee is that you can get a 50M/50M connection for just $35 per month once that’s paid. If you finance over 20 years, the total monthly cost is about a wash with what it has been. UTOPIA simply does not have the money to extend the network and hook up more homes which is why they have to, in one form or another, place the burden back on subscribers. The upside is that non-subscribers don’t have to pay to expand and extend the network.