Light the Fiber: UTOPIA Available in Tremonton

Good news for those that haven’t heard yet: UTOPIA service is now available in Tremonton. Both XMission and Nuvont are selling services and the word on the street is that the install fees are rock-bottom (under $60). If you’ve been waiting for UTOPIA in Tremonton, wait no more!

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13 Responses to Light the Fiber: UTOPIA Available in Tremonton

  1. Capt. Video says:

    This is good news!

    Congratulation to UTOPIA for bringing Tremonton on line.

  2. Me says:

    Why isn’t MSTAR selling services there?

  3. Jesse says:

    As Capt. Video has kindly pointed out, they probably aren’t equipped to handle a 4-hour round-trip for each service call.

  4. Capt. Video says:

    That was just an educated guess on my part.

    If you do your own installs (as Mstar does), and have your office in Orem (as Mstar does), it might not be a good business decision to have (a small number of) customers in Tremonton?

    I’m guessing it could take 4 hours or more (in rush hour traffic) to make a round trip from Orem to Termonton? Each round trip would cost about $35-$40 in gas and $60-$80 in salary. That’s $95-$120 a trip. That’s what, 2-6 months free revenue from the customer?

    I’m guessing UTOPIA (let alone Mstar only) will not get enough customers in Tremonton (even when you add Brigham City?) to make locating a satellite office there cost effective for a service provider.

    Perhaps the other providers do not do their own installs, have offices in Salt Lake, or see the numbers differently? I suspect that video generates more service calls than phone (and perhaps data?) and requires more truck rolls to homes and Mstar is also the only provider offering video?

    But I could be way off and they perhaps made the decision for a number of other reasons?

  5. Capt. Video says:

    Has anyone heard if an actual install has been completed in Termonton?

    I appears it was released for sales, but that there were reports of some last minute tech issues to be resolved before the actual installs would begin?

    Anyone know if those issues have been resolved?

  6. Anonymous says:

    From what I hear, installs are going forward..the customer just has to wait for the technical issues to be resolved for their service to be ‘ up and running.’

  7. Capt. Video says:

    I think that would be a mistake.

    If you don’t complete the install by connecting the TV, phone and computer (oh, I forgot, they are not offering video so there is no TV in the package)….but that leaves customers to move their connection from their existing provider to the UTOPIA service.

    There sure could be some problems there and that would leave a bad first impression of UTOPIA services.

    I guess they could be running fiber to home and not doing the internal wiring and that would be good….other than the install should all be done in one visit to be more customer friendly. Not making them be home twice.

  8. Anonymous says:

    I can tell you that installs are starting to happen fast in Tremonton and the interesting thing is the fact that they look to be starting to sun out some of the installs again. Wasn’t this to expensive the first time out? The new management seems hell bent on falling on their face. Its like the 16 year old that refuses to learn from anyone else’s mistakes and must screw up over and over again before learning.

  9. luminous says:

    as far out of the way as tremonton is it would not suprise me if a sub contractor who was close to the city would be cheaper then utopia driving their installers from slc to tremontor every day.

  10. Capt. Video says:

    I think using sub contractors to manage the peaks of installations, particularly when a new area is opened, is likely good operating policy.

    If you staffed your installation dept. to handle the peak level of installs when a new area is opened or a special offer is made, that would give you too many installers in “normal” or “slow” times.

    “Best Practice” operating may suggest you staff for the “normal” (somewhat continuous) install level and contract out the additional installs at peak times.

    If you don’t do this you are either staffed too high for “normal” times or you make customers wait beyond the acceptable waiting time for an install. Additional revenue provided by an earlier connection date helps cover the cost of the contract labor.

    Of course it’s important to insure that all install teams are well trained, your staff or contractors (I see little difference between contractors and sub contractors…both are second choice to your own well trained, loyal in-house crews).

  11. Capt. Video says:

    So what is the UTOPIA goal in Tremonton?
    How many homes/business do the need to subscriber to be considered successful?

    Tremonton has about 1800 housing units.
    A 20% take rate would be 360 customers.
    25% would be 450 customers and a 30% take rate would be 540 customers.

    I’m still assuming that UTOPIA needs about 2000 new connects each and every month to have enough customers to cover the bond payment. So if they reached a 30% penetration (VERY GOOD!!) that would only be a little over 5 days of installs at a rate that would get them 2000 a month.

    Every month they fail to install 2000 new customers, it increases the number they need in each of the following months.

    I will be impressed with 400-500 installs in Tremonton. Since no service provider is offering triple play service, UTOPIA will need more customers to get the same amount of revenue. My 2000 sub a month number was assuming a good split between single, double and triple play customers.

    In previously issued DC/UTOPIA numbers, Tremonton was listed as the highest expected take rate (Lindon 2nd, Orem 5th). The projection was a maximum take rate of 92%, a likely take rate of 76% and a minimum take rate of 61%. UTOPIA’s original prediction was that 40% of customers would take the triple play service. That would be 1368 customers in Tremonton at the “likely” take rate and 547 of those taking triple play, including video.

    74% of the 362 businesses were listed as “likely” to take UTOPIA service.

    Wouldn’t it be nice if the “new” UTOPIA shared it’s projections so we could all tell if they are meeting their goals?

    Since I don’t have any more recent projections, I will have to judge their success based upon the numbers DC/UTOPIA had provided in the past. The numbers above.

    Likely: 268 businesses and 1368 residential
    Minimum: 134 businesses and 1098 residential

  12. Capt. Video says:

    UTOPIA (via Deseret News) reports 500 customers in Tremonton. I think that’s good, I’m actually impressed. It’s the upper range of what I thought they might get, while well below the original projection (see my post from Nov. 3rd above)

    While it’s not at a point where UTOPIA will be financially successful (not even close?) It seems they are adding about 150 new customers a month. Less than 10% of what I originally estimated they needed to install to avoid calling upon city money to pay the bonds in Oct. 2010. (I’m re-working my numbers based upon the budget and other financial info I found they reported to the State. I’ll release my latest estimates soon.)

    I expect that the take rate (now 5 months after launch) has settled at about 25% or so (I make it to be 23% but it could be as high as 28%?). NONE of these new customers are triple play, and it’s likely that most are single play(?)= lower revenue per sub.

    What is it, 19 months and counting until UTOPIA must pay the piper? I see Todd Marriott is now saying, “None of the cities have been called on to pay off UTOPIA’s debt, but there’s a chance that could happen. But those payments would likely be for a short run.”

    I would say it’s all but a sure thing that will happen and it might be for a longer run. But of course Todd would be in a MUCH better position than me to know, perhaps not in a better position to be open about it? But it’s nice to see UTOPIA is starting to come around to my admit what I’ve been saying all along. The cities will pay when the piper collects.

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