Broadband Bytes for 2014-07-04

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5 Responses to Broadband Bytes for 2014-07-04

  1. Mike says:

    Somehow I missed this earlier in the week:

    (from the DNews article):
    Monday’s vote does not commit UTOPIA to accepting Macquarie’s proposal, he said, but instead allows for cities to proceed with more information. But cities participating in Milestone 2 are also subject to greater exit costs if the deal with Macquarie is ultimately abandoned.
    ——–

    Does this mean that cities that voted not to proceed with Milestone 2, could still reverse course and vote to proceed with Milestone 3 without ill effect? I know Jesse has said that cities could “opt back in” later, but that paragraph seems to imply that since the UTOPIA board is proceeding, then cities like Payson are getting a free ride through milestone 2 (which sounds suspiciously like what Payson has been doing for the last few years). Did Payson’s representative even bother to show up to cast the vote directed by the city council?

    • Jesse says:

      Cities who didn’t move forward with MS2 can opt back in, but they will still have to come up with the money in escrow for the final report and it will likely be more expensive and/or delayed since they are not acting as a large group anymore. There will be no more free rides and cities will likely get bills for their share of opex by the end of the year.

      • Ronald D. Hunt says:

        I would think the largest cost would come from a separate bonding phase, if the cities opt back in before MS3’s bonding occurs, it will still cost them more, but perhaps not as much as it otherwise would.

  2. Mike Porter says:

    Jesse do you expect (or know/have heard) if that bill will include past amounts? Specifically for payson (not sure if any other cities are in this boat) you’ve mentioned that they haven’t paid their share of the opex for a while now. I know I looked at the budget they were proposing, and there’s only bond payments allocated, with nothing for opex. That doesn’t make me too optimistic.

    • Jesse says:

      I don’t know for sure one way or the other, but I’d be surprised if it didn’t. UTOPIA can’t afford to just write that off.

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