Just today, Jeremy Neish, a Provo citizen, launched iProvoWorks.com to build a grass-roots advocacy network around the city's municipal fiber optic network. It appears to have some of the same goals that I have for FreeUTOPIA, yet it goes further to put together advertising materials and actively solicit new customers… Continue reading
Just moments ago, Centerville's City Council voted 3-2 to approve the new UTOPIA bonds, coming down to a "lesser of two evils" yes vote from Council Member Justin Allen, the swing vote on the council. The vote comes with conditions that Centerville reserves the right to reconsider based on how… Continue reading
The title pretty much says it all. Instead of a meeting closed to public comment, the Centerville City Council will accept additional public comment during tonight's meeting. If you're able to make it and speak in favor of UTOPIA, please do so!
I've received updated meeting times for the rescheduled UTOPIA meetings as follows: Brigham City: Thursday May 1 at 7PM Centerville: Tuesday April 29 at 7PM Murray: Monday May 5 at 6:30PM Orem: Friday May 2 at 9AM Payson: No re-vote The addresses should be the same as the prior meetings… Continue reading
The Murray Municipal Council voted 5-0 to table the final vote on the UTOPIA bonds until Monday May 5 at 6:30PM. The feeling is that they had a lot of information to process and needed additional time to come to a final decision. The audience was split pretty evenly between… Continue reading
I had the opportunity to attend the inaugural meeting of the iProvo Review Committee last Tuesday and walked away with more information than I knew what to do with. The Committee was kind enough to distrubute current figures for iProvo subscribers, information on municipal networks, and, best of all, a… Continue reading
Much has been made of Qwest's announcement that they're rolling out their new FTTN network in Utah, but the media has missed some critical points regarding the dark side of Qwest's plans. The first jaw-dropper is the sticker shock: $105/mo for 20Mbps/896Kbps DSL or $52/mo for 12Mbps/896Kbps DSL. Interestingly enough,… Continue reading
After almost 4 hours of public comment, the Layton city council approved the resolution authorizing the new UTOPIA bonds by a 1-vote margin. This was a battleground meeting, too: Qwest had the room stuffed with employees and sent Jerry Fenn, President of Qwest for Utah while the UTA sent their… Continue reading
There's some buzz in the Bloghive after yesterday's UTOPIA meetings: Luke Marrott reports on the meeting in Orem. Thad Van Ry at Woods Cross Citizen responds to Rep. Urquhart's post on UTOPIA. I'm expecting to see a lot more posts after the meetings tomorrow evening.
You know what? You're right. Cities shouldn't get the state to bail them out if UTOPIA calls their pledges. The key word here is if. To date, UTOPIA still hasn't used any tax money despite 18 months of construction delays from the Qwest lawsuit, being illegally obstructed from accessing utility… Continue reading