Less than 2 hours ago, Brigham City voted in favor of the new UTOPIA bonds with Ruth Jensen casting the lone dissenting vote. They made their vote conditional upon approval by the remaining two pledging member cities, Orem and Murray, in a move similar to Centerville. With this vote, UTOPIA… Continue reading
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
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
Watch your back, Qwest: XMission is getting in on the booming VoIP market. At $35/mo, it's comparable in price to the similar digital phone service from Comcast but without the poor customer service; the service is also a substantial discount compared to a similar offering from Qwest. It will also… Continue reading
I attended the Midvale city council meeting tonight and the city council unanimously approved the new bonds for UTOPIA by a 5-0 vote, much to the dismay of many of those in attendance. I know I was somewhat ambiguous about the new bonds but after the presentation by Kirk Sudwicks… Continue reading
A surprisingly accurate story from the Deseret Morning News (no, really) reveals further details on UTOPIA's current build progress. Here's a list of the current completion per city: Lindon: 95-99% Payson: 95-99% Tremonton: 95-99% Perry: 50% Orem: 50% Murrary: 50% Midvale: 40% Brigham City: 33% Centerville: 25% Layton: 15% West… Continue reading
After months of working with PacketFront, the company that acquired DynamicCity, UTOPIA has pulled back the curtain on their new plan and model. They plan to re-bond for a longer term (32 years instead of 20 years) with a lower interest rate, adding about $20M in cash to their reserves…. Continue reading
After the train wreck of sloppy reporting from The Tribune, it's nice to see a news article that, you know, gets the story right. The Clipper has rightfully pointed out that cities always were prepared for the worst-case scenario, paying for the bonds with tax money, and that nobody has… Continue reading
Warren Woodward, director of broadband services at XMission, got an opinion piece published in the Tribune that helps set the record straight on their one-sided article and op-ed lambasting UTOPIA. Take some time to go check it out.