Yeah, I know, you’ve heard it before. This time, though, UTOPIA has a sack full of federal dollars to financing building out the middle-mile infrastructure in Centerville. Does this mean service in your neighborhood? Not entirely. The construction will get as far as the substations in the city, but getting… Continue reading
By way of Paul Rolly’s frequent gossip column, it’s come to light that UTOPIA has been soliciting bids for doing a marketing campaign. One of the biggest problems that UTOPIA has had with getting new users signed up has been a lack of information about availability and benefits of the… Continue reading
I just read today that Tremonton and Perry could see upwards of $1M to fund UTOPIA expansion. It would be as part of an earmark from Sen. Orrin Hatch to expand distance learning and telemedicine programs. In such small towns, those grants would probably finish Tremonton (about 95% done) and… Continue reading
When the Salt Lake Tribune published their story as to what’s going on with Prime Time Communications, they noted that they were unable to reach anyone for comment. Yours truly, however, scored a 40-minute phone interview with Bryon Wentzlaff, one of their VPs. From the sounds of things, it’s just… Continue reading
Looks like I’m a little late to the reporting party, but better late than never: Prime Time is getting booted from UTOPIA. Apparently the company filed bankruptcy for the MSTAR subsidiary on September 3 after having pulled $2.2M out of itmonths earlier. (Yeah, I’m not sure where the money came… Continue reading
The Salt Lake Tribune ran an article today about UTOPIA’s new business plan in which a Mr. Ron Rizzuto continually discounted it. The article cites that Mr. Rizzuto is a professor at the University of Denver; this is true. What is omitted, though, is much more telling. Mr. Rizzuto is… Continue reading
Several UTOPIA member cities are gearing up to start taking votes on the new Utah Infrastructure Agency designed to help fund new construction of the network. The Utah Taxpayers Association is trying to get people to show up at these meetings to protest the UIA and try and kill it…. Continue reading
Now that UTOPIA has $16.2M in federal funding, the question is what it’s going to do. The money itself is specifically to hook up “anchor institutions” such as schools, libraries, healthcare facilities, and government buildings. This money will be used to run fiber to over 400 buildings in Perry, Payson,… Continue reading
The Obama Administration announced today a new round of broadband stimulus funding that includes $16.2M for UTOPIA. That money can go a really long way towards deploying more of the network in UTOPIA’s footprint and can, at the average install cost, cover around 5400 additional homes. UTOPIA plans to hold… Continue reading
WEST VALLEY CITY – August 10, 2010 – The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA; http://www.utopianet.org) today announced that PAETEC (http://paetec.com) is that most recent service provider to join the fully-fiber, open access network. PAETEC offers business-class customers a comprehensive suite of data, voice, and IP services, as well as… Continue reading