BREAKING: Layton Approves New Bonds By 3-2 Vote

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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 point man, Royce Van Tassell, to stump for them. The public testimony was about as split as the council vote with a number of residents expressing frustration at both incumbent providers. My favorite part? When I got to spell out in excruciating detail the trail of broken promises and outright lies from both Qwest and Comcast. Those watching him said that Jerry Fenn looked very uncomfortable as I spelled out their $1.4B Telco Act of '96 fraud and their plans to use the FTTN upgrades to shut out competing DSL and phone retailers.

I'll be sure to post more when I find out how the votes in Brigham City and Perry went. 

Where UTOPIA is Today: A Response For Rep. Steve Urquhart

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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 poles and having the RUS pull a switcheroo on the loan money that left them with $11M in related expenses that didn't get reimbursed. That they've managed to suffer through that much adversity without a financial collapse is something else.

Have they made mistakes? Absolutely. Totally eating the installation cost probably wasn't the best idea, public awareness is low and their biggest challenge seems to be rolling out to areas with demand. At the same time, they've slashed the construction costs by about 25% and saved some businesses as much as $2500/mo in telecommunications costs. Cities with UTOPIA (like Murray and Midvale) have been able to attract new businesses because of the fiber optic system and have implemented advanced wide-area networks that speed city operations and save a significant amount of money. It's not all failures, but certainly is a mixed bag.

UTOPIA has learned a lot and a second chance seems appropriate given what they've learned. If they can't make a go of it after the second chance, it'd be time to close up shop and try something different. If every venture closed up shop after the first round of mistakes, nobody would ever open a business; I don't see how this is different.

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XMission Now Offering VoIP on UTOPIA

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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 include a lot of advanced features, such as selective call forwarding and selective call blocking, traditionally only seen through services like GrandCentral. From the sounds of things, the service also supports using SIP, though it does not currently have support for fax machines.

Given XMission's history of technical excellence and solid product offerings, it will be a major boon to have them as a phone provider on UTOPIA.

UTOPIA Rebonding: Midvale, Lindon, Tremonton, West Valley All Say Yea

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The news is out: four of the seven cities approved the new UTOPIA bonds at city council meetings last night while 3 city councils opted to delay their decision. Orem will meet again on May 2 to further discuss the matter and Centerville delayed their final decision until April 29. While Payson has been reported as rejecting the bond, their vote was 4-1 in favor of not voting on it last night. An official from Midvale says that Payson plans to discuss the matter again on May 2, though it may not be a public meeting. Here's the tally so far:

  • Centerville: Tabled until April 29
  • Lindon: Voted in favor
  • Midvale: Voted in favor
  • Orem: Tabled until May 2
  • Payson: Tabled until May 2
  • Tremonton: Voted in favor
  • West Valley City: Voted in favor

UPDATE (4/23/2008 11:32AM) : Here's some more coverage from the Daily Herald.

BREAKING: Midvale Approves Rebonding, Payson Rejects It

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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 (?), I knew they had put together a solid plan with high odds of success. The city council realized it too and I could tell they'd done their homework when they later explained their votes. Kudos for them to being willing to do what they thought was right in the face of so much hostility (and a fair number of folks speaking out of order). 

Payson, meanwhile, rejected the new bonds by a 4-1 vote. This came as a surprise as it was expected as recently as last week that they would pass the new bonds. Word on the street is that the Utah Taxpayers Association launched a blitz on their city council to talk them out of it. Payson residents, there's still time to talk to the council and have them reconsider the motion. I know that once I get a chance, I'll be opening a dialog with each of them to find out why they rejected it.

I haven't seen anything on the five other cities voting on the bond issue tonight, but I'll be sure to post more as it hits the newswire tomorrow. 

iProvo's Blue-Ribbon Panel Unveiled

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Provo's Municipal Council has decided that they want to take a fresh look at iProvo on their own. To that end, they've setup a blue-ribbon panel of elected officials and local businessmen to evaluate the just-released consultant's reports from CCG and Franklin Court. The list of members reads like a who's who of Utah County politics:

  • Council Vice Chairman George Stewart
  • Council Chairwoman Cindy Richards
  • Councilman Steve Turley
  • State Sen. Curt Bramble
  • State Rep. Steven Clark
  • GOP Chairman Stan Lockhart
  • Former Councilwoman Jane Carlile
  • Utah County Commissioner Steve White
  • Far West Bank CEO Don Norton
  • Capital Community Bank VP Ron Eliason
  • Dan Campbell, developer
  • Scott McQuarrie, developer

As you can see, both supporters and detractors of iProvo are on the panel and it should provide for some lively discussions, especially since CCG's report advises Provo to pay $2M per year for services that the city gets from the network, the entirety of the department's shortfall. I imagine a key point will be to examine if the city is getting services of that value out of the network or if it's been inflated so that the loans to iProvo are no longer loans.

Speaking of the consultants reports, they should have been presented to the Telecommunications Board today and should be available to the public now (though I can't find links on Provo's website). 

UTOPIA's New Model: Kill It to Save It?

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The news is out: UTOPIA is undergoing some radical changes in the near future as it copes with lower than expected take rates and cash flow issues. What kind of changes you might ask? For starters, it's going to concentrate new deployments only on areas where a large number of users will commit to service. (My sources say around 40% will be the requirement.) You'll also have to shell out around a grand for the installation costs which could later climb to $2,500 or more depending on the circumstances of the installation. It's also going to use most of the leftover money from the re-bonding to cover operating costs for the next several years instead of accelerating deployments.

Not all is bad news, however. Part of UTOPIA's plan will be to consolidate advertising within the organization and more heavily market UTOPIA to the areas with existing deployments. This will likely lead to a surge in take rate that will be used to finish up the fiber rings within the cities. Since the network meets current operating expenses with a 18.4% take rate and iProvo has been able to get into the mid-to-high 30s, it seems likely that this is a temporary setback rather than a permanent one.

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Provo to Create an iProvo Committee

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The Provo City Council plans to discuss a resolution appointing members of a committee to review matters related to iProvo at their meeting on Tuesday April 22. If you won't be busy at one of the many UTOPIA-related meetings that day, drop by the council chambers at 351 W Center St around 5:30PM to provide some public input. I'd also encourage you to contact your city council members prior to the meeting to voice your concerns and find out more about this committee.

Public Meetings for UTOPIA Re-Bonding Announced

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I've received the following schedule for city council meetings regarding the UTOPIA re-bonding. If you live in these cities, it is vitally important that you show up at these hearings to voice your support for UTOPIA. The schedule is as follows:

  • Brigham City: Thursday April 24 at 7PM, 20 North Main, Brigham City 84302
  • Centerville: Tuesday April 22 at 7PM, 250 North Main, Centerville 84014
  • Layton: Thursday April 24 at 8PM, 437 North Wasatch Dr., Layton 84041
  • Lindon: Tuesday April 22 at 6PM, 100 North State, Lindon 84042
  • Midvale: Tuesday April 22 at 7PM, 655 West Center Street, Midvale 84047
  • Murray: Monday April 28 at 6:30PM, 5025 South State, Murray 84157
  • Orem: Tuesday April 22 at 6:30PM, 56 North State, Orem 84057
  • Payson: Tuesday April 22 at 6PM, 439 West Utah Ave, Payson 84651
  • Perry: Thursday April 24 at 7PM, 3005 South 1200 West, Perry 84302
  • Tremonton: Tuesday April 22 at 5:30PM, 102 South Tremont Street, Tremonton 84337
  • West Valley City: Tuesday April 22 at 6:30PM, 3600 Constitution Blvd., West Valley City 84119

Since I haven't figured out how to break the laws of time and space, I obviously won't be able to attend all of these meetings personally, but I like for anyone who does to write me and let me know how the meetings went. I'll make my best efforts to be at the meetings in Midvale, Murray and Layton. A special thanks to Paul Cutler for supplying me with this schedule.