Free UTOPIA!

In what seems to be part of a continuing series, the Salt Lake Tribune has decided to go tilting at windmills once more by attempting to re-classify Spanish Fork's profitable network as a train wreck with tons of hidden subsidies and shoddy accounting. Apparently the Tribune is so focused on that predetermined conclusion that they're more than willing to discard any and all explanations to the contrary.

For starters, there's the public reason given for transfers from various city departments: they're buying a stake in the city-wide network for their own internal uses. For instance, Spanish Fork's electric department uses the network for the same reasons as iProvo, to conduct remote breaker monitoring throughout the city. The water and sewer departments no doubt have similar uses of their own. Given this, it only makes sense for them to own part of the network. The shame is that Spanish Fork is trying to have city agencies pay for their usage and ownership of the network, unlike Provo, and they still get hung out to dry in the papers. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, huh?

Unsurprisingly, the Utah "Taxpayers" Association was on the spot to provide some more "told you so" flavor quotes. Apparently getting quotes to provide a balanced story are way beyond the Tribune's capabilities. It's proof positive that you just can't trust what you read in the papers these days. 

It looks like another storm is brewing for iProvo and finances are the question once again. This time the anger is being vented at the providers on the network, Veracity/Nuvont and MSTAR, who are allegedly behind by almost $1M on their bills to the city. The state auditor is acting on an anonymous tip and has requested that the city forward three years worth of financial records and 6 months worth of recordings from closed-door meetings, the latter of which is a highly irregular request.

The city says that the matter is a difference of opinion on when bills should be paid. According to Mayor Billings, there's no payment issues beyond that. Veracity has also stated that they are no more than 30 days past due at the very most on any bill and that amount wouldn't come close to a cool million. 

One commenter at the Deseret Morning News noted that the timing of such an anonymous tip, so close to the obviously misleading Tribune articles on UTOPIA's finances, almost seems orchestrated. I wouldn't put it past Qwest to stoop to such a level.

Read more in the Tribune and DMN. 

It's one thing to see an organization with an agenda produce a slanted and worthless article. It's an entirely different thing to see a major newspaper do the same thing. As trusted gatekeepers of information, we expect journalists to aspire to higher standards to report the whole story from an objective viewpoint. Sadly, it appears that the Tribune's Steven Oberbeck isn't into that kind of thing.

The holes in the story are numerous. There's no mention of the Qwest lawsuit or their illegal practices to block access to telephone poles. There's no mention of the delays with disbursing money from the RUS loan. There's no mention that Paul Morris left UTOPIA to go into semi-retirement and Roger Black probably has his hands full as the lawyer for the Utah League of Cities and Towns. Even more disturbing is the insinuation that UTOPIA has put tax dollars at risk when not one red cent of money has been taken from pledging cities to cover operations or the debt service. It's one of the sloppiest pieces of supposed journalism I've ever seen.

Thankfully, the Trib's readers are way too smart for it. Many of them have been filling in the gaps that Mr. Oberbeck left out, doing the job he should have done in the first place. Unfortunately, many have already fallen for the position piece disguised as news. Shame on the Tribune for running such a poorly researched article and shame on Steven Oberbeck for writing it.

UPDATE: The Trib now has something up on it in the Opinion section where, as one reader noted, it belonged from the get-go.

As the nation prepares to ditch analog signals for digital nirvana, a lot of consumers are being left in the lurch. Most of you readers know about the upcoming switch to digital TV signals, but does your dear Aunt Sally? According to a recent survey, probably not. Less than half of those asked knew about the switchover and a scant 17% identified the correct cutover. (In case you forgot, it's February of 2009.)

The FCC and cable industry are starting up an expensive ad campaign to warn folks, but it's looking like the switch to digital is probably going to be a fiasco. At least one cable system is preying on the ignorance about the switch to hawk more cable services and the FCC is taking a "let the market sort it out" approach. (Because, you know, everyone buys a new TV every couple of years anyway, right?) If you're still sporting an analog set (like yours truly), grab your $40 coupon from Uncle Sam and get ready to buy the converter boxes starting on January 1. Also don't forget to read the handy guide from Consumer Reports to get informed about the switch and make sure your friends and neighbors are aware of the switch.

There's also a lesser-known analog cut-off: cellular service. While the impact will be "minimal" in the words of the wireless industry, there's still a potential for several million phones to be cut off from 911 service. These include handsets donated to programs for abused women. What else is affected? How about OnStar systems and many wireless burglar alarms? GM has been trying to get people to buy a $15 digital upgrade to keep the systems running, but they continued to sell analog after the cut-off date was announced.

AT&T has a different kind of cut-off in mind. The company plans to phase out all of its pay phones. With a scant 65,000 pay phones in service (compared to 66,000,000 mobile phones), they've decided to wholesale the service and let other companies give it a go of the old coin-operated machines. 

Thanks to some foot-dragging by Uncle Sam, UTOPIA construction in Centerville has been put on hold until the Phase II funding comes through. This isn't the first time either; Phase I cities experienced some months-long delays while the loan application was being processed. The delays now are related to releasing the funds, currently six weeks overdue.

I can only imagine the frustration in Centerville right now. UTOPIA just finished putting in conduit and boxes for months only to be held up on the actual running of fiber optic cable. I'm sure that residents of Perry, however, are glad to see construction start up in the meantime.