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
An anonymous tipster pointed out that Provo is currently soliciting Requests for Qualifications for iProvo. The RFQ itself is very specific in stating that while it’s looking for companies who could take over the network, nothing in it should be construed to imply that the city actually anticipates getting the… 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
One of the more interesting parts of UTOPIA’s new plans via the Utah Infrastructure Agency (UIA) is to have cities start taking over billing operations directly. In the past, service providers operated all of the billing and then remitted payment to UTOPIA for the wholesale transport. That arrangement works well… Continue reading
I just got the heads up from Prime Time Communications that they are now running a blog to report on issues related to the Mstar transition. In addition to a “mea culpa” over the video transition issues (including the loss of local channels and problems with the new STBs), they… Continue reading
I had a conversation today with Bryon Wentzlaff of Prime Time Communications and he answered a few questions on the STB replacement in progress. By his figures, about 1800 boxes were replaced leading up to the termination of signals from Broadweave that occurred on Sunday. That was all done in… Continue reading
A forum poster on DSLReports isn’t too happy with Prime Time Communications. S/he reported had an STB swap last week that resulted in a loss of channels, frequent pixelation and/or tiling, and being downgraded from a dual-tuner DVR. They’re also reporting issues with out-of-sync audio and video with the new… Continue reading
Good news out of UTOPIA: the video product will be ready to launch as early as next week. Service providers will reportedly have a list of prices and channel lineups by Saturday in preparation for reselling to customers. I don’t have a list of the channel line-up, but I would… Continue reading
After months of rumors that Mstar has been looking to be acquired, it looks like Prime Time Communications, the newest provider, is the suitor. This gives Prime Time an instant customer base on UTOPIA and strengthens Mstar’s position as a triple-play provider. It comes at a cost, however. Now that… Continue reading