12 or 13 cities may participate in UTOPIA

Within two weeks, the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency will have a good handle on just how many communities will participate in the first phase of the agency's fiber-optic network project.

UTOPIA's executive director, Paul Morris, told the Utah Committee of Consumer Services Tuesday that hearings and votes by municipalities that have expressed interest will occur during that time.

While 18 cities once were on board, South Jordan has voted to opt out because of a potential loss of sales tax revenue in the form of a pledge as collateral for special bonds for the network.

Morris said he expects 12 or 13 cities to participate. "It's going to be viable, even if Salt Lake chooses not to get involved," he told the committee.

Seven cities have voted to make the pledge, three others have decisions pending, a hearing is scheduled tonight in Orem and four more are scheduled for next week.

"And the other cities that already had their hearings will have their votes in the next two weeks. By next Wednesday, we will know on pretty much all the cities except Salt Lake," he said. Salt Lake's vote takes place April 6. "A lot's going to happen in the next two weeks."

The $540 million fiber-optic network would be the wholesale backbone for telecommunications companies to provide residents and businesses with high-speed services. Morris said he expects UTOPIA to eventually have three or four retailers offering a complete set of voice, video and data services and several more offering single specialized services.

Morris acknowledged that UTOPIA has critics. They have said government should not be competing against the private sector, that the costs are too high and that the project might not pay for itself, among other things.

But Morris said governments have always been involved in infrastructure, that UTOPIA would not complete with the private sector, that it already has bids and that a worst-case scenario would have residents paying $6 per home per month in years four through 20 to pay for the costs.

And, he said, the project will have a low threshold for recovering costs. By year seven, "if three out of 10 addresses — homes and businesses — take one or more services, we break even," he said. "We're fairly confident that we're going to have three out of 10 people want these advanced services at a cheaper price."