Qwest officials rattled their legal sabres when the City Council approved the first loan a year ago. Qwest said that the use of public money to compete against private companies is unfair.

Instead, Billings asked the council to approve the loan and trust Garlick and the rest of the city's iProvo team to make the project break even.

Garlick defended his proposed budget for the coming year, which projects an average of 60 new subscribers per week, a number Stewart said is too high.

Garlick said the project has averaged 73 new installs per week during its history, with highs above 100. Stewart is concerned that iProvo has generated 20 subscribers a week over the past three months, apparently because MStar and Veracity sales teams were in a seasonal lull.

At Stewart's request, Garlick provided a revised budget proposal with a projected 40 subscribers per week, but the difference in the projected deficit was only $105,000.

The reason is that several new revenue streams are expected to boost the project's bottom line this year.

One is budgeted. The project will begin to receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in chargebacks from other city departments for their use of the iProvo network.

Second, Garlick has fielded four proposals and expects several more from potential new service providers who would compete with MStar and Veracity, pushing them to improve their customer service and to more actively recruit new subscribers.

A new service provider also might bring over an existing customer database, possibly 500 to 1,000 new subscribers, Garlick said.

Billings said the iProvo team is close to the projections they laid out a year ago when they asked for the first loan, and Garlick asked the council to make the loan and then reconsider during the year if iProvo isn't making its projections.

The fiscal year begins on July 1. The City Council must approve its budget by June 19.

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E-mail: twalch@desnews.com