That should become more clear in coming weeks when Qwest announces a new 14-state effort to lay fiber-optic cable into neighborhoods. It's an effort that will cost several hundred million dollars, but it won't be borrowed against taxes. If it is borrowed at all, it won't be on terms that extend 33 years.

Whatever you were doing 33 years ago, you couldn't have found a crystal ball powerful enough to make a telecom investment that still would be useful and cutting edge today.

I wouldn't be surprised if Comcast and other companies have something similar planned. Private companies take calculated risks based on market needs. Companies that can rely on public treasuries tend to be more reckless.

Last year, the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco commissioned a study titled, "Wi-Fi Waste: The Disaster of Municipal Communications Networks." It studied 52 such networks and concluded they have "blundered (their) way through the marketplace, eroding private investment, slowing high-tech innovation, deceiving consumers and serving the interests of politicians."

When they begin to fail, they try to undercut their competition, which stifles innovation. Or they find tricky ways to borrow money, the way Provo City's iProvo has, from other city budgets.

The 11 Utah cities face a difficult choice. If they don't approve the new terms, UTOPIA would fail and they would have to pay the taxes they've pledged. If they go along, they would foolishly increase the amount they could lose.

That really is no place to be.

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Jay Evensen is editor of the Deseret News editorial page. E-mail: even@desnews.com