Reader comments
Did forgery land iProvo contract?

iProvo was a miserable mistake, created with a $40 million public bond. Now we have a $3 million loan from Provo City Council and an additional $1.2 million being used from a sales tax surplus just to keep it afloat, after the $40 million bond? You have to be kidding!!! iProvo has now upped their break even point from 10,000 subscribers to approximately 16,000 subscribers, with only 34,000 Provo residences, iProvo needs over 50% of the market to break even? Citizens of Provo will be paying for this huge blunder, as 50% market share in any market is just tough to do.

What is it that makes Utah County, free-market-touting, republican politicians so stoopid? Is there something in the water?

iProvo was a miserable mistake, created with a $40 million public bond. Now we have a $3 million loan from Provo City Council and an additional $1.2 million being used from a sales tax surplus just to keep it afloat, after the $40 million bond? You have to be kidding!!! iProvo has now upped their break even point from 10,000 subscribers to approximately 16,000 subscribers, with only 34,000 Provo residences, iProvo needs over 50% of the market to break even? Citizens of Provo will be paying for this huge blunder, as 50% market share in any market is just tough to do.

Frustrated:

Especially when you are going against Fortune 500 companies like Qwest and Comcast. Provo is in trouble.

The real story is that the business model that was floated to the public and to the council was lousy to begin with. The "plan" only had funding for 10,000 units, (black boxes needed to connect to the network, no excess funds for the "what ifs" like a lousy business partner, and the worst part is that it was built on the assumption that Provo would be able to be the retail provider. The state legislature went along with well paid lobbyists and restricted the city (and all utah cities) to being a wholesale provider. I'll guarantee you, Lewis Billings knew a whole lot of this and didn't bother to share it with the Council.

When will Comcast or Qwest bring me 15MBPS up and down? iProvo service is awesome. Get the politicians out of the way and see what fiber optics can do...

I am very happy with MStarmetro.net
Since we have iProvo, why don't we citizens get behind our city and use the choices we have and pay it off. I had Comcast before fiber optics here were available and did not like their service. Mstarmetro service is such an improvement!
What good comes from fault finding and complaining. We have this service, let's USE IT!

Joyce:
I didn't have a good experience with iProvo at all. The customer service of Veracity was awful, and the network did not perform as promised. I rarely saw speeds of 15MBPS, as was promised. I am now on the Comcast 8MBPS service, and I am happy. It is NEVER down, it delivers consistent speeds, up and down. I didn't get that from iProvo, and since I work from home, if I am not online, I can't work. iProvo's system to too sketchy to trust.

"What good comes from fault finding and complaining. We have this service, let's USE IT!"

What kind of an attitude it that? Had the forefathers felt this way, we would all still be sitting across the pond, sipping tea, and speaking with funny accents. When things stink, you fight, you express discontent, and you get things changed. You don't curl up in a corner and take whatever is thrown at you, and thank them for it. iProvo stinks, Billings stinks, Provo suffers.

Over the last 9 months iProvo has only increased by approxmately 1,000 subscribers. How are they going to get to the 16,000 to break even? Hey Provo, I see some nice taxes or new bonds coming to make up the short fall!!! Heber is nice this time of year. :)

And as far as Billings doing due diligence on HomeNet, I used to call the guaranteeing banks to verify distributor Letters of Credit frequently, it is a simple process. Billings believing they couldn't have done more due diligence, when they obviously didn't make a simple phone call to the guaranteeing bank, is just embarrassing. His quote "Letters of credit are goodwill documents you have to assume they are legitimate" shows his lack of experience in financial matters and in business. Can we say a job application stating false educational accomplishments is a "goodwill document?" Apparently they are to George Stewart, who hired Billings as City Manager when Stewart was mayor, after he too did not do due diligence in checking on Billings' false educational claims.

Billings, your unwise, poorly researched project has now saddled Provo with a $40 million albatross, and citizens of Provo will be paying for your stupidity for years to come. Chances are our kids will be paying for it too. What a mess.

Point 1: Mayor Billings never misrepresented his education status. He stated clearly that he ATTENDED BYU. Anyone who can read and comprehend English knows that "attended" does not mean "graduated". This issue was cleared up years ago, and anyone that still cannot comprehend the difference between the two words needs to do some more "attending" of their own, maybe even back to grade school to learn how to use a dictionary.

Point 2: Mayor Billings cannot be to blame for others' illegal dealings. He made the best of a bad situation, and is moving forward.

BTW, my experience with iProvo has been nothing short of fantastic. Growing pains have been minimal, and any issues have been cleared up in a very timely manner. Cost-wise, it beats Comcast and Qwest hands down, and I have never had any outages of internet service other than the one time they said they would be down. Download speeds are dependent on the server at the other end, and I have never had any bottlenecks because of the iProvo service.

Fighting to make things better is great. So, what is your solution to solve this problem?
I love iProvo, it has worked out great for me. Awesome service, unbeatable internet speeds. Can't really complain about an internet connection that is only limited by my wireless router.
Like it or hate it, that $40 million bond isn't going away. So I agree with Joyce, use the service and be part of the solution. It is a fact that a fiber-optic network provides so much more than cable. Cable is nearing the end of its capabilities, fiber is just as good and just getting started.
So if you want to use your well proven and reliable horse and buggy go ahead. I would rather enjoy the benefits and possible pains (though in my experience there has been none) of a fiber-optic network and look forward to what is still to come.