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Provo to sell iProvo for $40.6 million

Will these guys by UTOPIA as well?

It needs major engineering overhaul to support the system. Loosing customers because poor infrasturcture performance. It needs major design and engineering support to sustain customer demand. Specially come to residential phone, make sure it provides solid service and connectivity in case of emergency situation.

I think it's odd that the reporter didn't mention what impact this sale will have on other service providers currently offering services on the iProvo network. Does anyone know?

I am very impressed with how the Mayor handled this situation. Provo is one of the best run cities I've ever seen.

40.6 Million is a lot of dollars good grief that could buy just about anything they want!

Way to go lew! You set up provo for the initial cash outlay and now you get an additional check for brokering a deal. Glad I moved away.

Steve Turkey what a joke. IProvo is a generation ahead of itself. Hopefully it will succeed under new management.

Please may we hold our applause until we see the details? Nothing in iProvo has been handled honestly yet -- not the Mayor's original sales pitch, which included a promise to allow us to vote on this, not the Mayor's actual investment of $40 million of our money, which we did NOT get to vote on, not the Mayor's selection of service providers, who apparently were basically carpetbaggers. Now we have a company created to "buy" iProvo -- I suppose they will assume the debt, which means that if the deal goes well they will profit, and if it doesn't the debt holders will be back knocking at Provo's door for payment.

One could only hope

Sure I know. Their out. They owe the city more than $1.0 million with no ability to pay. The new owner will kick them out and consolidate operations. The idea here is to take the various unprofitable pieces and combine them into one profitable operation. This is the only model that works. Now lets hope the new owners can compete with Qwest and Comcast.

You must be kidding!! Billings plowed over $60 million into this project and then bailed out for $40 million if that is really the number. There may be all kinds of deal structure events that will reduce the actual cash received by the city. Billings needs to go out the door along with iProvo. This happened on his watch and he does not deserve to stay.

lets give support to a company who had the guts to take over something failing with the desire to benefit the citizens of provo. ideally we all can support the company in their migration of a piece of hooey to something that is of value. I would imagine this is not going to be an overnight transition.

Good to hear old Bob Frankenburg, former CEO of Novell, is alive and still contributing to the community.

what a whole bunch of political fluff, this was not the vision of the city as quoted by the mayor, it was an open service provider model, where private industry would compete over a public infrastructure so as to give the city, businesses and residents the freedom of choice and future proof infrastructure for the long hall so as to not fall behind of times. All I see happening now is giving cheap fiber infrastructure to a nother money grubbing monopolistic service provider like unto Comcast and Quest! And the reason the reason crowd applauded was because the majority of the people in attendance where those benefiting from the transaction not the citizens. That RFP alluded to was not a RFP. There seem to be a lot of unknown issues still on this. I don't know if due process has been fully followed as of yet. This is very BAD NEWS if it happens!

The success of a city owned network is largely due to community acceptance. That means, you (citizens) buy the services. Do you think Comcast and Qwest (with others) are going to allow a city-run network to take their customers without a fight? Citizens have to put THEIR money where their mouth is and support the network. That means subscribe. The incumbents have deep pockets and will do whatever it takes to crash the party. Do you realize that anywhere UTOPIA and iProvo, Comcast and Qwest has the lowest rates compared to their other markets? $40.6 million is just the buy out. It will take millions to compete. You wanted it citizens, support it...that means subscribe. That means work with it while it goes through its growing pains. That means, don't ask to have it for free or given away. That means, pay fairly for it. Will it have problems? You bet. Will the next owners be any better? Don't count on it. The technology is new. We're all learning how this is going to work. And like most issues like this...the public doesn't have a clue...they only command a perfect service, but want it nearly free. You decide.

We have lived in seven cities in two States and two foreign countries. Provo is the least expensive, the most responsive and obviously the best governed of those other city experiences. They are prompt to care for problems and all of the employees we have had contact with have been exceedingly courteous. iProvo is absolutely the best internet system with fewer problems (0) than Comcast, AOL or Qwest. We appreciate all that Mayor Billings has and is doing for the citizens of this great City.

Give my a break. Billings pushed this thing which was a mistake to beging with. Government has no business trying to compete with private enterprise. The money spent here would have been better spent on roads, police and fire protection- you know the real things government is supposed to be in charge of. I never thought King George would be considered reasonable, but compared to Billings, anyone would be better.

that is a great view! we are spoiled and want it all for nothing!! companies dont survive giving away service for dirt cheap or for free.
Also, this is not a primary line, it is voip..voip runs off of power and, unless a battery is present, phone dies.
BAD NEWS....don't tell me, let me guess, you own a wireless ISP out of your garage, and with your linux server you wanted to run the network, darnit all, missed the RFP!

I guess you don't understand iProvo, it does not compete with the private industry! It promotes choice and competition on a level playing ground because the cost of infrastructure is so much. And I'm sure the same arguments were given when fire, police and roads where being brought into the government domain!

Sad. Selling off and abandoning the network is like saying, "Our city sewer system isn't cost effective, let's get rid of it." In this day, a state-of-the art fiber optic network is critical to our society and economy. It should be as much a part of city infrastructure as roads, electrical systems and water distribution. It amazes me that people can be that short sided. Oh, wait, this is Provo we're talking about, where it took a couple of generations to convince the city fathers they needed a real city library instead of assuming people could go to BYU for most of their books.

I hope the rest of the Wasatch front can see into the future far enough to make this thing work. I guarantee that the two biggies, QWEST and Comcast, are celebrating today and none of us will be invited to the party (we'll just pay the bills). Kudos to those companies who are working hard to provide services across the fiber optic network - go MSTAR.