Comments about ‘UTOPIA cities may have to pay this year’

So who is responsible for all the sketchy financing plans? Why didn't they just get a fixed rate like I did on my home loan? It's almost like they took some weird interest only one year ARM and then did some crazy "swap" for it.

And those sales tax numbers for the pledges don't add up to over $100+ million. Are those numbers only what has been pledged annually? Could WVC owe 3.5 million every year for this?

Yick. Yuck. Ouch.

Yeah, I was interested until I learned in Brigham there would be a $3000 fee to get connected! That is outrageous, my highspeed Comcast broadband works even better now. No way in H I am paying 3K for utopia.

Surprise!Surprise!Surprise!..Gomer Pile
The numbers are skewered in my opinion, 30% take rate...HA! even in cities with much better service and availability it only hovers around 18-22%
Not enough lipstick for this one, it will be a replay of iProvo,which cost the saps in provo a lot of money to try and compete with the private sector.
UTOPIA as defined by webster..enjoying perfection.
This thing has been an Albatross from the get go, poor planning, undintended delays,many obstacles not planned on, to name a few.
My city of Murray will pay an estimated two million a year for the next 30 years or so for this so called effecency hi tech service, way to go mayor.
All of the council members except Pat Griffiths voted for this money pit.
Thank you Ms. Griffiths for having the foresight to vote against UTOPIA.

What a surprise. When this was first proposed a few years ago it didn't smell right. Subscribers are now going to be paying twice for the service, once in their monthly bill and a second time for an ill concieved financing mess. Just one of the reasons we moved out of Murray, local government with visions of greatness at the expense of its citizens.

Go UTOPIA! People don't be panic, Fiber-To-The-Home is the final resolution for your home telecommunication and entertaining needs. Look at Japan, South Korean and Sweden, we are behind already! United States have to catch up with that tech. UTOPIA is good for Utah's current development and the future of industries. I am an Fiber-optic Engineer for over 20 years, I can tell you UTOPIA is good. Many years later, people will say they are grateful to have UTOPIA. Period.

I've had Qwest fiber-to-the-node fast Internet (up to 20MB) for more than a year and don't need Utopia and glad I don't live in a Utopia city...cuz it ain't UTOPIA.

To A_Chinese_American at 7:27: Charles Duell, Commissioner of the U.S. Patent office in 1899 purportedly said that, "Everything that can be invented has been invented." Who knows what is being worked on...Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) is just one tool in the toolbox and is not the "final resolution". However, Service delivery works most efficiently under American competition and not a government monopoly...as one can plainly read in the article.

The simple fact is you CAN NOT DO EVERY THING YOU WANT USING COMCAST OR QWEST. You need a fiber connection "it is the future" and you will be left behind if you do not have. Besides "County Fiber Man" If it was not for UTOPIA you would be paying higher rates for service. UTOPIA has helped every citizen in the northern Wasatch Front by creating competition. Not only have UTOPIA customers benefited so have all of the UTOPIA haters or Nay sayers.

Speed is everything: only for some, mostly the nerds.
Technology changes daily, most folks would never need or use fiber optics.
I don't see where putting those cities future revenues for some thirty years will benefit the naysayers, could you spell that out for us folks that can add and subtract?
There was already plenty of competion in the market place,whose rates were already lower than when UTOPIA entered that market, simple economics is how people buys thing, just ask Provo.
As long as someone else is paying for it, it was a good thing, now the sign up cost 3,000 dollars just to sign up, it has become an albatross.

At least it's not a guarantee that I'll be paying taxes for UTOPIA for years to come. If they hadn't refinanced, we'd all be paying for a long time because there's no way UTOPIA would have made it. As it is now, it's a risk and we'll pay some, but it sounds like UTOPIA is doing better than ever before -- 30% of eligible customers. That's our one hope to get off these pledges. Better a few years than 30 for something that really is going to be needed.

Most people CAN do everything they want using Comcast or Qwest. Comcast offers speeds up to 50mb/sec. in other systems and will do so in Utah when needed.

There are very few people that need faster speeds than Comcast offers.

There is no question that competition is good for all users, but that competition has to be a viable business venture to provide that benefit.

To the UTOPIA apologists (including Speed is Everything):

Imagine that your smooth-talking buddy told you he'd buy you a new $50,000 car and completely pay for it- no cost to you. All you had to do was co-sign the loan. Then it takes you way longer than expected to get the car, the car has all kinds of mechanical problems at first and is missing lots of parts, it ends up costing three times as much as anticipated, your buddy skips town, and you're on the hook for something you only bought because you thought you'd never have to pay for it, and actually can't pay for it without cutting tons of stuff from your normal budget.
Yes, Speed is Everything, you still are left with a nice car. But would you really still be trumpeting what a great deal you got??? Can we get a reality check???

Does this hole just keep getting deeper and deeper?

The infrastructure is almost obsolete and they still can't make it work.

Time to pull the plug and let Qwest and Comcast take the risks.

Are you listening Mayor?

I wish we had Utopia in Alpine. I live in city limits and I can't get DSL through Qwest. I can't get Comcast through cable (my neighbors 5 houses down the street can get it????). NEITHER of them have coverage at my house which was built 5 years ago. The neighborhood has been established for 7-10 years.

Freakin ridiculous!!!!

So I have to accepted Digis "wireless broadband" as the only option. They sell you "up to 7mbps" for 34.95 a month. True it is better than dialup but the average download speed is less than 1.5Mbps although I have the 7Mbps service. They are deceptive at best.

ALPINE CITY ought to be ashamed they did not get better internet options for ALL their citizens.

Utopia even with its difficulty, at least provides what I would call the ultimate internet when it finally gets done.

Now ALPINE CITY provides ultimate frustration.

I think you might be taking the $3000.00 per install out of context a bit. I have never heard of UTOPIA requiring any residential subscriber to pay $3000.00 for a hookup. So at most a monthly assessment would come to $24 a month over a 20 year period and with the ISPs(God Bless them) dropping there price by $24, it seems like a wash to me. And if I get some extra $$ in my pocket and just pay off the assessment I am sitting nicely with a low high speed option every month. Not to mention my house will be worth more than a house without fiber. There are so many indirect benefits to having fiber in a city. Wow! Sounds like a great deal to me. So if you just say $3000.00 for a hookup and can't comprehend what really will happen with all of this and can't see the future vision of communication it sure does sounds bleak and dark. I am just glad a solution like this is out here.

The chickens are coming home to roost! Hope the taxpayers enjoy there fiber optic system that they can't even use. What a joke. "Utahn's Taken Again," should be the next headline.
Oh by the way, Verizon and Sprint are rolling out a new LTE 4G wireless option that will offer more than enough speed to its users. All at no cost to cities or taxpayers. Unless of course they buy it.

What planet do you live on?

Fiber is still the best any day of the week. What do you think Microsoft has?

Duh!!

$3000 LOL. Yeah we are all paying $3000 to get hooked up. NOT

UTOPIA is the best thing that ever happened to us in regards to tv, internet, phone.

We get blazing fast internet. Great phone service. The TV has improved a ton. Plus with the new guys taking over, the price dropped $10 a month.

I used to have UTOPIA, but was forced to move and am now really missing it. I am not a heavy internet user, but when I needed the speed it was always there.

I have tried the best offerings from Comcast and Qwest and they aren't even close. People don't realize what they are missing out on until they have actually had the service and the ability to compare.

I live in Orem. Our City might be out almost $3 million a year for 30 years. There's no UTOPIA to my house. I can't sign up. So you and I are in the same boat, except my city services might have to be cut to pay for this albatross.

Consider yourself lucky. I don't get the people who read this doomsday article about how all the worst fears about UTOPIA are becoming reality, even though we were assured it never would happen (these cities were actually told they would MAKE money on the system, and they believed it!!!), and your comeback is, "Shucks, I'm mad my city didn't get in on this."

Unbelievable!!!

Reply to Anonymous | 12:14 p.m. June 18, 2009, Where do you live? If not in Brigham then the 3K does not apply to you. I am only speaking of BC, I don't know what the conditions are anywhere else. It is spread out over many years, but would cost at least 1/3 more than what I am paying for Comcast.