[sllug-members]: UTOPIA - any advice?

[Kyle Waters]

Jon Fullmer wrote:
> I don't mean to beat the UTOPIA topic to death, but I got some 
> unfortunate news recently.
>
> Cottonwood Heights (where I live) had been considering UTOPIA.  While 
> they haven't officially dropped the idea, it's not likely to survive. 
> The August 2007 Government Finance Review had an article that 
> mentioned that municipally-owned infrastructures (like UTOPIA) have 
> typically been most successful in areas where private enterprises were 
> not willing or able to provide service. The logic is that because 
> Qwest and Comcast provide "service" to the city, UTOPIA may not be as 
> successful.
>
> I plan to at least let the council know how ludicrous this is. Neither 
> Qwest nor Comcast are going to bring fiber to my house, nor are they 
> going to provide the level of "service" provided by UTOPIA. But aside 
> from expressing my disdain, do any of you have any other suggestions?
>
I'm not sure how much of cottonwood heights is business, but that's best 
argument I know of.  My employer is staying in midvale/murray because of 
UTOPIA.  We will not leave(the amount of money we save is staggering).  
I'd try to encourage them to at least keep an eye on things.  IProve 
hasn't done the best but Murray, Midvale, and Layton are doing as 
expected and they all have qwest/comcast as well.  So I say you can try 
to convince them that they will lose businesses if they don't jump on 
board, bust most of all encourage a wait and see attitude with the other 
cities that are using it.  It would be nice to have it now, but if all 
you can do is keep them looking at then I would settle for that.

Kyle