[sllug-members]: Fiber for Salt Lake and Utah Movement

[Kyle Waters]

u235sentinel wrote:
> 
> So... how did the meeting go?  Was anyone able to attend?
> 
> I'll be making calls on Monday myself.  I'd do it today but I arrived at 
> 1am this morning and I'm very tired :-)

I'm not sure if you mean the new grassroots group meeting or the 
committee meeting, so I'll answer for the committee meeting(since that 
is the one I went to) :)

There was a communication problem and Quest's Utah president didn't show 
up.  Utopia presentation went really well.  They had three lobbyist 
there including one they had brought in from DC(I think) who specialized 
in lobbying for local fiber projects.  He talked a lot about how the US 
was behind on internet bandwidth and how important bandwidth was to the 
"new economy".  I think he made a good impression on the committee.  A 
committee member asked why UTOPIA was behind on their subscriber rates, 
one of the guys from UTOPIA explained that because of "externalities" 
they were behind on laying the lines, but that they were right on target 
for subscribers rate compared to how many lines they have laid.  When 
pressed on what the externalities were the UTOPIA rep said there was a 
lawsuit by an incumbent, and difficulty getting permission to use the 
telephones that they have access to as a matter of federal law.

Pete Ashdown, Jessy(forget his last name,), and my self made comments in 
favor of UTOPIA.  The vice president for the Utah tax payer association 
commented against UTOPIA(I commented after him and corrected his 
statement).  A Qwest lobbyist(no not the one on vacation with the head 
of the Utah senate at a Villa in Italy, but a different lobbyist) 
commented saying that the president of Qwest Utah would still like a 
chance to testify.

The full audio can be found here:

http://www.le.state.ut.us/asp/interim/Commit.asp?Year=2007&Com=SUBPRI


Kyle

ps if anyone has Mark Walker has a rep be sure to call him.  He wasn't 
there Wednesday, but had a really close race last year, and is therefore 
more likely to listen to residents that he represents.

pss if you live in spanish fork call senator stephenson and tell him how 
great the city internet is