[sllug-members]: [sllug-members] UTOPIA Project in the [bad] news

[Steve]

I wonder how much Qwest paid to get that article on the front page of
the Tribune?
I only ask because they keep refering to it as a "Telecom" venture.
When it's clearly not, it's an infrastructure build out, like a
highway or a water main.  Not a "business venture" like a McDonalds.
Comcast rarely ever uses that language per se in their stuff.   Their
language tends to emphasize the information and services aspect.

The other thing that people keep forgetting to mention in these
"articles" is that Qwest, Comcast and your Uncle Roy are all on a
level playing field in that they are all able to provide services over
Utopia.  This means that literally anyone, given a sufficient sum of
start-up capital open their own ISP/TV/VOIP company.  This increases
competition in the marketplace, and reduces the costs to consumers
while keeping incumbents competitive and on their toes.
Even IF Utopia had to cash in some chips and municipalities actually
ended up paying the bill.
How many MILLIONS will have been saved to the citizenry by forcing the
incumbent providers to compete for customers?
And all for what?  Some sales tax revenue?

We aren't talking about an increase to property taxes,  we aren't even
talking about raising sales tax to cover it.  Worst case scenario,
money you have already spent is being paid back to you by forcing the
incumbents to compete, thereby lowering your cost of service from any
given provider.

If they spent 1/2 the money on customer service that they do on
lawsuits, the incumbent providers might actually have decent service
and a good reputation thereby not having to even fight off something
like Utopia.
But as it stands now that old line from Lily Tomlin is still the rule
"We don't care.  We don't have to, we're the phone company!"

Sincerely,
Steve Morrey

On Jan 3, 2008 7:29 AM, u235sentinel <u235sentinel at gmail.com> wrote:
> Doran L. Barton wrote:
> > Not long ago, Nelson H. F. Beebe proclaimed...
> {snip}
> >
> > This is disturbing to me on a number of levels.
> >
> > The Tribune ran an editorial today about this as well.
> >
> >     http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_7865012
> >
> > I have supported UTOPIA from the get-go with some reservations. My
> > political views are fairly conservative so I'm leery of government programs
> > to do anything private companies, citizens, or organizations can do because
> > much more often than not, privately managed ventures are run more
> > effectvely than any comparable government program. Part of the reason for
> > that is because when you run a company, it's usually your neck that's on
> > the line and not something as vague and nebulous as "future tax revenues
> > of vested municipalities."
> > {snip}
> >
> >
> I posted responses to this as discussed in several forums and here was
> my response to each of them:
>
>
> Uhhh.. it sounds like you copied your homework from somebody else's
> paper, and they didn't provide complete answers from the looks of it.
>
> The facts are very different from what I see.
>
> You failed to mention that:
>
> - The Qwest lawsuit against Utopia taking resources to defend against
> that (it was ruled in Utopia's favor btw)
> - Qwest's illegal practices to block access to telephone poles
> - Government delays with disbursing money from the RUS loan
> - The insinuation that UTOPIA has put tax dollars at risk when not one
> red cent of money has been taken from pledging cities to cover
> operations or the debt service
> - Paul Morris left UTOPIA to go into semi-retirement and Roger Black has
> his hands full as the lawyer for the Utah League of Cities and Towns.
> - S.B. 66 heavy restrictions against Utopia which give an unfair
> advantage to companies such as Qwest or Comcast.
>
> The article from the Trib doesn't measure up to their usual high level
> of reporting.
>
> Considering what's happened these last few years, when you set out to
> make a project fail, it's likely you will succeed especially with the
> Governments help (note S.B. 66 and recent legislation by Senator
> Stephenson and Rep. Craig Frank).
>
> So how about it?  Does it sound like Utopia is fighting an up hill
> battle or they simply failed because they are stupid?
>
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