[sllug-members]: Re: UTOPIA education sllug-members Digest, Vol 41, Issue 12

[u235sentinel]

Steve Hildebrand wrote:
  > I was talking with Rob Bennett for a while, until he lost his seat in
> the election.  He seemed cautious but interested, although he blanched 
> at the financial issues.  I didn't get responses from anyone else, and 
> Mayor Newton appears to be a staunch privatization supporter.  UTOPIA 
> should stand or fall on its own, as far as he is concerned.  I figured 
> pointing out the taxpayer outlay for Bell and AT&T wouldn't help.  :)

Yeah.  That pretty much sums up Mayor Newton.  I wonder where we would 
be with electricity and telephones without the Government running those 
lines.  But of course that doesn't matter to him.  Just because they did 
it again and again and again and again and .........

  > I am pretty sure it was a link from Slashdot that led me to that blog,
> and shortly thereafter, I started pestering the West Jordan City Council 
> about UTOPIA.  So here we are, full circle.  :)

Full circle until the opponents to that study are fired... errr... I 
mean replaced in the next election :-)

3 of the 4 Council Members who were against Utopia in West Jordan have 
been replaced with members who are willing to look into it.  They 
realize we cannot ignore this problem for much longer.  After all, the 
rest of the world is moving far ahead of us.  We're quickly approaching 
17th place in the world for Internet speed and service.  Is that a 
comfortable place for the Tech King of the world???


> Competition is a good deal for everyone, but it is a hard sell for the 
> end user.

Unfortunately IMO it's because the end user doesn't have a clue how 
badly he has it.

They "think" they are getting a great deal with Qwest or Concast but 
don't realize our infrastructure is mediocre at best in comparison.