Multicity Fiber-Optics in Utah Move Ahead

UTOPIA is nearly a year away from laying its first fiber-optic lines, but the multi-city consortium already is making plenty of connections.

BY KARYN HSIAO
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE

"I’ve been invited to represent UTOPIA at seven different telecommunications conventions in seven weeks, and it’s exciting," Executive Director Paul Morris said. "A lot of people are picking up on UTOPIA philosophically — that it is government’s role to provide infrastructure — and also technologically — that it makes sense to build a network of high-speed fiber optics."

UTOPIA — short for the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency — is an independent governmental entity that includes 17 members with one ambitious goal: link cities from Brigham City to Cedar City to a $400 million fiber-optic network. For the record, that is 550,000 residents, 107,300 households and 19,400 businesses.
Once the infrastructure is in place, the 17 cities will become wholesalers of one of the world’s largest fiber-optic networks. They would contract with private providers, who then would sell, market and bill customers for high-speed services.
"We hope to facilitate private-sector competition," said Morris, also West Valley City’s attorney.

Hoping to tap momentum the project has built since its April birth, finance consultant Scott Robertson this week sketched out an aggressive time line that calls for launching construction next June.
"Meeting the schedule will take a Herculean effort on the part of everyone involved," Robertson acknowledged. "We need to keep it moving along."

UTOPIA Deputy Director David Shaw says the cities remain enthusiastic about fiber optics and the discounts they plan to receive by banding together.
"For smaller cities [having] lost big companies to the metropolitan areas, this is lifeblood," Shaw said. "For bigger cities, it’s a matter of economic development, quality of life, telemedicine and enhancing education."

The 17 cities are Brigham City, Cedar City, Cedar Hills, Centerville, Layton, Lindon, Midvale, Murray, Orem, Payson, Perry, Riverton, Roy, South Jordan, Taylorsville, Tremonton and West Valley City. No cities will be added until the first round of bond financing is completed in June.
"We’ve talked to several cities that are expressing interest in joining," Morris said. "And they would potentially double the current size of the project."

However, one of the larger cities, Sandy, has dropped out. "We wanted to pull out quietly, without damaging the project, for issues that are primarily financial," said Jim Bennett, Sandy’s director of communications.
But Murray Mayor Dan Snarr, UTOPIA’s chairman, welcomes his city’s involvement. In fact, Murray may become the network’s first guinea pig during a test run later this year.
"The test site will likely be in the Murray Bluffs area, a development in the southwest quadrant," Snarr said. "We already have the [fiber-optic] infrastructure there to do that."

For now, DynamicCity, a Provo-based consulting company, is polling residents and businesses in all UTOPIA cities to gauge interest in network.
"Preliminary results show a take rate of over 50 percent," said D. Keith Wilson, DynamicCity’s chief executive officer.
Final feasibility results will be presented this spring.
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http://www.sltrib.com/09262002/business/1435.htm