UTOPIA

UTOPIA is definitely one topic that gets a lot of Centerville residents talking.  It certainly is an interesting subject, as well as complex, and sometimes heated.

So what is UTOPIA?  The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency was created when 16 cities joined together to create a fiber optic network.  Centerville and the other pledging UTOPIA cities have agreed to set aside sales tax revenue to cover the costs of UTOPIA if subscriber revenue is insufficient.  According to UTOPIA's own website the benefit of UTOPIA is fiber directly to your home.  You don't have to share bandwidth with neighbors and you get lightning fast speeds.

Sounds great right?  Except that UTOPIA has not performed even close to how it was originally presented.  UTOPIA was plagued with problems and financial challenges early on and had to completely halt construction in 2007.  Lately, we've seen action on the UTOPIA construction front thanks to an Economic Stimulus Grant made possible by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  UTOPIA is currently soliciting subscribers in Centerville with a projected launch this fall.

So what should the City do about UTOPIA?  Centerville is committed to UTOPIA.  That decision was made years ago when sales tax revenue was pledged to support UTOPIA bonds.  We've long since passed the point of no return.  If we were to decide to get out of UTOPIA now we'd still be on the hook for sales tax revenues to support the bonds, but would guarantee ourselves a partially constructed network.  Centerville needs to get as much out of UTOPIA as we can without pledging any more.  We need to make sure the financial and operational management of UTOPIA produce profitability sooner rather than later (or never).  We need to promote UTOPIA.

As I said, we're already committed to UTOPIA.  Let's use it as a tool to attract quality businesses to the City.  We need to leverage off of UTOPIA to bring jobs and economic development, and give citizens the opportunity to work in Centerville.

In a nutshell, I'm hoping Centerville can benefit from UTOPIA and take the lemons we've been given and make lemonade.