UTOPIA: Fiber-optic nirvana or a nightmare with no way out?

December 3, 2012

Eleven Utah cities are shackled by debt as the light-speed broadband network continues its decadelong struggle to become a success.

Ten years after its formation, a public-sector broadband Internet network envisioned by leaders of 11 Wasatch Front cities as a bold path to Utah’s fiber-optic future remains, at best, an unrealized dream.

At worst, the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, or UTOPIA is a half-billion dollar fiasco menacing city budgets in four counties.

UTOPIA already has obligated its backing municipalities to massive bond debt, spawning tax hikes, property liens and budgetary headaches in several cities. The network that promised to spur economic growth from Tremonton to Payson is barely 40 percent complete, and large portions of the grid remain offline. In one dire example, Perry has $2 million in UTOPIA lines laid under its streets, none of them operational.