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iProvo Prepares to Cross 10,000 Subscriber Mark
iProvo is Utah’s second largest municipal broadband project. The largest, Utopia, is a consortium of cities from around the state. iProvo, on the other hand, is a project of the Provo City. A story in today’s Deseret News says that iProvo now has 9,480 subscribers. The graphic accompanying the story shows the growth since August, 2005. The trend is nearly linear, up and to the right.
iProvo used to believe that they needed 10,000 customers to break even, but that number has gone up to between 12,000 and 14,000. The big question is whether they can hit break even before the money they raised from bonds runs out.
iProvo has about 400 commercial accounts and the rest break down almost evenly between apartment complexes and residential customers. Kevin Garlick, iProvo’s general manager, and Provo’s mayor, Lewis Billings, believe that the number of commercial accounts could be greatly expanded.
iProvo has had a lot of naysayers over the years. Its good to see them succeed. While they’re not out of the woods yet, they’re on the right track and should be commended for vision and guts.
In the meantime, Utopia pulled fiber in front of my house last week. I expect my neighborhood to light up soon. I’m looking forward to it.
Posted by windley on March 12, 2007 2:22 PM
Comment from Jesse Harris at March 12, 2007 4:23 PM
The same folks who get on iProvo's case are the same ones that don't seem to mind the telco/cable duopoly and accompanying broken promises. They sound like little more than industry shills. It's good to see iProvo growing briskly and proving them wrong.
On another note, some of us will likely never see the light of fiber. I live in unincorporated county land (which can't join UTOPIA) and even if we were annexed by Sandy, they aren't participating.
Comment from Andrea at March 13, 2007 6:28 AM
Nice to see iProvo succeed? They lost nearly $1 million last year and are expected to lose more than $2 million this year. Who knows how much they'll lose in future years?
At least Qwest and Comcast don't need annual transfusions of tax dollars to stay afloat. They also pay property taxes on their infrastructure while iProvo does not.
Comment from Jeremy at March 13, 2007 11:13 AM
I've argued a lot in the past about how it is generally a bad idea for municipal governments to compete with private business on stuff like this. That said...I live in Layton now and am counting the days/weeks/months/years till I get to have the huge fiber optic pipe opened up into my house. Its a terrible idea politically/economically but I am sure excited to take advantage of it.
Comment from Matt M at March 15, 2007 3:36 PM
Why is it a terrible idea economically/politically? Are airports terrible ideas? Should airports pay property tax?
I'm tired of the telcos holding our communities/country back. But then again having a choke hold on the infrastructure is the "only" way to keep shareholders happy.
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