Provo committee gets 'brutal' with iProvo

A Provo city council committee ripped the city's mayor for his management of Provo-owned fiber-optic network, iProvo, which has lost $7.5 million since 2003 and stands to lose another $2 million this year. "If you can't budget and meet it, then you've got a management problem," said committee member Ron Eliason.

iProvo has been plagued with low usage numbers and below-expected revenue and has been hurt by competition from telecoms Qwest and Comcast. The city is debating whether to pay for its own use of the system or to bring on additional ISPs.

"It's the single most important financial issue facing our city," Councilman George Stewart said. "We need to find some way to close the deficit."

For more:
- Read the Desert News' full story [1]
- and this report [2] about Utopia and iProvo at Utah's Daily Herald

Related articles:
Utopia has high price [3] for member cities, users 
iProvo lost many customers last year [4]