The late Tuesday morning announcement comes barely two weeks after Mayor Lewis Billings said it was too soon to sell the financially beleaguered service.

Broadweave will pay the city $40.6 million and will lease the iProvo network operations center from the city. And the new owner will consider hiring some of the city's telecommunications employees.

The city will be allowed to use some of the network's extra capacity for utility service.

The company is headed by Fraser Bullock, former chief operating officer of the 2002 Winter Olympics, and former Novell head Robert Frankenberg.

Billings said he would discuss the sale more fully at a 1 p.m. press conference Tuesday.

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