The drill bit was moving steadily toward the train tracks to the west and eventually would pass under the steel rails of the Utah Transit Authority's TRAX system.
"We should be done drilling within the next couple of hours," said Wayment, a crew chief for B Jackson Construction. "Then we'll be able to hook the conduit onto the bit and pull it into place as we remove our equipment from the ground. And within a few days, another crew will be back to pull the fiber-optic cable."
The fiber-optic cable that the drilling crew was working to place will be part of the backbone of the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency's [UTOPIA] massive fiber-to-the-home network under construction in Murray, Midvale and four other Utah cities.
About 60 percent of the fiber already has been laid in Murray and Midvale," UTOPIA Chief Executive Roger Black said, noting that construction is proceeding in four other cities that are part of Phase 1 construction - West Valley, Lindon, Orem and Payson.
Construction in five other cities - Centerville, Layton, Perry, Tremonton and Brigham City - is expected to start later this year.
Nearly four years ago, 18 Utah municipalities organized UTOPIA to explore construction of a fiber-optic network that would serve all the homes and businesses within their cities. Of the original UTOPIA founding cities, 11 remained part of the planned network and have pledged tax revenue to back the estimated $340 million in bonds that the network eventually will need to issue for construction financing.
Although there are about 517,000 feet of UTOPIA fiber in the ground in Murray and another 460,000 feet in Midvale, much of that system remains dark. The fiber will be "lit" only as the service providers that have contracted to use the UTOPIA network - companies that include Utah's X-Mission, M-Star, AT&T and Veracity Communications - expand their marketing efforts to attract customers to the system.
"We've been making steady progress over the past year but we still have only a couple hundred subscribers that we are servicing over UTOPIA," said Grant Sperry, vice president of operations at X-Mission. "Until they build the system out more it will be a little slow going for a while. But we still expect to be serving a couple of thousand people over UTOPIA fiber by the end of the year."
Murray Mayor Dan Snarr, a UTOPIA supporter, signed up to receive his phone, Internet and television signal over the fiber-optic system when it became available in his neighborhood about three months ago.
"Like any new technology there were some problems at first - the phone system got a virus in it and there were some glitches with the television signal. But everything got fixed quickly, and now it works great. The Internet is faster than you can believe," he said.
Brad Thurber, the information technology specialist at the Phytomer skin-care company in Murray, said the UTOPIA system to date is everything it has been represented to be. "The speeds are insane," he said. "We've been on the system for a month now and there has been absolutely no down time."
The UTOPIA system remains somewhat controversial because the cities involved have pledged taxpayer money to back the bonds necessary for construction. And taxpayers in those cities will be on the hook should the system fail to generate the expected revenues necessary to fund UTOPIA's operations and pay back its debt.
"This system wouldn't be getting built if it didn't have the taxpayers behind it," said John Christensen, a former Murray City councilman who led a group known as "UtopiaNot" that tried to block the use of taxpayer support for fiber-optic network. "You hear different things - they're doing great, they're not getting the customers they expected. It's really hard to tell, but sooner or later we'll know for sure when the bill comes due."
UTOPIA's Black, though, said overall the network is serving more customers than initially projected.
"There are some neighborhoods where the 'take' rate (for services) is far higher than expected and somewhere it is a little below expectations. But overall we're exceeding our original projections," he said. "We're serving several thousand people now and more are signing on every day."
Still, UTOPIA faces plenty of competitors, with both Qwest and Comcast offering rival high-speed products, all priced in the same range of $25 to $40 per month. And new technologies, including faster wireless connections and eventually Internet over power lines, are threatening to change the competitive landscape even more.
"We haven't noticed any impact on our customer base in those cities where UTOPIA is beginning to operate," Comcast spokesman Ray Child said. "We're pretty happy with our competitive position. Our high-speed Internet is one of the most popular broadband products in the country."
steve@sltrib.com
What UTOPIA is:
UTOPIA stands for the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency, which is spearheading the development of a fiber-optic network in Murray, Midvale and nine other Utah cities.
When available: Construction of the UTOPIA network is under way in Murray and Midvale, and is expected to be completed in those communities in 2007.
How to get information: Information about the UTOPIA network can be accessed at
http://www.utopianet.org
How much the service costs: UTOPIA will sell access to its network to outside service providers. Those providers will set the cost for their high-speed Internet, telecommunications and television service.
