The city has released a 36-page response to rebut what officials say was a premature, assumptive and unsupported study done by the Reason Foundation.

"Both the Reason Foundation and the author of their report, Steven Titch, have strong ties to the telecommunications industry," Mayor Lewis Billings said in a news release. "This report cannot in any way be considered objective."

The Reason Foundation report, released Dec. 5, criticized the city-owned iProvo, warning that taxpayers probably never would recoup the millions invested in the fiber-optic network.

The 33-page report, Spinning Its Wheels, concluded iProvo's financial situation is upside down - it owes more than it is worth - and that finances will only get worse.

Provo's response, Building a Digital Community: The Pioneering Story of iProvo, paints a rosier picture.

"The project is on track, is growing, and is now fully covering all of its operating costs and contributing significantly to its capital costs," the report concludes. "At some future day, it will be said that this project required vision, patience and perseverance, but in the end, the benefits of access and community will have proved the wisdom and vision of this endeavor."

Administrators of the $40 million network - which offers phone, cable TV and Internet services - originally said the project needed 10,000 customers to break even, but now peg that number at 13,000 to 15,000. There are currently 8,400 subscribers.

-Todd Hollingshead