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Leaders of Provo City and Broadweave Networks were harder to find Monday than cheap gas.
They were holed up in city offices hammering out the details of the $40.6 million deal that privatizes the fiber optic network, in turn taking the money-losing venture off the city's hands. The deadline was Monday and by now, Broadweave owns the system -- we think. "I'm holding my breath hoping that it gets done," said Councilman George Stewart, who was also awaiting word Monday. There was supposed to be a small ceremony, but nothing had been made public, even to council members, by 5 p.m. Monday. The council approved the sale in June. What customers will see during the transition is yet unknown because Broadweave has made no comment on it. Despite numerous requests in the past week from the Daily Herald, Broadweave has failed to provide responses to questions related to customer impact. The company did recently come to the aid of hundreds of customers whose phone service went dead after their provider -- Mstar -- failed to pay its bills. The iProvo sale was announced at the beginning of May. Broadweave will be taking over the entire network, being both sole owner and service provider for its more than 10,000 customers. The company bought out the customer bases of providers Mstar and Nuvont. It was also announced Monday that the Utah Public Service Commission approved the merger of Broadweave and iProvo's third provider, Veracity. Provo has lost millions on the iProvo venture, in large part because of the wholesale business model required by state law. Though the city owned the fiber it was not allowed to be a service provider. Broadweave hopes to avoid the problem by being both owner and service provider and streamlining operations. The deal isn't without critics. Pete Ashdown, president of local Internet service provider XMission, claims the city did not do a formal request for bids on the system. Instead, he says, it took Broadweave's deal without knowing what others may have to offer. Mstar officials also said they offered to buy the system, but were rebuffed. The sale isn't outright, either. Instead of paying Provo the money for the system, Broadweave instead will assume the city's bond payments and low municipal interest rates. Broadweave officers have promised millions in surety should they fail to make payments. |
