It may be called UTOPIA, but that doesn't make the Utah fiber optics network perfect.

They're working on it, though, says one provider.

Residents in a condominium complex in central Orem were among the latest rush of people to sign up for high-speed Internet, telephone and cable service through the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency. Most picked the same provider, MStar. Some are online and loving it. Others are still grounded by a bad connection after days of waiting.

"They admitted they didn't know how to fix the problem and they could only communicate with Hong Kong during our evening and their daytime," said homeowner Lynn Anderton, who said he's technically had service for two weeks but hasn't been able to access the Internet.

Some of the MStar equipment was made in China.

Anderton has been the point-man for his dozen or so neighbors who signed onto the program. All those with problems have been calling him, he said, and he's been calling the company.

"All I can get is, 'Well, we're working on it,' " he said.

The company is working as hard as it can to get all the kinks ironed out, said MStar president Ben Gould. With new technology and a system that's been up and running for just a few months, a problem-free setup just isn't likely.

He did say problems are getting less common as they hook more homes and businesses onto the network.

"There's always issues," Gould said. "Qwest has them, Comcast has them, we have them."

When there are problems, a team is sent to the house or business to find and fix the problem, even if it means fixing the router, debugging computers or rewiring older homes, he said.

The learning curve is shared by the other three UTOPIA providers, and it's one MStar and Veracity went through when getting iProvo users online. Mary DeLaMare-Schaefer, the marketing and customer relations manager for Provo city energy, said the problems didn't usually come from the fiber optics, but when installing the system in homes, much as UTOPIA is seeing.

"Each home is different and it's very personal and people get concerned about putting holes in walls," she said. "Each house is unique."

Provo's biggest difficulty came from its first provider, which went out of business and set the project behind schedule, she said. The biggest help came in a two-year-long dry run.

"We learned a lot in the demonstration project before we launched into full service," she said.

The providers now are working to get to the end of the learning curve, Gould said.

"We try our hardest to satisfy every single customer," he said. "That's the same for UTOPIA as well as for iProvo."

Heidi Toth can be reached at 344-2543 or htoth@heraldextra.com.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page B10.