Prospective iProvo purchaser Broadweave announced this morning that it is acquiring one of the service providers on the fiber-optic network as well as the customer base of the other two providers.

"Broadweave is committed to investing the iProvo network and, as shown by today's announcement, Broadweave is also committed to investing in the network's customer base," said CEO Steve Christensen said in a statement.

With the move, the company would become the sole service provider.

The Mayor's Office announced last week that Broadweave would be buying the network for $40.6 million pending the approval of the Municipal Council. The city has been trying for months to figure out a way to stop losing money on the venture to the tune of millions of dollars a year.

The company has the financial backing of Fraser Bullock's Sorenson Capital and plans to make investments to upgrade the network. That announcement will come in a few days.

On Friday, representatives of both Mstar and Nuvont said the buyout of their customers (about 10,000 connections) would ultimately prove to be a good thing.

"I'm excited for this new path that the City and Broadweave have taken. Under the old wholesale model, it was difficult and inefficient to adequately service customers. We saw this first hand as a service provider. In the long run, Broadweave's model of being both the network owner and the service provider will result in the best experience for the customers," said Brandon Grove, Nuvont CEO in a statement.

The actual transition of customers will coincide with Broadweave's acquisition of the iProvo network which is expected to close before July 1, 2008.

Broadweave also announced on Friday that they would be acquiring Veracity, which has 10,000 customers including some on the iProvo network. The company claims to have the largest Internet phone-based service in the state, an area that Broadweave has repeatedly talked about improving on the iProvo system.

This story is expected to be updated with the results of a 10 a.m. news conference at Broadweave headquarters in South Jordan.

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