Utah’s UTOPIA municipal fiber infrastructure consortium told a fe...
Utah’s UTOPIA municipal fiber infrastructure consortium told a federal court Qwest lacks data to underpin a raft of complaints against UTOPIA. Qwest claims UTOPIA will be able to engage in predatory pricing thanks to tax subsidies; UTOPIA illegally occupies…
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its pole space; and UTOPIA installations have damaged Qwest facilities. The consortium of 11 Utah cities asked the U.S. Dist. Court, Salt Lake City, to dismiss Qwest’s June 1 suit because it hasn’t stated claims against UTOPIA that courts can grant. UTOPIA (Case 2:05-cv-00471-PGC) told the court any market advantages provided by limited tax exemptions are more than offset by state legislative curbs on financing and accounting, and mandatory accountability to elected officials and the public. It also said Qwest claims of illegal pole occupation and facility harm are exaggerated. UTOPIA said most of its attachments are on poles owned by electric utilities. It said there were 3 Qwest-owned poles where UTOPIA mistakenly attached its lines, but those quickly were removed when Qwest complained. UTOPIA cited one incident in which its contractor damaged a Qwest underground cable, but blamed the damage on Qwest’s failure to mark the worksite properly. Meanwhile, the City of Riverton flatly denied a Qwest claim in the suit that the city forced private land developers to provide free underground conduit for exclusive future use by UTOPIA. The city said when it does require developers to lay underground telecom conduit, such conduit must be made available to all telecom providers that want access to it.