Unable to get the Utah Legislature to kill municipal broadband in Utah and rebuffed time and again at City Council meetings, Qwest has now taken the battle to the courts. Qwest filed suit Monday alleging that UTOPIA is unfairly using its status as a government agency and offering services below market prices. There were stories in the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune.

In its lawsuit, Qwest points out that UTOPIA, as an agency of the cities that created it, is exempt from sales and property taxes, which will enable it to operate and offer services over its network at below-market prices.... Qwest is asking the court to order UTOPIA to pay sales and property taxes or to include the amount of those taxes into the rates it intends to charge potential customers for high-speed Internet, telephone and television services.

From Salt Lake Tribune - Utah
Referenced Thu Jun 02 2005 09:24:36 GMT-0600 (MDT)

Suppose I wanted to go into the road building business. Do you think I'd get very far claiming that UDOT had an unfair advantage and was building free-access roads that I couldn't compete with? Not likely.