Idaho Falls, ID (September 28, 2018) – UTOPIA Fiber, Utah’s local open-access fiber optic network, have announced that they have partnered with Idaho Falls to design and manage the network for their residential fiber pilot program. This is the first project UTOPIA Fiber will be working on outside their home state of Utah.

“We are excited to be able to work with Idaho Falls on their project,” said UTOPIA Fiber’s Executive Director Roger Timmerman. “As the largest open-access network in the country, there’s nobody else with the experience and expertise that we have.”

Idaho Falls Power will be managing their own infrastructure and building the physical connections to resident’s homes; whereas, UTOPIA Fiber will be designing and managing an open access system for them to use. The system will rely then on local Idaho companies to partner with to provide services on the network. “Designing a system like this is a detailed, complicated engineering function,” said Bear Prairie, General Manager of Idaho Falls Power and Idaho Falls Fiber. “This is why we reached out to UTOPIA Fiber to help us through this process.”

This pilot program will begin work on a specific study area that will provide connections to homes and determine the feasibility of expanding throughout the entire city by taking advantage of their existing electric and dark fiber infrastructure.

The actual boundaries for the pilot program have not yet been finalized; however, the general area includes the numbered streets between 17^th Street and Tautphaus Park. It will also extend south into a number of residential areas south of Sunnyside.