Timmerman: All of UTOPIA Fiber’s 11 Original Cities Will Be Fully Built-Out in 2022.

Murray, UTAH (November 22, 2021) – It’s a big day for residents and businesses in Payson City, Utah as Roger Timmerman, Executive Director, UTOPIA Fiber announced today that the all-fiber network has fully connected every address in the city, making it the eighth of UTOPIA’s 11 original cities to be fully connected to fiber. Now all 20,000 residents and businesses in Payson can access the fastest residential and business internet speeds in the United States. Timmerman also announced that all 11 of the network’s original cities will be fully built-out by the end of next year, including West Valley City, the second-largest city in Utah.

To meet steep population growth, Payson City officials began working with the UTOPIA Fiber team in 2019 to expedite the completion of the all-fiber network. Conversations were catalyst for a $3.5 million bond, issued by the Utah Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA Fiber’s sister agency) early in 2021 to expand and complete the network—paid solely through subscriber revenue, not by taxpayers.

“Thanks to the early-on vision of Payson’s city leaders, our residents and businesses are perfectly positioned to take advantage of all that the digital economy offers,” said Bill Wright, Payson City Mayor. “Everyone in the city having access to UTOPIA Fiber is a boon for the city’s economic development and quality of life,” added the mayor.

Today, UTOPIA Fiber is laying nearly 50 miles of fiber conduit every month and is fully building cities in months, not years. In a survey released in October (that included Payson City residents), 83% of respondents said they were glad their city invested in UTOPIA Fiber. Additionally, 76% report that the network has improved their quality-of-life, and 75% say their community is better because of the all-fiber network.

Payson joins a long list of Utah cities that UTOPIA Fiber has completed including Brigham City, Centerville, Midvale, Morgan City, Perry, Layton, Lindon, Tremonton, West Point, and Woodland Hills.

According to Roger Timmerman, the network has an extensive pipeline of fiber projects throughout the state: “As excited as we are about being invited to build fiber networks in communities throughout Utah, we’re truly delighted to deliver a completed project to Payson City.”

Today, UTOPIA Fiber provides fiber-to-the-home services in 17 cities, and commercial services in over 50. It operates as an Open Access network, meaning that UTOPIA Fiber builds the infrastructure and allows private sector ISPs to offer net-neutral internet services through public fiber lines. Service starts at $65/month for 250/250 Mbps and residents have the option to choose speeds up to 10 Gbps (up to 100 Gbps for business) from 15 local providers—the fastest internet speeds in the nation.

About UTOPIA Fiber Created by a group of Utah cities, the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) is a community-owned fiber-optic network that uses the Open Access model to promote competition by giving customers the freedom to choose which telecommunication services they want. With fiber availability to over 130,000 businesses and residences in over 50 communities, UTOPIA Fiber is the largest—and widely considered the most-successful—Open Access network in the United States, and enjoys the industry’s highest customer satisfaction scores. Since 2009, the agency has successfully designed, built, and operated nearly $350 million worth of net-neutral fiber projects throughout Utah, all of which have been funded completely through subscriber revenue, at no cost to taxpayers.