Welcome back to the next installment in our UTOPIA Fiber employee interview series. In today’s interview, we’re talking to our Outside Plant Engineering Manager, Brian Kelsey to get all the details about what it’s like working on the network planning side of UTOPIA Fiber.

What’s your name, position, and how long have you been at UTOPIA Fiber?

My name is Brian Kelsey. I’m the Outside Plant Engineering Manager and I’ve been here 6 years.

What do you do as an Outside Plant Engineering Manager?

We design fiber routes and work with engineering companies to make sure everything is designed correctly with the fiber.

What departments do you manage at UTOPIA Fiber?

My team here is comprised of GIS, Sales Engineers, and OSP Engineers.

What do each of those teams do?

GIS stands for Geographical Information Systems. They make sure every fiber and conduit we put in gets put into maps, and that all the maps are accurate to everything constructed.

Sales Engineers do site walks with customers to determine how to bring fiber and equipment to customers’ homes.

OSP Engineers work with engineering firms to get designs for fiber routes, design customer service requests, and work with permitting agencies to get construction permits.

What departments do you work with outside of UTOPIA Fiber?

We work with other engineering firms, the cities, and our contractors.

What made you decide that you wanted to work for UTOPIA Fiber?

Well, I wanted a new opportunity, and I thought it would be a good place to work.

Outside of work what is your favorite thing to do?

Cycling is my favorite thing to do outside of work

What is the biggest challenge your teams face?

The biggest challenge is the constant changes to the field and having to update the maps and move things around. It’s an everyday thing, and we’re having to make sure that things are right and accurate.

What do you wish people knew about your department in particular?

I wish people knew that they touch every single customer and every single fiber to make sure we can get services ordered. You can’t place any orders without GIS, and if the maps are screwed up it causes a lot of problems. You can’t locate, and you can’t build right, so it’s really an important job to make sure that everything is accurate.

What’s been the best part about working at UTOPIA Fiber?

We’re just a good team. It’s kind of like a family, everybody gets along and works together.

What’s been the weirdest experience you’ve had at UTOPIA Fiber?

Weirdest experience? Well, we’ve had a lot of fires that have burned our fiber, those are some of the weirdest. We had a couch that burned our fiber in West Valley City, and there was once a truck that caught on fire and burned our fiber. Another weird one was someone shooting our fiber with a 22.

What do you wish people knew about UTOPIA Fiber?

I wish people knew that we provide awesome internet and we’re a good price! Just all the good things about UTOPIA. Sometimes there are misconceptions, so I just wish they could know all the good stuff.

What’s your favorite thing about Fiber internet?

I don’t have fiber yet. I live in a non-UTOPIA Fiber city, but I want fiber! I want it for the speeds, the reliability, and especially the fiber’s symmetrical speeds. With my current provider, I don’t have that. Not even close.

We hope you enjoyed getting to know our Outside Plant Engineering Manager! We know that we couldn’t do what we do without the hard work that Brian and his team put into our fiber network every day!

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