Whether cities choose to partner with UTOPIA Fiber or not, what’s important is that more Americans are connecting to fiber than ever before, and that’s something to celebrate. “Cities choose UTOPIA Fiber due to its proven operational prowess, financial stability, legendary customer care, and our unparalleled ability to bring 17 Internet service providers on day one to communities,” McKinley told ILSR. UTOPIA, in contrast, insists that its long history of navigating a complicated market heavily dominated by deep-pocket monopolies hellbent on preventing competition (Lumen/Centurylink, formerly Qwest, worked tirelessly to sue the network into oblivion in its early days) makes it well suited as a partner for cities looking for help in improving their broadband fortunes. “If Lehi had partnered with UTOPIA, Lehi would not have had a seat on the board nor control over the future of the network.” “Owning the infrastructure means that the Lehi City Council controls the future of the network,” Lehi Fiber Administrative Services Manager Shaye Ruitenbeek recently told ILSR. UTOPIA provides residential broadband speeds as high as 10 Gbps, and enterprise-grade service speeds as fast as 50 Gbps.Ĭities that have steered toward Strata Networks and away from UTOPIA say their decisions were based on a greater desire for broader control over the network and its finances. UTOPIA and city officials estimate that 3,612 subscribers would be needed to cover bonding costs for the $17.6 million network, a target they say they should be able to reach quickly. “We now offer business services in 50 cities and fiber-to-the-home services in 21, further solidifying UTOPIA Fiber as the nation’s largest and most successful Open Access network.” "We’re enormously proud to welcome West Haven to the UTOPIA Fiber network,” Kim McKinley, UTOPIA’s Chief Marketing Officer, told ILSR. Construction of the new network is expected to begin by the end of 2022 or early 2023, and take less than two years to fully complete. Much like Strata’s projects, UTOPIA’s open access model is “network neutral,” opening the door to numerous local ISPs to compete on the network once it’s complete. On November 14, UTOPIA announced it had been tasked with helping the city build the network, marking UTOPIA’s first entrance into Weber County, Utah. Last July, West Haven, Utah’s city council voted unanimously to strike an accord with the Utah Infrastructure Agency (UIA) to build its own $17.6 million fiber network. Providence officials say the network is under construction and should reach all city residents by the end of 2024.Įlsewhere in Utah, cities continue to craft new partnerships with UTOPIA, the nation’s largest open access network. Strata has also partnered with Providence City, Utah on a similar fiber build that’s also open access, providing locals with eight different ISPs to choose from. utilities using an historic infusion of federal funding to expand affordable broadband connectivity. The network will be built on the back of Lehi’s Utilities Department, part of a growing trend of U.S. Last October, officials in Lehi City, Utah say they broke ground on their own open access fiber network in partnership with Strata they hope will drive competition-and ultimately lower prices-to all city residents. Increasingly, a growing number of such communities are in Utah. In contrast, a growing parade of communities like American Fork are actually listening to the data and embracing the open access concept on a scale previously unseen in the U.S. Despite this, federal policymakers have routinely turned a blind eye to the concept in federal policymaking. For more than a decade, independent studies have found that such models boost competition, resulting in higher quality service and lower prices. The network will be open access, allowing numerous local ISPs to come in and compete in layers. Now, officials in American Fork, Utah have struck a new partnership with Strata Networks to build 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) capable fiber network to improve high-speed Internet access for the city’s 34,000 residents.Īccording to the project FAQ, the network will be financed via a $25 million bond taken out in 2020 and fully financed through subscriber revenues. Whether it is UTOPIA Fiber or the growing number of cities establishing open access fiber network agreements with Strata Networks, Utah continues to be on the cutting edge of developing creative, highly-localized alternatives to entrenched regional monopolies, the first step in genuinely bridging the nation’s stubborn digital divide.
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