Utah’s UTOPIA Fiber, shorthand for Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, says it deployed more than a million miles of fiber and conduit across Utah last year accumulating 67,000 total subscribers, as the collaborative open access fiber provider continues to make steady inroads in transforming the state’s broadband competition landscape.
According to a new update by the organization, UTOPIA not only laid a million miles of fiber across Utah last year, the network continues to see steady subscriber growth and profitability. UTOPIA officials say they also completed their planned Bountiful Fiber expansion one year ahead of schedule.
The UTOPIA expansion into Bountiful broadband fiber connectivity to 13,553 homes and 2,987 businesses, for a total of over 16,500 addresses passed. The expansion had to overcome not just the traditional logistics of a major network build, but a misinformation campaign bankrolled by private telecom monopolies keen on derailing UTOPIA’s momentum.
UTOPIA was created in 2004 to build and operate an open access fiber network reaching every last home and business in its territory. The open access nature of the network allows competition among 19 residential and over 25 business Internet Service Providers over a centralized shared infrastructure.
The result is some of the lowest broadband prices and fastest speeds available anywhere in the continental U.S., having also recently been singled out in an Ookla analysis comparing ISP performances across the nation which found that UTOPIA had exceptionally low-latency.
Since 2009, UTOPIA’s expansion has been funded entirely by subscriber revenues. But, despite some early lawsuits by regional monopolies like Qwest (now Centurylink/Lumen) designed to kill the project before it could get a foothold, UTOPIA has not only survived but thrived, and its success has been transformative for large swaths of the Beehive State.
“In many Utah neighborhoods, residents have had only one internet provider or no fiber option at all,” UTOPIA Fiber Deputy Director Nicole Cottle says of the organization’s latest milestones. “Our model changes that by introducing real competition. Multiple providers compete on price, service, and support, and when customers call, they’re talking to people in their own communities. That accountability raises the standard for service.”
According to officials, UTOPIA Fiber now serves more than 67,000 subscribers across 20 Utah member cities and through its operational partnership with Bountiful City.
Watch UTOPIA Fiber Executive Director Roger Timmerman on a recent episode of our Unbuffered podcast below:
Inline image of UTOPIA technician inspecting a fiber splice case courtesy of UTOPIA Fiber
