UTOPIA Fiber Crews Begin Construction of America’s Newest Fiber Network in Pleasant Grove City
‘A Big Day For Connecting America’ As Washington Lawmakers Put Finishing Touches on Broadband Infrastructure Bill and Crews Start Digging in Utah
Pleasant Grove, UTAH (August 5, 2021) At a press conference today packed with city officials, Roger Timmerman, Executive Director of UTOPIA Fiber announced that work had officially begun on an exciting expansion of the company’s rapidly-growing, all-fiber network, bringing ultra high-speed broadband to every home and business in Pleasant Grove City. The $20 million project received a unanimous vote by City Council members in April and will be fully built out by 2023, with the first homes connected to lit fiber in 2022.
As the machinery fired up and work began, Pleasant Grove became UTOPIA Fiber’s 16th city with fiber-to-the-home services.
“It’s a big day for connecting America,” explained Timmerman. “As Senator Mitt Romney and other lawmakers are working hard to finalize the broadband infrastructure bill, UTOPIA Fiber crews are digging here in Utah, bringing ultra-fast and reliable broadband service to Pleasant Grove City.”
UTOPIA Fiber is America’s largest Open Access network, meaning that it builds and owns the infrastructure, but allows multiple private-sector internet service providers (ISPs) to compete, making it easier for them to do business while providing increased broadband access for residents. The Open Access model is completely net-neutral and promotes free-market competition, leading to a higher-level of service and lower cost.
“Although Pleasant Grove City’s 38,000 residents are technically ‘served’ by the cable company, community members have been complaining loudly about slow and unreliable internet service. That changes today,” said Guy Fugal, Mayor of Pleasant Grove. “UTOPIA Fiber is here with a proven trackrecord and a loyal customer base. Most importantly, they have been consistently hitting their revenue marks, which is the ultimate quality measure. We’re very excited to start construction.”
Councilman Eric Jensen said: “One of the biggest questions we get as a City is, ‘when are we going to have more options and when are we going to have fiber?’ Today is that day!”
“Competition solves everything,” noted Timmerman. “We’re excited to connect Pleasant Grove City residents, businesses, and students to the fastest speeds in the country.”
Pleasant Grove City—like every UTOPIA Fiber project since 2009—is on track to be funded and grown solely through subscriber revenue, at no cost to taxpayers.
Including Pleasant Grove, UTOPIA Fiber provides fiber-to-the-home services in 16 cities and business services in 50, connecting communities to residential speeds of up to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps), and 100 Gbps for business, both the fastest speeds currently offered in the United States. UTOPIA Fiber is a publicly-owned Interlocal Agency. Participating cities also benefit from various Smart City applications that are enabled by the UTOPIA Fiber network including an early wildfire detection system, fast public WiFi, air quality monitoring services, and more.
Pleasant Grove residents and businesses are invited to visit UTOPIAfiber.com for service maps, build-out timelines, and information on how to sign up for UTOPIA Fiber services.
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 $300 million worth of fiber projects throughout Utah, all of which have been funded completely through subscriber revenue, at no cost to taxpayers.
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MEDIA CONTACTS
Bob Knight
Harrison Edwards PR
914-242-0010
bknight@harrison-edwardspr.com
-or-
Kim McKinley
Chief Marketing Officer, UTOPIA Fiber
801-613-3837