Murray — UTOPIA Fiber announced today that it now has 17 cities in its rapidly growing, all-fiber network after the Syracuse City Council voted recently to sign a contract between the city and UTOPIA Fiber’s sister agency, Utah Infrastructure Agency (UIA). Construction on the $23.5 million project for fiber-to-the-home service is slated to begin in early 2022. It is worth noting that while the partnership will bring fiber internet access to all residents and businesses in Syracuse, Syracuse City is already served with broadband service by multiple ISP’s.
“Bringing UTOPIA Fiber to Syracuse City is very important for our future growth,” says Mayor Mike Gailey. “UTOPIA Fiber will deliver on speed, capacity, and reliability, and more importantly, has the track record to help us be successful. This fits the bill in Syracuse, both for residents and our economic development.”
Including Syracuse City, UTOPIA Fiber provides fiber-to-the-home services in 17 cities and business services in 50, connecting communities to the fastest speeds currently offered in the US. Residential speeds are offered up to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps), while business speeds reach 100 Gbps. UTOPIA Fiber is a publicly owned Interlocal Agency that operates as an Open Access network. This means that UTOPIA Fiber builds the infrastructure and enables competition among private sector internet service providers (ISPs) via UTOPIA’s fiber lines.
“We’re really excited to expand the UTOPIA Fiber network to Syracuse City, giving residents and businesses real choice among our 15 private sector internet service providers,” says Roger Timmerman, executive director of UTOPIA Fiber. “We know the community well because we’ve been providing connections for schools and businesses in Syracuse City for years. Plus, we already have fiber to the home in nearby cities of Clearfield, Layton, and West Point. This agreement means that every resident in Syracuse City will have access to UTOPIA Fiber, connecting them to the fastest internet speeds available in the US.”
UTOPIA Fiber’s Open Access model protects a free and open internet without throttling, paid prioritization, or other provider interference. Participating cities can 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 pollution monitoring services, and more.
Service maps, build-out timelines, and information on how to sign up for UTOPIA Fiber services in Syracuse City will be posted soon at UTOPIAfiber.com.
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 from competing providers. 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.