"Our residents clearly stated that they want this now."įollowing the vote, Rusty Cannon, president of the Utah Taxpayers Association, told St. We came away from those meetings that no clear timeline could be established" on expanding high-speed Internet in the area, council member Jarett Waite said during a Santa Clara city council meeting in November. "The last few months, we met with TDS and InfoWest. In Santa Clara, ISPs TDS and InfoWest unsuccessfully lobbied the city council last year to vote against joining the municipal network, according to St. The growth of Utopia Fiber isn't well received by everyone – particularly incumbent service providers. A company spokesperson put that subscriber number at 45,000, telling Broadband World News "we anticipate thousands more with the push into southern Utah, one of Utah's fastest-growing regions." In a press release about the latest expansion, Timmerman said: "We're really excited to continue our momentum in Utah County and to venture into southern Utah where Santa Clara will become the first all-fiber city in Washington County." Santa Clara ranks as the 58th most connected city in Utah, according to data from Broadband Now.Ĭedar Hills and Santa Clara represent Utopia's 18th and 19th "fiber-to-the-home cities," according to the company's announcement, which states that Utopia has "virtually doubled" its customer base over the last few years. As CEO Roger Timmerman told Broadband World News last year, Utopia builds out fiber and allows private companies to come in and lease connectivity on its network. “As we build out neighborhoods, we light them up one by one,” Knight said.Ī timeline of neighborhoods will soon be made available at UTOPIA’s website, which is also where residents can choose an internet service provider – though there will be no obligation for people to use the UTOPIA network or switch from an existing internet provider.Utopia Fiber announced this week that its municipal open access network is expanding its reach into two more Utah cities this year: Cedar Hills City in Utah County, and Santa Clara in Washington County.Įstablished in 2004, Utopia (which stands for Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency) is owned by a consortium of 11 cities. However, Santa Clara residents will incrementally start seeing the UTOPIA network available to them as soon as later this year. Knight said the goal is to have the entire system completed by mid-2023. Santa Clara is the 18th city in Utah to build a public open-access internet network. Drilling in the soft space between the roads,” Knight said. But Knight said don’t expect to be seeing too much digging through Santa Clara. George News the first physical work on the underground fiber-optic lines should begin in February. George NewsĪfter the initial engineering work, UTOPIA spokesperson Bob Knight told St. In an undated photo from the spring of 2021, UTOPIA Fiber crews lay out conduit fiber cables in an neighborhood | Photo by Lynda Shenkman/UTOPIA Fiber, St. The city and UTOPIA say the model for the Santa Clara network is like that of an airport, with the public entities funding and building the information “runways” that will ultimately be used by a choice of five or more companies providing internet service. On paper, the end result will be that every household in Santa Clara will have access to high-speed internet with speeds of a minimum of 250 megabits per second. The city is providing backup funding for any shortfalls, though the infrastructure agency has said it expects subscription fees of users to ultimately pay off the bond. 10, 2021, with a bond by the Utah Infrastructure Agency paying the bill. The Santa Clara City Council approved the UTOPIA network on Nov. The Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, also known as UTOPIA, said it has started engineering work on the $6.7 million high-speed internet network that will make Santa Clara the first Southern Utah city to have every home and business hooked up to a single fiber-optic network. UTOPIA Fiber crews lay out conduit fiber cables in a neighborhood, location unspecified, circa 2021 | Photo by Lynda Shenkman/UTOPIA Fiber, St. GEORGE - Work on a fiber-optic internet network that is planned to connect to every address in Santa Clara has begun.
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