Payson residents have something to be grateful for this Thanksgiving week.

Roger Timmerman, Executive Director of the Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency, announced Monday that the all-fiber network has fully connected every address in the city, making it the eighth of UTOPIA’s 11 original cities to be fully connected to fiber.

“Now all 20,000 residents and businesses in Payson can access the fastest residential and business internet speeds in the United States,” Timmerman said.

Timmerman also announced that all 11 of the network’s original cities will be fully built-out by the end of next year, including West Valley City, the second-largest city in Utah.

To meet steep population growth, Payson City officials began working with the UTOPIA Fiber team in 2019 to expedite the completion of the all-fiber network.

Conversations were catalyst for a $3.5 million bond, issued by the Utah Infrastructure Agency, UTOPIA Fiber’s sister agency, early in 2021 to expand and complete the network. It was paid for solely through subscriber revenue, not by taxpayers.

“Thanks to the early-on vision of Payson’s city leaders, our residents and businesses are perfectly positioned to take advantage of all that the digital economy offers,” Mayor Bill Wright said. “Everyone in the city having access to UTOPIA Fiber is a boon for the city’s economic development and quality of life.”

UTOPIA Fiber is laying nearly 50 miles of fiber conduit every month and is fully building out cities in months, not years, according to Timmerman.

In a survey released in October — which included Payson City residents — 83% of respondents said they were glad their city invested in UTOPIA Fiber. Additionally, 76% report that the network has improved their quality-of-life, and 75% say their community is better because of the all-fiber network.

Payson joins a long list of Utah cities that UTOPIA Fiber has completed including Brigham City, Centerville, Midvale, Morgan, Perry, Layton, Lindon, Tremonton, West Point and Woodland Hills.

According to Timmerman, the network has an extensive pipeline of fiber projects throughout the state: “As excited as we are about being invited to build fiber networks in communities throughout Utah, we’re truly delighted to deliver a completed project to Payson City.”

Today, UTOPIA Fiber provides fiber-to-the-home services in 17 cities, and commercial services in over 50. It operates as an Open Access network, meaning that UTOPIA Fiber builds the infrastructure and allows private sector ISPs to offer net-neutral internet services through public fiber lines.

Service starts at $65/month for 250/250 megabytes per second, and residents have the option to choose speeds up to 10 gigabytes per second (up to 100 Gbps for business) from 15 local providers.

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