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PARK CITY — If Park City officials get what they’re hoping for, the city soon will get high-speed fiber Internet for everyone, but a lot of work needs to be done before that can happen.
The idea is to provide every home and business with this kind of Internet access within five years. City officials, like assistant city manager Matthew Dias, say places with a resort-town type of economy will need it.
“Residents are going to start demanding this level of service as basic infrastructure,” he said.
The city has announced its requests for proposals from companies, and officials are looking for a specific kind of provider.
“We are looking for a sole provider to maintain and operate a system, which are the three big phases," Dias said. "All three phases… one provider.”
They haven’t received any official proposals yet, but they expect to get a lot of them by the May 16 deadline.
“We’ve had many different conversations with various providers across the state and even outside of the state," he said. "But we’ve never really put pen to paper and said, ‘What would this cost?’”
Can Park City avoid the problems other cities have had in acquiring this kind of Internet infrastructure? Orem spent $24 million on a bond that would provide its residents with fiber Internet provided by UTOPIA, but that project had to be rescued by an Australian investment group.
Dias said avoiding those pitfalls is a major concern. He said they’re going to look at the mistakes other cities so they can know what not to do.
