MURRAY — Utah-based UTOPIA Fiber has released its 2023 numbers, showing a record number of buildouts and growth for the community-owned internet network.

The growth is so substantial, the Tuesday news release says, that the 2.7 million feet of fiber-optic cable deployed across its network in 2023 would be enough to stretch across 9,000 football fields, take 108 days to walk, and circle Utah's capital city seven times.

Over the last year, UTOPIA completed network buildouts in five different Utah cities — Cedar Hills, Orem, Pleasent Grove, Santa Clara and Syracuse — bringing its total number of subscribers to over 62,000, with half joining in the last four years.

"This past year has been one of UTOPIA Fiber's best yet," said Roger Timmerman, executive director of UTOPIA, in a statement. "By partnering with communities across Utah and the West, we've built vital infrastructure that aims to ensure residents and businesses benefit from fast, reliable and affordable fiber internet connectivity while leveraging UTOPIA's expertise and proven track record in efficient network operation, maintenance and exceptional customer service."

In May 2023, Bountiful issued a $48 million bond for the buildout of a city-owned fiber network administered through UTOPIA in a first-of-its-kind partnership. While the city will own the network, it will be operated entirely by UTOPIA, which will lease the fiber to other internet service providers in an open-access structure. The project broke ground in August 2023.

Here's a closer look at how UTOPIA fared in 2023:

• $35.63 million in new financing secured
• 23,059 new homes connected
• 8,233 new residential subscribers
• 1,272 new businesses connected

Since UTOPIA's conception and arrival on the Utah internet scene, its biggest selling point has been that it is a community network by and for the people, creating a competitive marketplace where internet service providers have to "compete for customers and have incentives to innovate rather than simply locking out competitors with a de facto monopoly," according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Essentially, it creates more competition and keeps internet prices affordable.

"Residents and city officials were tired of waiting for fast internet to become available in their communities. They took the matter into their own hands — correctly characterizing fiber as vital infrastructure and demanding more choice and affordable pricing," Timmerman said. "We continually build networks that deliver among the fastest speeds in the United States, consistent reliability and the freedom to choose your own internet service provider — most of which are fantastic local Utah companies themselves."

On the flip side, other folks aren't as sold on the UTOPIA model.

Related:

Greg Hughes spearheads campaign against UTOPIA model, government involvement in fiber development

Debate simmers as demand for more broadband around Utah spurs development of new fiber networks.

Former Utah House Speaker Greg Hughes in December said that he worries about what he deems a "government-run and government-operated internet," saying entities like UTOPIA Fiber pose a threat.

"We think that people need to stare pretty closely at the role of government providing broadband, especially the backbone or spine of the internet. We think that's a conversation that just hasn't really happened," said Hughes, spokesman on the issue for a group called the Domestic Policy Caucus. Potentially a threat, he warns, are internet speeds and access to broadband, arguing network development is better left, by and large, to the private sector.

UTOPIA, for its part, decries what it says is the "misinformation" behind the campaign and rejects Hughes' suggestion that the entity has power to manipulate internet speed or access.

"What we do is build infrastructure. ... We actually enable competition," Kim McKinley, UTOPIA's chief marketing officer, said in December. UTOPIA is a quasi-governmental "inter-local agency," she said, that is overseen by a board made up of representatives from the partner cities where it has built its open-access networks.

Since 2009, UTOPIA has designed, built and financed nearly half a billion dollars worth of community broadband projects across Utah and the West. It currently operates in 20 Utah cities and 50 cities for business class service.

Contributing: Tim Vandenack

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