[1st-mile-nm] Utopia Update

[Richard Lowenberg]

UTOPIA Fiber Announces Morgan City, Utah is Fully Built-Out

https://optics.fiberbroadband.org/Full-Article/utopia-fiber-announces-morgan-city-utah-is-fully-built-out

April 28, 2020

Residents in the rural mountain community of Morgan City, Utah can 
finally celebrate: UTOPIA Fiber announced today it has completed its 
Fiber-to-the-Home project in the city, a boon to Utahns struggling with 
home internet connectivity because of COVID-19. The city’s nearly 4,500 
residents now have access to the fastest internet speeds in the nation – 
a windfall, coming at a time when most Morgan City residents have to 
work and learn from home.

The five-month, $2.5 million construction project was just completed 
with UTOPIA Fiber financing, designing, and constructing the system in a 
very short period. And because of intense subscriber demand, UTOPIA 
Fiber has covered all bond payments and operating expenses in a record 
eight weeks’ time. About a third of Morgan City’s households signed up 
for the service during that period, making it one of the fastest UTOPIA 
Fiber markets to reach the break-even point in the company’s 16-year 
history.

“In addition to bringing the fastest Internet speeds in the country to 
its residents and businesses, fiber enables the city to better support 
its own critical infrastructure, including its own electrical utility, 
public safety, and various smart city applications,” said Roger 
Timmerman, Executive Director, UTOPIA Fiber. “Notably, Morgan City is 
now one of the smallest, most rural communities in the United States to 
have full fiber connectivity.”

Morgan City residents can access fiber internet services starting at 
$65/month for 250/250 Mbps and with options up to 10 Gbps (up to 100 
Gbps for business) from eleven local providers—the fastest internet 
speeds in the nation.

“We’re all excited about our new fiber connectivity,” said Ray Little, 
Morgan City’s mayor. “As Morgan City continues to grow, high-speed 
Internet is increasingly important for our residents and businesses.” 
His wife loves the new fiber service from UTOPIA Fiber, crediting it for 
enabling her to work remotely while observing COVID-19 social distancing 
protocols.

UTOPIA Fiber is an inter-local agency that provides Fiber-to-the-Home 
services in 14 Utah cities and commercial services in over 50. UTOPIA 
Fiber is an Open Access network, meaning that UTOPIA Fiber builds the 
infrastructure and allows private sector internet service providers 
(ISPs) to offer internet services through UTOPIA Fiber’s lines.

Interested Morgan City residents and businesses can visit 
UTOPIAfiber.com for information on how to sign up for UTOPIA Fiber 
services.

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. With fiber availability to over 100,000 businesses and residences 
in over 50 communities, UTOPIA Fiber is the largest and most sucessful 
Open Access network in the United States, and enjoys the industry’s 
highest customer satisfaction scores. Since 2009, all UTOPIA Fiber 
projects have been funded completely by subscriber revenue.



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Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
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