FARMINGTON—In an effort to better serve the community, Mayor Brett Anderson and Matt Weller, President and CEO of All West Communications, broke ground Dec. 14, 2022, for a new high-speed internet fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) line. This groundbreaking took place at Ezra T. Clark Park at 400 West 50 North, Farmington.

“We’ve been talking about getting fiber into Farmington,” said Anderson. “It was tough to try to find a solution that would work; everybody wants high-speed internet. We are excited that All West has the vision to come to Farmington to believe in our residents. That we actually want and desire what they are offering; this is going to be huge for our city.”

All West Communications has been in business since 1912, when a group of farmers, ranchers and businessmen pioneered the Utah and Wyoming Independent Telephone Company. After several mergers with other telephone companies, the company name eventually changed to All West. And they continue to grow with new technologies. They are a telecommunication company based in Kamas and provide internet, phone and television services to rural communities from northeastern Utah to southwestern Wyoming. 

“It’s exciting to be here today,” said Weller. “We are grateful for the partnership that the city has enabled us to start; this has moved really fast. We started this whole process in July…and today, we are breaking ground. We are excited to see it happen, and we have worked really hard to move this forward in a way that we can solve some of [the city’s] issues as well as helping us grow and develop.”

All West will provide both residents and businesses in Farmington with multiple speed options. One, two, five and eight gig options will be made available as soon as the FTTH line is in. All West is working with CRS Engineers, the engineering firm working on the project, to provide a website informing residents when their fiber installation will happen. “We’re doing quite a bit to make sure the residents know when they can get fiber,” said Matt Hirst, CRS Engineers’ President and CEO.

“We’re really excited to be in Farmington,” said Hirst. “This is the place where it’s all starting. It’s going to be a really clean and fast and efficient process. We’re working closely with the city to make sure that we’ve got a really good schedule with public involvement.”

Farmington City, under the direction of Mayor Anderson, had considered using other methods and providers before All West approached them. The main issue with these different directions was funding. While other providers offered long-term bonded options, Anderson never felt they were a great fit.

“Residents in Farmington have been searching for a high-speed internet solution for as long as I can remember,” said Anderson. “We wrestled with as a city how do you allocate your resources with understaffed services. When you start trying to prioritize where are we going to spend what limited money we have, it’s really hard to say I’m going to take part of our general fund and dump it into high-speed internet to satisfy some sort of general obligation bond. We were trying to find a solution, and All West comes and knocks on our door in July.”

“[All West said it] would like to do a fiber-to-the-home project, [we asked] what’s the catch, and they’re like no, we believe in your market,” said Anderson. “[All West said] we’re going to bear all the risk; you don’t have to bond anything. There is no commitment from the city. We believe that your residents will use our service, and we’re willing to take that risk.”

Everyone involved in the project seems excited to be bringing these FTTH services to Farmington. “Farmington is one of the first along the Wasatch front that we have worked with,” said Phil Marchant, Director of Strategic Partnerships with All West Communications. “It’s been a great relationship, and we’re both excited to get this fiber project going.”

The project includes more than 100 miles of fiber and duct that will service over 6,300 homes and businesses. All West’s fiber-optic network will benefit residents, businesses and community organizations. The All West FTTH project is set to begin in early 2023, with an anticipated completion in the spring of 2024.

“We’re building 2.5 million square feet of office north of Station Park,” said Anderson. “Having high-speed internet is huge, and so this is great timing for All West and great timing for our city and to be able to say to these future office tenants, we’ve got multi-gig fiber to these buildings. So it really is a lot of stuff coming together at a time that we need it. We pat All West on the back and say thank you for having the courage because this is the solution we’ve been looking for.”