BOUNTIFUL—It’s been a long time in the making but the Bountiful Fiber project has been completed and ahead of schedule. The city-owned, open-access fiber internet network is now available throughout the city. City and UTOPIA officials celebrated on Sept. 25 by lighting up the “Bountiful” sign at Town Square to symbolize the Bountiful Fiber network launch.

“Obviously we’re very excited about this,” said Roger Timmerman, executive director of UTOPIA Fiber. “It was exciting when we were first talking about this and all the great benefits of fiber and what could be here. We’re excited to be a partner in building and operating this network for the city.”

Timmerman said UTOPIA has 10 gig services available anywhere in the city. “You have 19 different companies that can compete and get customers. It’s such a dramatic difference from where you were before even from the first time we started talking about this.”

So many things have changed since then, he said. “We have a new two and a half gig offering. So we’ve got higher speeds on the system. Of all the things that cities can do, we feel that broadband connectivity is one of the very most important and best benefits to communities.”

Timmerman said they applaud the city’s decision to do that. “We do studies on the impacts of this and even if you’re just saying ‘are you saving residents money on this?’ We see that on average you save a household about $30 a month which comes out to about $360 a year, not to mention they have amazing service that they didn't have before.”

“We really didn’t have any plans to do this,” said Mayor Kendalyn Harris. “It wasn’t on our radar. We started to hear a groundswell from residents that it was something that we needed, that there weren’t the options that people were looking for to be able to have the access that they needed in their homes.”

A group of residents was organized, she said. “But they were polite. They went as far as paying for their own lawn signs and emailing and calling us and we were hearing from them letting us know as their elected officials, that they really did need the city to step in to be able to really get the access that they needed.”

Harris said the city started to study the issue. “We were skeptical. It took us over 20 meetings and we were very painstaking. We made a lot of effort and took a lot of time to really study this out. It was not an easy decision. It took a lot of meetings and several years actually to really just look at the pros and cons and what could be done.”

The city looked at different options of different providers, she said. “Now this has come to fruition we are really happy with the work B Jackson has done and the work that UTOPIA has done to get us here today. It’s been a long process but ahead of schedule.”

“I think from a council perspective, we spent a lot of time on this decision,” said Councilmember Kate Bradshaw. “It was one that we spent probably more time on than some people thought was necessary to make sure that we were coming up with something that was right for Bountiful, that would have the right stewardship and the right longevity and to make sure we picked a good partner. I think we all feel really confident that we did that.”

“It’s an incredible testament to citizen involvement and advocating for change in your own community, in your own neighborhoods and making things better,” said Councilmember Cecilee Price-Huish. “That is what this has done. It’s made Bountiful more resilient, more vibrant, better, stronger, more prepared to face the future.”