Utopia fiber8/3/2023 Four months later, in August 2021, the results of the request were shared with the mayor and council, who then directed Magellan Advisors to perform a feasibility study, according to the letter. Then, in April 2021, a request for information was released to fiber providers and resulted in four potential providers being interviewed. In February 2021, Bountiful's mayor and city council directed city staff to begin looking into options of "providing fiber internet services to all homes and businesses in Bountiful." City elected officials and staff began hearing more from concerned citizens about their frustrations and difficulty of obtaining reliable and high-quality internet services in Bountiful," the letter said. "The COVID-19 pandemic had recently forced residents to seek more online services such as education and remote work access. It started in 2020 when the city began exploring the need, demand and desire for fiber-based internet services after requests from residents. The journey to bring fiber internet to Bountiful has been years in the making. "Based on conservative estimates of take rates provided by UTOPIA, Bountiful Fiber should have enough customers to generate a profit above debt service beginning in year five," Hill said. The debt service for the bond will be paid for using system revenues, according to the letter. demonstrate a need for city involvement to provide adequate, competitive, reliable broadband services." "The purpose of the city's involvement with fiber is to provide a competitive marketplace for internet service providers through an open-access network," Gary Hill, Bountiful city manager, wrote in a letter to the council. This type of structure creates 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. While the network will be owned by the city, it will be operated entirely by UTOPIA Fiber, which will lease the fiber to other internet service providers in an open-access structure. To fund the construction of the network, Bountiful is issuing a $48 million bond. BOUNTIFUL - Fiber internet has spread throughout Utah in recent years, and Bountiful is now on deck for faster internet after the City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to approve the buildout of a city-owned fiber network by Murray-based service provider UTOPIA Fiber.
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