The Internet for All initiative launched by President Joe Biden’s administration has a goal of connecting reliable, affordable high-speed internet to everyone in America by 2030.
Utah Broadband is part of that national multibillion-dollar effort. The company is poised to expand its fiber footprint in the Heber and Park City areas and its fixed wireless network in some of the more rural areas. Wallsburg and Silver Summit are among the places where Utah Broadband is expanding.
“We’re extremely active in Summit County trying to provide fiber or high-speed wireless internet to as many customers as we can,” CEO Ben Elkins said.
Utah Broadband, a subsidiary of Boston Omaha, is using government grants and private capital for the projects. The company has been providing wireless internet in the state since 2002 and offering high-speed fiber since 2021.
The company has 30,000 customers in Utah, about 5,000 to 6,000 of them in Summit and Wasatch counties, though not to date in Park City proper. The other counties where Utah Broadband operates are Davis, Salt Lake, Tooele, Utah and Weber. Its business customers in the state total about 3,000, with about 2,000 of them in rural areas.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed in 2021 by Biden, included $42.45 billion to connect Americans to internet service while providing connected devices and digital skills training to those who need it.
“High-speed internet is no longer a luxury — it is necessary for Americans to do their jobs, to participate equally in school, access health care, and to stay connected with family and friends,” a White House announcement in 2023 about the funding said. “Yet, more than 8.5 million households and small businesses are in areas where there is no high-speed internet infrastructure, and millions more struggle with limited or unreliable internet options.”
The act established the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program, which provided $42.45 billion of funding to achieve high-speed broadband access to every unserved and underserved location throughout the United States, including in lower-income areas and rural areas.
The Trump administration later made some changes designed to lower costs, including taking a technology-neutral approach by eliminating the “fiber preference.”
Fiber is more expensive and sometimes difficult to install in Utah because of the state’s terrain, especially in some of the rural areas. If possible, Utah Broadband deploys fiber in the open trenches for utilities before the developments are built, Elkins said.
In other circumstances, a high-speed fixed wireless or a satellite option might be more cost effective, he said.
About 70% of customers have wireless internet and 30% have fiber, according to Elkins. A study in Arizona showed that fiber adds $2,500 to $3,000 to the value of a home, he said.
Utah Broadcast also is making a push in the Wasatch Back to connect small and medium-sized businesses.
Among other projects outside of the Wasatch Back, Utah Broadband, in partnership with the South Utah Valley Electrical Service District, is installing fiber in West Mountain, which borders Payson in Utah County, and also is growing in Eden in Weber County.
Elkins predicts 90% to 95% of Americans will have reliable high-speed internet by the end of the decade. More people are using more things in their home that require bandwidth, he said, citing as examples televisions, Ring devices, tablets and Apple watches.
“A lot of people’s refrigerators are now connected,” Elkins said. “Your thermostats are connected. If you start adding it up, a lot of people have 12, 14, 15 devices in the home. So there is a need for more and more bandwidth in the home as there are more and more technology changes.”
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