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LEHI — Residents are starting to connect to Lehi’s new citywide fiber network that aims to connect the city with affordable, quality internet.
On Monday, the Lehi Fiber Network was put to use when the first residence in Lehi got connected.
“It is certainly a landmark day. The only regret I have is that we are not hooking up every single Lehi home today, but we should have every home in Lehi signed up within two years,” Mayor Mark Johnson said.
Over the past two years, the city has been creating and building a fiber-optic broadband network that will provide affordable high-speed internet service to the community. There are 13 residences connected to the network and almost 7,200 addresses are pre-registered to get access once construction is finished.
“The city is grateful to offer such a high-quality network to residents and businesses. This network will be an asset to our community for years to come,” said Lehi fiber manager Shaye Ruitenbeek.
After conducting a fiber feasibility study, the Lehi City Council went through a competitive process to choose a company that would design, engineer, construct and operate the network. STRATA Networks was chosen in December 2021, and the project that had been in the works for years was officially underway.
The fiber network is financed by a bond that was approved by the City Council in 2020. STRATA Networks is a large, independent telecommunications cooperative that allows municipalities to maintain ownership in the network and benefit from subscriber revenues, while having a trusted partner to serve as the network operator, according to a Lehi statement released when city officials announced the partnership.
The city’s contract with STRATA Networks is approximately $68.1 million to build to reach around 21,800 locations, including residential and commercial, based on a 45% take rate — the take rate is the percent of subscribers on the network, Ruitenbeek said.
“Lehi is one of Utah’s greatest cities, and it only makes sense for the home of Silicon Slopes to have access to a robust fiber network,” said STRATA Networks CEO Bruce Todd. “Communities like Lehi are trailblazers in positioning the state for growth and opportunity and having citywide fiber internet access will allow Lehi and Utah to thrive more than ever. We are happy to be a part of it and look forward to seeing the many ways it will benefit the people that live here.”
STRATA Networks hosted a “fiber-cutting” ceremony on Sept. 6 to commemorate the start of construction on the network.
“Today we embark on that next piece as the city has decided to build a 100% fiber network that is open access to provide broadband services to all the reaches of the city,” STRATA Networks chief operating officer Dave Ryan said at the fiber-cutting .
“This new fiber structure will do much more than simply provide high-speed premium internet services to homes and businesses. It will also support many other initiatives such as water conservation, traffic management, sensory applications through the Internet of Things, enhancements for health and lifesaving systems, improved education, along with economic development that will require this type of infrastructure that the city needs and is already experiencing as the technology hub for the state,” Ryan added.
The fiber network is owned by Lehi but follows an open-access model where internet service providers can use the network to sell services to consumers. Residents who choose to connect to the fiber network get to choose one of five internet service providers — XMission, SumoFiber, Intellipop, CentraCom, or Beehive Broadband — to find the option that best suits their situation.
Eligible households can also apply to the Affordable Connectivity Program to get a $30 discount on their internet bill.
“It didn’t take long through 2020 to realize how important fast speeds are to perform our jobs and for our education system. Every child deserves a quality education. They deserve that,” Johnson said at the fiber-cutting.
The “backbone” of the network will be a main line that forms a ring around the city, which creates a “redundant network so that if it gets cut in one spot, it will self-heal,” Ruitenbeek said.
Through overhead lines and micro-trenches, the mainline fiber cables are placed to give houses multi-gig internet speeds, high bandwidth potential and reliable internet connection.
The backbone network is connected by four shelters around the city that contain the electronics for the network. From the shelters, the fiber spreads out into smaller geographical areas known as “cabinets” that consist of about 400 to 500 homes.
Construction of the backbone is complete between the first two shelters and of the 41 cabinets in Lehi. One cabinet is ready for houses to be connected to service.
Two cabinets are undergoing construction and should be ready for connection soon and a fourth cabinet is finishing the pre-construction phase. Other cabinets are in the design, review and data collection phases.
It takes STRATA Networks about two months to complete construction and place fiber cables along the network in a cabinet area. After the cables have been placed, it takes just a few days to run the fiber from the mainline network to the individual home or business and install an optical network terminal that connects users to the internet, Ruitenbeek said during a June 13 city council meeting.
“I am very excited to bring this new service to the citizens of Lehi city,” Johnson said in a statement. “We recognize the importance of reliable utility services. We have recognized for a long time the importance of our power system and how beneficial it is for citizens to own our own power company. I believe the same is going to be true about this high -speed internet network.”
Lehi isn’t the first city in Utah to create a fiber network and won’t be the last.
Mapleton is in the process of building its own, and American Fork is also partnering with STRATA Networks to create a fiber network. UTOPIA Fiber networks are being installed in almost 20 Utah cities, including its largest network in West Valley City.
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.
