Syracuse — Years of complaints from residents and businesses about slow, unreliable internet service will soon be a thing of the past, as UTOPIA Fiber broke ground on a major expansion of its all-fiber network in Syracuse City today. Officials, who voted in August to bring the network to the community, watched with excitement as workers began laying the fiber that will soon carry the fastest internet speeds in America to city residents. Syracuse, which is already—technically—served by a few national broadband providers, becomes the 17th city in UTOPIA Fiber’s rapidly growing all-fiber network and puts the city on par with neighbors like Clearfield, Layton, and West Point who are already connected to the fiber network. The $23.5 million project is starting a few months earlier than projected and should be completed by the end of 2022.  

“Bringing UTOPIA Fiber to Syracuse City remains extremely important for the future growth of our community,” says Mayor Mike Gailey. “UTOPIA Fiber has the track record to deliver on speed, capacity, and reliability, as we position our city to be competitive in the digital economy,” noted the mayor. 

“We’re really excited to expand the UTOPIA Fiber network here in Syracuse City. UTOPIA Fiber brings choice for residents and businesses. When you have competition, it protects net neutrality, keeps prices in line, and provides greater reliability,” says Roger Timmerman, executive director of UTOPIA Fiber. “Competition solves everything, and that’s what we’re all about,” he says.

In addition to providing fiber access to homes and businesses, UTOPIA Fiber will continue its longstanding partnership with the city to provide connections to schools and other community anchors. The network will add Smart City services like free public wifi, air pollution monitoring, and its EDWIN Project, an early-wildfire detection system to help save lives and property.  

Including Syracuse City, UTOPIA Fiber provides fiber-to-the-home services in 17 cities and business services in 50, connecting communities to the fastest speeds currently offered in the United States. Residential speeds are offered up to 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps), while business speeds reach 100 Gbps. UTOPIA Fiber is a publicly owned Interlocal Agency that operates as an Open Access network. This means that UTOPIA Fiber builds the infrastructure and enables competition among private sector internet service providers (ISPs) via UTOPIA’s fiber lines. 

Service maps, build-out timelines, and information on how to sign up for UTOPIA Fiber services in Syracuse City are available at UTOPIAfiber.com.