Left to right: Jared Stewart, Tooele City’s economic development director; Tooele City Mayor, Debbie Winn; Matt Weller, president of All West; Chamber of Commerce Director, Jared Hamner, and Phil Marchant, a representative of All West, posed for a photo during a ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday, March 7 at the Tooele Technical College welcoming the new fiber optic internet company “All West” to Tooele City.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...Tooele City Mayor Debbie Winn has signed a contract with a company to offer fiber optic internet in the city.
The fiber optic service will be available for all residents and businesses within two years.
A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Tuesday, March 7 at the Tooele Technical College to introduce the new company, Kamas-based All West, to members of the community and community leaders.
“The Chamber of Commerce sponsored the ribbon cutting like they always do to welcome new businesses,” Winn said.
During the ceremony, Winn; Jared Stewart, Tooele’s economic development director; Jared Hamner, Chamber of Commerce director; Matt Weller, president of All West and Phil Marchant, a representative of All West, cut the ribbon signaling the beginning of the new project which All West representatives promised will provide high-speed internet to all parts of Tooele City, including all homes and businesses.
Fiber internet, sometimes just called “fiber,” is a broadband connection that can reach high upload and download speeds.
Fiber internet uses fiber-optic cables, which can send data as fast as 70% of the speed of light.
Fiber-optic cables are not as susceptible to weather conditions as other internet cables, so there are less outages.
“High speed internet is needed for school work, for those who work from home, and for businesses who need higher speeds, “ Winn said. “The world has changed greatly since COVID and many more people are using the internet and needing higher speeds.”
A few months ago, the company approached Winn during a meeting in the Salt Lake Valley. They promised the fiber optics internet for city residents and businesses without cost to the city. The only cost, they promised, would be what users pay each month for their internet bill.
“We did not put this out for bid or even request companies to bring broadband to us,” Winn explained. “All West came to us.”
“We have investors that come in and back us and that’s how we are able to afford to install the internet,” Weller said.
The company told the mayor that other companies that provide fiber optic internet will be allowed to bring their business to Tooele City and All West won’t have exclusive rights as a provider, Winn said.
Installation will begin in the next week or so and will be complete within two years, Weller said.
“Our crews will go and cut the road six to 12 inches from the edge, and it’s about an inch wide where they put ducts in,” Weller explained. “Then, they connect the different neighborhoods and the internet can spur off to the different residences.”
When the internet is finally installed, those interested will be able to sign up for the internet at their homes or businesses with equal upload and download speeds starting at one gigabyte per second and topping out at 100 gigs a second.
“The fiber technology increases every five to 10 years and sometimes it doubles and triples the speed,” Weller explained.
“We are super excited to be here,” Weller said. “This is a great spot and Tooele is a great community. We are excited to be a part of it. This will be a long-term relationship and a team effort. We will be here for a long time.”
