We also know that Gather Utah has been telling some Bountiful City residents that they represent city government and that their effort is in support of the UTOPIA Fiber project. So the dominant cable companies not only don’t want to provide the service Bountiful City needs, they also want to block others from doing so. Yet when given the opportunity in 2020, before anyone else, to provide Bountiful City with affordable and robust broadband, the companies balked. They have been vocally opposed to community-owned broadband for decades and are well-known for providing organizations like the UTA with significant financial support in exchange for pushing policies that help maintain their market dominance. Two huge cable and broadband companies, Comcast and CenturyLink/Lumen, have been members of UTA and have sponsored the UTA annual conference. Its President, Rusty Cannon, has spoken in opposition to UTOPIA Fiber’s project in prior council meetings. UTA has long been opposed to communities having the freedom to choose the best broadband internet access for their residents. Similarly, Gather Utah has no website, no listed phone number and no list of board members, staff or funding sources. UTA is a “dark money” organization because it doesn’t currently publish a list of its dues paying members or its Board of Directors, so a Bountiful resident would have no idea who is behind this effort to take away this public benefit. UTOPIA Fiber was on track to start construction this summer until a dark money organization called the Utah Taxpayers Association (UTA) hired a group called Gather Utah to obtain signatures for a petition that would stop the city from building the broadband network it chose to provide to its residents. Only after this years-long process did the city sign a contract with UTOPIA Fiber. This process included surveys, a feasibility study and an invitation to all providers to submit a proposal. Prior to the vote, the city underwent a very thorough, transparent process and opened the opportunity to provide broadband to the city’s residents to everyone, including the state’s largest cable and broadband companies. The City Council voted unanimously, 5-0, to provide its residents with lightning fast, universal and affordable fiber broadband service by partnering with UTOPIA Fiber, the same company that provides fiber-to-the-home service in 20 cities across the state. May 26 was an historic day for Bountiful City.
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