Local telco says fiber costs, long radio hops limit speeds in Daggett County; commission moves to closed session

A representative from Union Telecommunications told the Daggett County Commission on a meeting date not specified that limited middle‑ and last‑mile infrastructure and multiple radio hops constrain broadband capacity to parts of Daggett County, and that federal grant funding would be needed to make fiber‑to‑the‑premises practical in small, widely spaced communities.

"We may start out with a gig radio, but by the time it hits Brown Park, we're down to just a couple hundred meg," the Union representative said, describing how backhaul capacity is consumed across multiple sites and also serves mobile and voice traffic. The speaker said the company operates sites that are several hops away from fiber and that each site peel‑off reduces available throughput.

The speaker framed Daggett County as a sparsely populated area—"to be rural, you've gotta have about 6 people per square mile," the representative said—and said that density and local street conditions increase the cost of installing fiber to individual homes. The company representative said fixed wireless is a complementary option where there is line of sight, and cited vendor reports of downlink speeds "up to 500 meg on the downlink and 200 on the uplink at 7, 8 miles." The representative contrasted that performance with satellite service, saying that fixed wireless generally handles bidirectional applications such as video‑conferencing and online gaming more reliably than consumer satellite offerings.

The presenter described the electronics being deployed on fiber in town as allowing "2 gigs, symmetrically" (transcript phrasing: "x pawn"), and said the company is seeking a grant the speaker referred to in the meeting as the "beef grant" to fund fiber‑to‑the‑premises work in town areas such as Manila and Dutch John. The representative said middle‑mile construction (for example, 50+ miles between Rock Springs and Dutch John) can be less expensive per mile than the intensive boring and microtrenching required to install fiber on paved town streets.

Company market figures were cited: a prior take rate of about 27 percent in one area and a stated hope of roughly 60 percent penetration for a new Manila fiber project; by comparison the speaker said Saratoga saw about a 65 percent take rate for a similar deployment. The representative also described company efforts to offer seasonal or lower‑rate plans for part‑time residents, saying such options could reduce churn for second‑home users.

The speaker recounted some company history (mergers dating to the Linwood Telephone Exchange and grandfathered stock dating to 1905) and said the company is also undertaking a large mobile network replacement across multiple states, which the speaker tied to national funding that Congress created several years ago.

After the presentation and related discussion, the commission moved to a closed session. The chair stated the closed session would include two purposes: one with Cody Ivy to discuss "purchase, exchange, [and] release of real property" and a second with Matt Lucas for litigation. The motion to go into closed session was seconded and approved by voice; two attendees—Jack Lydall and Matt Tippets—were recorded as saying "I" during the vote.

The presentation included invitations for continued local outreach: the company said it plans vendor and public events (including participation over Labor Day weekend) and offered to return to the commission on a regular cadence to update on projects.

The commission did not take public votes on broadband projects during this session; the only formal action recorded in the available transcript was the motion and assent to move into closed session for the property and litigation purposes described above.