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Keystone Solutions pitches federally funded fiber build, asks city for support
Summary
A Keystone Solutions representative told the council a state broadband grant (about $370 million statewide) could subsidize a local fiber build costing an estimated $1.5M—3.0M; the company asked the city for letters of recommendation and outlined expected resident pricing and construction approaches.
Keystone Solutions presented a proposal to bring fiber broadband to the city and asked council members to consider letters of recommendation that could strengthen the city'9s chance of securing federal and state grant funds. The presenter said the state has roughly "$370,000,000" available for broadband infrastructure and estimated a local project could cost between $1.5 million and $3 million depending on scope and phasing.
The company described benefits including higher bandwidth for telehealth and remote work. The presenter said the company could subsidize a significant portion of deployment costs under a partnership model and recommended starting in higher-density commercial areas before phasing into residential neighborhoods. "We have a unique opportunity where the state of Utah received, bunch of money in the order of, like, $370,000,000 to put fiber in infrastructure across several cities and rural areas," the presenter said.
Council members asked technical and financial questions, including expected monthly prices for residents and commercial customers, installation fees, and disaster resilience. The presenter said residential plans could start "anywhere from $50 to $55 a month," with a federal low-income cap referenced near $60, and that commercial rates would be higher. He described fiber as durable (lifespans of "50 in a 100 years" in his example), noted battery-backed customer equipment for outages, and explained backbone connectivity would use transport partners.
On construction logistics, the presenter outlined options including microtrenching to avoid expensive lateral boring, and said easements and railroad crossings would require coordination: "It always makes the link a lot easier if there's municipalities, cities that can help with that process," he said. He also explained the company'9s pre-sale/take-rate assumptions (about 30% to make a project initially viable) and suggested that take rates could rise toward 60%--80% over time with good customer service.
The presenter repeatedly stated the service would be optional for residents and that the firm handles customer service through its support line. No formal action was taken; council members asked staff to follow up on the request for recommendation letters and to evaluate grant-application steps.
The council may schedule follow-up staff work to determine whether to provide the requested endorsements and to gather more precise cost estimates and easement logistics.
