Fiber Optic Utility brings faster and better internet to Ammon

The city of Ammon Fiber Optic Utility is welcoming a new service for faster and better internet.

City staff and elected officials are concerned that a number of people are being misinformed about fiber utility.

The purpose is to present clear and factual information and answer any questions related to the utility service.

“As a city, we are trying to get as much information out there as possible. We continue to find that a lot of the residents are confused about what the city of Ammon is doing, how they are doing it, and what the cost is to the residents who want to connect. That is the reason we are holding this public meeting is to try and educate people,” technology director for the city of Ammon Bruce Patterson said.

Fiber optics is a strain of glass that is a fraction of the diameter of a strand of hair and uses a laser to flash infrared signal down a cable.

This can travel 10 to hundreds of miles at the speed of light down that cable.

At the other end of the cable is a receiver that will pick up that signal and translate that into data.

“Fiber optics in the city of Ammon means having the option of fiber optics utility to install a fiber cable all the way to their home,” Patterson said. “Send the signal down that cable at the speed of light so that they can connect to the internet at blazing fast speeds.”

Having fiber optics doesn’t mean you have internet.

They will hold a meeting in the Centennial Ranch and Jennie Jean subdivisions in Ammon.

“We find that each year we have done these improvement plans, we’ll finish the neighborhood that we go through and we have residents that call us almost immediately, asking us to connect them and they don’t understand that almost at that point in time they have to pay for the connection in full. If they participated in the improvement project it’s actually a very low annual fee that they pay overtime to pay back the cost to install the fiber optics to their homes. So the time to participate is now,” Patterson said.

In this meeting, they will help you understand what your options are and how fiber optics is different from your current internet provider.

In Ammon, you pay the city to use the fiber utility but you pay someone else to connect to the internet.

The difference is combining these two fees one from the city and one from the provider.

Patterson says this is typically less then most people are already paying for their internet connection.

National surveys show that having fiber optics installed in your homes increases its value over 3%.

For for a $75,000 home, it’s going to typically increase the value of the home by over $4,000.

“This is because home buyers are getting smarter and they know that the internet is very much like sewer and water. They want it, they know they are going to pay for it every month, and that matters to them what that monthly bill is. So they are motivated to try and find good connectivity at the lowest price possible,” Patterson said.

The meeting will be on June 5 at Mountain Valley Elementary School.

It will start at 7 p.m and is open to the public.

To find out how many internet options there are to use fiber optics in your home, visit here.

To log in as a guest user, the user name is coademo and the password is coademo.