Broadband isn’t just Netflix and email anymore. It’s how rural students get homework done, how families connect with telehealth, and how Utah’s defense and AI hotspots move terabytes of data. Internet access is now infrastructure for opportunity, becoming as critical as roads or power lines.
Utah has secured $317 million in BEAD funding to reach the 43,500 homes and businesses that still lack reliable service. Projects are already lined up across Utah’s tribal lands and remote valleys, but other states are moving faster. Colorado has nearly 90,000 locations mapped with contracts in motion, and Arizona has almost a billion dollars designated to expand rural networks. Utah cannot afford to wait while neighbors build the digital railroads of the future.
There is too much at stake.
Strong infrastructure attracts serious investment. Meta is expanding its data center in Eagle Mountain, and a Utah-based firm recently announced a $2 billion AI “supercluster” in West Jordan. These projects exist because robust infrastructure was already in place. Imagine what rural counties could attract if every small town had world-class internet access. Comcast’s $55 million expansion in Indiana, which is bringing high-speed service to more than 10,000 rural homes and businesses, shows that when the groundwork is laid, investment flows even outside the big cities.
And let’s not forget about the risks of delay. A federal rule change this summer forced Utah to hit reset on its broadband grant process and even clawed back $7.8 million in funds. Utah’s broadband director warned that the new requirements were “superfluous” and that they stifled competition. Federal micromanagement has slowed momentum. Utah must keep its broadband market open, competitive, and innovation friendly if we want to stay ahead.
The answer lies in Libertas’ own Local Government Toolkit that shows how cities can help by streamlining permits, opening rights of way, coordinating dig once policies, and, most importantly, partnering with private providers rather than running taxpayer funded networks that, like the iProvo project in Utah, often fall short. Transparency rules recently passed in the Legislature ensure that if a city proposes a broadband project, residents will see the full costs up front instead of being left with hidden debt.
This is Utah’s Golden Spike moment. Broadband is the twenty-first century railroad, and Utah has the chance to lay the tracks while funding and projects are on the table. Every community from Logan to San Juan County deserves to be part of the digital economy. The internet will not wait, and neither should Utah.
