Utopia is the nation's largest muni-fiber network, connecting almost a dozen cities in Utah. It sells wholesale access to providers like
AT&T,
XMission and
MStar, who then offer 15Mbps symmetrical fiber connections for $40 to residents of participating cities.
Locals told us last week that Utopia would soon be letting ISPs offer symmetrical 50Mbps service, and now MStar confirms they started offering the speedy tier as of October 22. According to the company's
press release, this is the
"the nations fastest Internet connection."That's technically true, provided you note that
Verizon,
Optimum Online (switched Ethernet) and
Surewest also offer the
"nation's fastest Internet connection." Unlike those three services however, most Utopia ISPs are forced to employ
100GB per month caps in order to make the financials work.
MStar spokesman Matt Clayton tells us the tier will cost users $39.95 a month, and it will come with a 100GB per month cap. However, Clayton hints that the existing caps aren't always enforced.
"The cap is soft, but we do track users who exceed the contracted limit," Clayton says.
"We reserve the right to charge overages for habitual bandwidth abusers. To be honest, most users rarely ever approach the cap, so it isn't a concern for the majority of our customers."There's some interesting posts in our
forums by an Xmission employee on caps, possible future Utopia cities and whether Xmission will also offer the symmetrical 50Mbps tier.