Technology and a growing population have increased the demand for high-speed internet in Utah and across the nation as more people connect smart home devices.
Joe and Kelly Cronley and their two children, 15-year-old Elise and 17-year-old JB who are both Park City High School students, are among them. The Park City family has phones, laptops, TVs, speakers, door locks, garage doors, skylights, a grill and other devices connected to fiber-optic internet in their home.
The connections allow family members to do work, stream movies and TV shows, open and close skylights, close the garage door remotely if they accidentally leave it open, and turn off the sprinklers if it’s been raining in their neighborhood and they’re away from home.
Elise, a sophomore, and JB, a senior, have all their homework on their laptops and say they like being able to do their assignments wherever they are.
Joe, a financial advisor, said the devices “make you more efficient.” He and his wife didn’t intend to build a smart house but wanted one that’s functional and easy, he said.
Kelly, a teacher’s aide in science and math for the Park City School District’s Dream Big program for first-generation students, said the 5-year-old house had more options than their original home, but it’s not fully automated.
“We just picked the functions we felt were the most useful to us,” she said. “If you automate so much, then when something goes wrong, it’s more complicated to fix it.”
Ben Elkins, the CEO of Utah Broadband, an internet service provider, said the average household used to have four to six connected devices but that number has risen.
Elkins, who is also CEO of the Arizona-based AireBeam, said the company surveyed its customers in Maricopa County and the average home had 14 devices connected to Wi-Fi. Those devices include smart TVs, cellphones, desktop computers, laptops, Ring doorbells, Apple watches, thermostats, refrigerators, coffeemakers and other appliances, he said.
The number is probably the same in the Wasatch Back and maybe even higher because of Utah’s big families, Elkins estimated.
“More and more devices are being used at the home front,” he said. “And then people want streaming. They don’t want a buffer when they turn on Netflix. Kids that are doing their college term papers want access to stuff on the internet fast. They don’t want to sit there and watch the internet move at a tortoise pace. They want fast, instantaneous information and that’s what fiber or high-speed internet in general provides.”
Parks Associates, a Plano, Texas, market research and consulting firm, estimates the number of connected devices in the average internet household is about 17 and says approximately 45% of households now own at least one smart home device.
Several other surveys put the number in the 20s, including AccessParks, which serves RV parks, campgrounds and manufactured home communities with internet. The number represents a “dramatic increase” from five years ago when 10 to 15 devices were typical, the Houston company says on its website.
Some internet users, including the Cronleys, have more than 30, according to Access Parks.
“The average household in 2026 connects approximately 20-25 devices to their home internet network, with tech-savvy homes or families with teenagers often exceeding 30 connected devices,” AccessParks says.
Utah Broadband was recently awarded nearly $23 million in federal funding to help bring high-speed internet to underserved rural areas in Cache, Summit, Utah and Wasatch counties. The funding, provided by the USDA Rural Utilities Service ReConnect Loan and Grant Program, is a 50% grant and a 50% loan.
The money will enable the company to build 315 miles of new fiber-optic infrastructure and provide broadband capabilities to more than 3,000 homes, businesses, farms and essential community anchor institutions. Those institutions include schools, libraries, health care facilities, public safety entities, public housing organizations and community housing organizations.
The federal government has been working to connect every American to reliable, high-speed internet through USDA ReConnect, the BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) program, matching funds from states and other initiatives and grants.
On Wednesday, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced it had approved $42.45 billion in BEAD proposals from the 56 states and territories. Utah was allocated $317.4 million.
According to data from BroadbandNow, a research platform, 55.7% of U.S. households and 67.7% of Utah households have access to fiber. The Fiber Broadband Association puts the availability of fiber nationwide at more than 60% of homes.
Elkins thinks a fiber option probably will expand to 75% or 80% of the country over the next five or six years. He noted almost all builders require a fiber element in their developments.
Brandi West, All West Fiber marketing manager, said residential and commercial growth in the Wasatch Back has increased the need for modern broadband infrastructure. The number of devices in a typical home has grown from computers and smartphones to smart TVs, security cameras, thermostats and other connected devices, she noted.
“At the same time, activities such as remote work, video conferencing, online education, streaming, gaming and cloud-based applications require more bandwidth and more reliable connections,” West said.
The company, which is based in Kamas and provides internet services to customers in Utah and Wyoming, changed its name in October from All West Communications.
“We have made substantial investments in fiber-to-the-home infrastructure because it provides the speed, reliability, capacity and scalability that customers increasingly need,” West said. “Customers increasingly view reliable, high-capacity internet as an essential utility rather than a luxury, particularly as more aspects of work, education, entertainment and daily life depend on a strong internet connection.”
She said All West Fiber also operates other broadband technologies in areas where fiber is not yet available.
Remote working has contributed to the number of connected devices at homes.
A research brief released July 29 by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute says 22 million Americans were home-based in 2024 and working from home is most common in the West. Utah ranked ninth in the nation that year for its share of home-based workers, with 15.7% of working Utahns, or 278,000 people.
Among the most populous counties, Utah (17.7%), Davis (17.5%), Salt Lake (16.3%), Washington (15.7%) and Tooele (15.6%) reported the highest rates of working from home in 2024.
Single-year information is not available for counties with fewer than 65,000 residents, but estimates from the American Community Survey show Summit, Piute and Wayne counties had rates between 2020 and 2024 of about 20%, the highest in Utah, according to the most recent available data. Wasatch, Kane and Rich counties had rates from 18% to 19.9%.
In a recent survey, BroadbandNow asked respondents what tasks they had done online in the past 30 days.
“The answers read less like a list of leisure activities and more like a checklist of modern life,” a post on the site says.
Almost 90% banked, shopped or streamed; 60% played online games; 57% did work tasks for a job or business; 49% used the internet for healthcare that included telehealth visits and prescription refills; 31% conducted job searches; and 13% did schoolwork.
“Home internet is so fundamental to daily life that it barely registers as a subscription anymore,” the BroadbandNow post says. “Now, it’s an essential utility, on par with electricity and running water.”