POWELL, WYOMING - Can you imagine getting fiber optic connected to your home for free? Fiber can deliver download and upload speeds hundreds of times faster than most high speed internet services, and every home in Powell will have it soon.

It's a city owned project. A machine dug an underground trench in a Powell neighborhood, then pulled pipe through it. The pipe will soon hold fiber optic lines. It's the beginning of a very big project.

MasTec Project Manager Jerry Hamilton said, "Every place that has underground systems we pull pipe through the ground, and that will do the same from the pipe into the house. We'll have over 200,000 feet." Hamilton said the homes with overhead lines nearby will get their fiber optic that way.

Powell Councilman Timothy Sapp said, "Every home in Powell will have fiber to the home." That means every person in the town of 5,500 will have access to fiber delivered Internet, TV, and phone. The project, called PowelLink, was rolled out at a public luncheon at the Powell Commons Wednesday.

Powell Mayor Scott Mangold explained, "What we are trying to do is answer the questions that people have. One of the questions is have you spent taxpayer dollars, no we have not." The project's $6.5 million dollar tab is being paid by an investor, the Internet service by a Northwest Wyoming company, Tritel.

Organizers say this public/private system is the first of it's kind in the nation, and other communities are watching. Mangold said, "Once we have shown that there is success and people are signing up for it, then you're going to see some other communities stepping forward. The problem is there aren't that many security companies. We're in a nice place. We got here first. This is a great benefit to the community as a whole as an economic tool to bring businesses in, to bring people in. And for our people here jobs for the future where they stay at home and still work.”

City officials say people who sign up for the city owned fiber optic services will pay rates that are competitive with other service providers in the area.