CHEYENNE, WY – Visionary Broadband, an industry leader in providing high-speed, reliable internet serving rural communities in the Intermountain West, has just been awarded a second grant from the Wyoming Business Council Broadband Office to provide and improve broadband in Cheyenne. The first award was finalized in January of this year; the second was made public on August 1, 2024 and is awaiting final signature.
Additional funding became available after providers were unable to meet aggressive buildout deadlines returned their grants, allowing the Wyoming Business Council Broadband Office to consider other applications in the queue such as Visionary’s high-scoring Cheyenne.
Including the latest award, Visionary has received Connect Wyoming funding for 16 projects valued at just under $30 million across the Cowboy State. The all-fiber projects will bring blazing-fast broadband to more than 5,500 homes and businesses across the state.
The grants to Visionary are part of the Wyoming Business Council’s Connect Wyoming broadband program. The most recent funding round was enabled by $70.5 million from the Capital Projects Fund under the American Rescue Plan Act. The federal funding provided money for local and state governments to build critical infrastructure in communities across the country. All projects must be completed by December 31, 2026 in order to receive full funding.
“The Wyoming broadband office did a phenomenal job swiftly awarding grants in the areas of greatest need to meet the federal requirements, especially in this most recent round. It was not a small lift. We’re proud of the fact that in many of the communities we were awarded grants, work is already underway,” expressed Brian Worthen, CEO of Visionary Broadband. “We are exceptionally thrilled to win another grant, bringing our total grant awards to 16 across the state and solidifying the trust we’ve worked to build in the Visionary name with our customers and in our home state.”
David Johnson with the Wyoming Business Council Broadband Office shared: “The goal of the Connect Wyoming program is to ensure that every citizen and business in Wyoming has access to affordable, reliable and future-proof broadband. The efforts by Visionary and other broadband providers to complete projects awarded under this program will help us achieve the CPF program goals.” Johnson went on to share: “We are certainly proud of what Visionary has accomplished in partnership with the state to that end.”
Of the $28.45 million in grant awards, Visionary had committed over 30 percent of the project costs to complete these projects, contributing $8.9 million of the company’s own money in grant matches.
“We made significant contributions of Visionary’s own monies to invest in these important broadband projects,” stated Worthen. “We did this intentionally to show how serious we are building out rural connectivity and doing the right thing for the communities in which we serve.”
In Cheyenne, Visionary Broadband will provide connectivity to hundreds of homes and businesses in the outlying areas including the Ranchettes and Prairie Center Riding Club. Within the Ranchettes, Visionary identified 330 locations that suffer from slow or no internet at all. Of those, 247 are considered unserved and 83 underserved. The $1.82 million project will be completed with $1.25 million in grant funds and a company match of approximately $563,000.
Within the Prairie Center Riding Club project, Visionary is covering greater than 50 percent of total project costs. The award totaled just under $438,000, while Visionary committed over $455,000 dollars of the company’s own capital to bring future-proof internet to the area. The project will bring fiber broadband service to 261 homes and businesses lacking adequate internet speeds. Of those, 217 were found to be underserved and 44 were unserved, meaning these locations do not have acceptable internet speeds by the modern definition.
To meet the new high-speed requirements of the federal government and the Wyoming Business Council Broadband Office, broadband constructed with the grant funds must provide upload and download speeds of 100 Mbps, or megabits per second. The old requirements were 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. The funding will allow Visionary to provide the infrastructure for Fiber to the Home (FTTH) internet service, which is state of the art, future-proof technology.
About Visionary Broadband:
Visionary Broadband was founded in 1994 in a rural community in Wyoming. It is a homegrown company that has developed technical abilities with a focus on reliability. Today, the rural internet provider serves five states and has a proven track record of connecting the most rural communities, bringing a commitment of efficiency, reliability, and affordability to its customers. To learn more visit, https://www.vcn.com/
AUG 6, 2024 – Visionary Awarded Second CPF Grant in Cheyenne, WY for Fiber Internet Projects, Totaling 16 Grants Across the Cowboy State
