CAÑON CITY, CO – Community leaders and Visionary Broadband officials gathered on April 26 to break
ground on Visionary’s fiber-optic broadband service to Cañon City.
The Cañon City project is the latest in Visionary’s rapidly expanding network of state-of-the-art internet
service to small and mid-size communities in the Intermountain West.
Visionary CEO Brian Worthen told the assembled dignitaries, community leaders, and guests the
installation of high-speed, fiber-optic internet will provide a foundation for Cañon City to compete in the
rapidly changing economic climate of the 21st century.
That was echoed by Cañon City Administrator Ryan Stevens. “We are thrilled to be here today with
Visionary Broadband kicking off a best-in-class fiber optic communications project in the city,” Stevens
said. “This network will act as a catalyst to bring leading edge fiber to Cañon City’s residents and
business owners.”
City Economic Development Manager Rick Harrmann also spoke during the event and expressed the
importance of reliable internet service for the community. “Government needs to govern, students need
to go to school and use the internet to learn. It touches every bit of our lives, including our cell phones.”
Harrmann continued: “This base infrastructure is very critical to our community.”
Worthen said Visionary looks forward to working with Cañon City. “The more my team and I met with
community and business leaders, the more we all gained an appreciation for the impact this project will
have,” Worthen said. “I personally enjoy the challenge of building in communities that see the benefit of
broadband, and I can tell you that Cañon City will see the benefit.”
The Cañon City project is a three-phase undertaking, with Phase One beginning this month. It will consist
of building the initial backbone infrastructure to connect Cañon City’s important anchor institutions –
including government, health care, and education. The backbone will then provide the stability and
redundancy to launch the subsequent phases Worthen said. It is expected to be completed by late 2025.
Phases Two and Three will follow immediately after. They will build on Phase One and begin connections
to homes and businesses. The entire project is expected to be complete by the end of 2026. Upon
completion, Worthen said, he expects 90-plus percent of all residences and businesses to be connected
to fiber-optic internet. He refers to it as “future-proof” internet service. It will last, he said, for 40 to 50
years.
Worthen said whenever possible the project will use the local labor force.
“We will be hiring workers from your community,” he said, “to keep revenues from this project local and
invested back into the residents who live here.”
The Cañon City project is being funded by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and
private investment from Visionary.
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/.
