Visionary Broadband has been awarded a Colorado Project Fund grant to complete high-speed internet coverage in a rural county. This Chaffee County service map highlights areas of the county that will receive upgraded internet service.
Broadband grants help Chaffee and Archuleta counties
Visionary Broadband, which provides high-speed internet service to rural communities in the West, including Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, has been awarded two preliminary grants totaling $9.1 million. This grant will enable Visionary to build high-speed internet service to approximately 2,400 users in Chaffee and Archuleta Counties, Colorado.
“Visionary bid on these projects knowing that the grants and the necessary matchmaking were sufficient to get the job done,” said Brian Shepherd, Visionary’s vice president of grants. “We did not want to leave the project unfinished. We believe in delivering on our promises to the communities we serve.”
The grant comes from the first of two large federal infrastructure pots earmarked for broadband funding. In Colorado, Governor Jared Polis created his Advance Colorado Broadband initiative. The grant money will flow from Colorado’s Advance His Broadband Initiative through the Colorado Project Fund Grant Project.
Finally — Funding to Connect Rural Communities in the Central Colorado Mountains
Visionary has identified 2,344 users in and around Buena Vista and Pagosa Springs who are experiencing slow or no internet service, or under-service.
In Chaffee County, 1,310 homes and businesses in Buena Vista and Nathrop were found to be underserved and unserved. In Archuleta County, 1,034 Pagosa Springs users were identified. The Colorado Project Fund grant will give these users access to fast, reliable internet service.
The federal government and the Colorado Broadband Authority have set new high-speed requirements for broadband built with grant money. This title requires a download speed of 100 Mbps (megabits per second) and an upload speed of at least 20 Mbps. Previous requirements were 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload.
The funding will enable Visionary to provide cutting-edge technology infrastructure known as “Fiber to the Home” internet services. The upgrades include the Game Trail and Trails West residential area on the edge of Buena Vista.
“Reliable, high-speed internet is no longer a luxury; it has become an essential resource for the economic stability of our communities,” said Jake Richabee, executive director of the Chaffee County Economic Development Corporation. “It impacts our ability to recruit and retain a high-quality workforce and businesses that create good-paying jobs for local residents.”
“Visionary Broadband’s work in Buena Vista and Nathrop is a win for residents and business owners,” he added. “Many of them are working, getting education and accessing health care remotely, ensuring reliable connectivity in areas of high need.”
schedule is tough
These new broadband subsidies are funded with federal funds flowing to each state, with each state responsible for deploying the funds. These first grant-funded projects will begin almost immediately, as they must be completed by the end of 2026 in order to receive full funding.
The recent Colorado Project Fund grant application process was extremely competitive. Altogether, he received 112 applications for $640 million in funding for the project. He was awarded $113.5 million for 13 projects.
“Awarding this many grants in such a short period of time was no small feat,” said Visionary Broadband CEO Brian Worthen. He praised the Colorado Broadband Office, saying it has done a “tremendous job of making sure Colorado’s rural, high-needs areas are prioritized. We provide excellent service to these areas. We are excited to work to deliver the product.”
It should be noted that this is an unprecedented amount of subsidies to deploy high-speed broadband to rural areas of the country. This has been compared to the federal government’s rural electrification projects of the 1920s and his 1930s. The United States has never invested so much in broadband, which is at the root of the application battle. Experienced broadband providers have risen to the top largely because they already have systems in place to scale their business.
About Visionary Broadband
In Colorado, Visionary Broadband is the rural broadband provider. The service primarily serves mountain communities in western Colorado. Internet service has historically been difficult to provide in this region due to the long distances between users and the rugged high-altitude terrain of the Rocky Mountains.
Worthen added that it helps to be a provider with a proven track record to respond quickly to these broadband subsidies.
Founded in rural Wyoming in 1994, we’re known as a homegrown rural internet provider with a strong focus on reliability. Currently, Visionary Broadband serves five states, he said, and has a proven track record of connecting the most rural communities, “providing efficiency, reliability and affordability to our customers.”
For more information about Visionary Broadband, please visit the following link: https://www.vcn.com/
Editor’s note: This grant round is the first of two rounds of broadband grants. The second round of grant announcements will begin in 2024 and awards will be announced in 2025.
