Visionary eyes fiber frenzy in American West

Wyoming-based Visionary Broadband’s got quite the resume in both the fiber and wireless space. Visionary won nearly $27 million in ARPA grant awards to provide fiber broadband in remote areas of Wyoming. It’s also got a foothold in Colorado, Montana and Washington state. State grants have helped Visionary recently gain seven new markets, said CEO Brian Worthen. Those include three markets in Colorado, two in Montana and two in Wyoming. From a grant standpoint, “we like small towns,” said Worthen, as they have less competition. But Visionary also has some larger markets in the mix. Originally a fixed wireless access (FWA) provider, it was only in 2020 when Visionary “really started escalating fiber” with residential deployments. Prior to that, Visionary was only building fiber for wholesale business customers. Once the company started doing grant work in Wyoming, it decided to jump on the fiber wave before other providers swooped in.