MAR 21, 2024 – Visionary Awarded $1.65M Grant in Centennial, WY for Fiber Internet Project

ALBANY COUNTY, WY – Visionary Broadband, a provider of high-speed internet service to communities
in the rural West including Wyoming, Colorado and Montana, has been awarded a Capital Project Fund
grant totaling $1.65 million. The grant will allow Visionary to build out high-speed, internet service to
nearly 285 homes and businesses in and around Centennial, Wyoming. Visionary contributed nearly
$350,000 of its own capital in a grant match to complete this project.
“We contributed Visionary’s own monies to invest in this important broadband project through a
significant grant match,” stated Brian Worthen, CEO of Visionary Broadband. “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.”
Visionary pinpointed 283 users in and around Centennial that suffer from slow or no internet service at
all, referred to as underserved and unserved. The grant award identified 56 homes and businesses as
underserved and 227 as unserved, meaning these locations did not have acceptable internet speeds by
the modern definition.
To meet the new high-speed requirements of the federal government and the Wyoming 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 technology.
“The project is entirely fiber, delivering a Fiber to the Home product capable of symmetric gigabit
speeds. Fiber is the latest and most scalable technology and is expected to be the standard for years to
come,” explained Brian Worthen, CEO of Visionary.
The grant was awarded by the Wyoming Broadband Office and the Wyoming Business Council via the
Connect Wyoming Initiative. The Wyoming Business Council’s goal is to ensure that every citizen and
business in The Cowboy State has access to affordable, state-of-the-art, reliable and future-proof
internet service.
“The Wyoming Broadband Office did a phenomenal job awarding grants in the areas of greatest need to
meet the federal requirements. 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 Greg Worthen who heads
up community engagement in Wyoming.
Federal funding for the program came from the Capital Projects Fund. The U.S. Treasury launched the
Capital Projects Fund in 2021, as part of the American Rescue Plan. It provides money for local and state
governments to build critical infrastructure in communities across the country. All projects must be
completed by Dec. 31, 2026 in order to receive full funding.
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/