Powering Progress: A Game-Changing Expansion for Cañon City’s Growth and Success

Powering Progress: A Game-Changing Expansion for Cañon City’s Growth and Success

During this week’s episode of Fiber for Breakfast, Brian Worthen, CEO of Visionary Broadband, joined Gary Bolton, President and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association, to talk about the unique model he and his team have brought to market and how they continue to bring their proven track record of connecting the most rural communities while bringing efficiency, reliability, and affordability to its customers.

“We’ve taken a microwave background, or a wireless background with fixed wireless that we’ve developed since 2001 and use that as the basis for fiber expansion,” said Worthen. “It’s most of our fiber that we built in the Rocky Mountain region that is based on having an existing customer base in these markets. This project in Canon City is a little bit different because we did not have a microwave platform in that community previously, so it was an exciting opportunity for us to go into a new market and establish our brand there.”

Hard to Reach Places
Visionary Broadband is currently building a network in Wyoming and there are multi-dwelling units (MDUs) larger than some of the towns they work in. Worthen explained that their markets are unique because they are either in the mountains or they’re extremely far apart. In some cases where it’s six people per square mile, this creates an interesting dynamic for not only back haul needs but also for troubleshooting issues for customers.

Faster Speeds at the Same Price!
Worthen talked about migrating existing customers onto existing fiber networks who will get faster speeds at the same price. Worthen said, “When somebody is moving from a fixed wireless product to a fiber product, they’re moving from 100MB product to a 1GB product which is actually a pretty easy transition for the customer and for us.”

Why Canon City?
The project leaders from the city contacted Worthen and his team to build a fiber network that could connect community locations, but the city did not want to own it. Worthen explained that it was an easy relationship from everyone involved and they prefer that type of model. He emphasized that what makes this a great project was that everyone in the community was easy to work with and the community overall will benefit from this expansion as it becomes a very desirable place to live and/or relocate to.

Future Proof Network
In terms of Visionary’s 1GB by 1GB service, the cost to the consumer is $60 a month. “There’s nothing else on the horizon that’s going to replace fiber,” said Worthen.  “That’s what Canyon City was really looking for was someone to come in and build more of a future proof network that was not copper based, copper-based DSL, or copper-based co-ops.”

Final Thoughts
When asked what best practices he would recommend to his peers when looking to take on projects like this, Worthen was bullish about establishing proper, long-lasting relationships where you help educate folks working on your project and turn them into advocates. “You can’t go into a community and ask for an agreement and expect to start constructing three weeks later,” Worthen said. “You’ve got to put the time into it as a provider, and it’s your responsibility, and that’s the way we feel about it.”

Click here to listen to the full episode or find previous episodes of Fiber for Breakfast.

Click here to find the Visionary Broadband’s coverage map from today’s episode.