Bluepeak has begun a $70 million project that will bring FTTH networks to more than 70,000 residents of the Wyoming communities of Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper and Sheridan.
Construction in Cheyenne has begun, with work in the other three markets scheduled to begin during the first half of next year.
Bluepeak, which offers services as fast as 5 Gbps to residential customers and 10 Mbps to businesses, operates as Vast Broadband in South Dakota and western Minnesota. Markets in those states will rebrand as Bluepeak in 2022.
“Fast, reliable broadband connectivity is integral to every community, regardless of size, especially now,” Bluepeak CEO Rich Fish said in a press release. “Wyoming is one of the fastest growing states, making choice of carrier and access to a next-generation, fiber-to-the-home network increasingly important for economic development. Bluepeak will also be helping to create dozens of jobs in our expansion markets from construction to technicians as well as sales and call centers. We’re thrilled to be partnering with these communities and our expansion to Wyoming will help meet their growing needs today and in the future.”
November has been a busy month for the company. Last week, it broke ground on an FTTH project that will bring high speed service to almost 23,000 residents and businesses in Stillwater, OK. The company says that it will begin serving customers there early next year.
The need in Wyoming is great. The press release on the Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper and Sheridan project links to BroadbandNow, which says the state ranks 46th in terms of access, with only 11% of residents able to get 1 Gigabit per second speed.
Wyoming has gotten help improving its broadband status from the ReConnect program, which is administered by the US Department of Agriculture. In a grant that also extends into South Dakota, The Golden West Telecommunications Cooperative got $1.7 million to deploy a FTTN platform that will connect 218 people, five businesses, 65 farms and one essential community facility in Fall River and Custer counties in southwestern South Dakota and Niobrara and Weston counties in eastern Wyoming.
The next month, Union Telephone company got a $252,000 grant to build a fixed wireless network to connect 106 people, seven businesses, a post office, a fire station and a farm in Carbon, Sweetwater and Fremont counties in Wyoming.
