Colorado

November marks the tenth anniversary of NextLight: the municipal broadband provider for the city of Longmont, Colorado, launched in 2014 as the first municipal broadband network in the state.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB or Bureau) announced that certain Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) census block groups (CBG) are now eligible for other funding programs.

Lumen Technologies—through its affiliates Qwest and CenturyTel of Wyoming—was awarded Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) funding to deploy gigabit speed Internet service in areas of Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Now Lumen is returning nine census block groups (CBGs) where it was awarded RDOF funding in those states. Lumen has observed deployment costs increase dramatically in many areas since it made its bids. In addition, in some areas, the number of locations to be deployed to is substantially different from the initial published auction numbers.

In 2022, the Colorado Broadband Office (CBO) commissioned a survey of 2,000+ Coloradans, 18+ agencies, 200+ local governments, nonprofits, and organizations serving marginalized populations to assess the current state of broadband in Colorado. At the time, only approximately 76 percent of households in Colorado subscribed to broadband despite over 90 percent having access.

Open access provider Intrepid Fiber Networks says its newly secured $290 million in debt financing will support ongoing deployments in Colorado and Minnesota. In all, more than 250,000 premises will eventually have access to Intrepid’s networks in the two states. Société Générale is structuring and acting as coordinating advisor in the transaction.

The State of Colorado has entered the fray by providing better access to broadband for those living in multi-dwelling units (MDUs). Colorado enacted HB 24-1334 which takes an aggressive position on granting internet service providers (ISPs) access to MDUs. The law says that an MDU building owner can’t deny access to an ISP that wants to install broadband infrastructure. I call this an aggressive law because it gives a building owner 60 days to respond to a request by an ISP to build broadband infrastructure.

There’s nearly a billion dollars en route to Colorado to fix internet service issues like slow speeds, affordability or the complete lack of service, especially in rural areas.

This episode of The Divide features Brandy Reitter, executive director for Colorado's broadband office.

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.