Bluepeak to Provide Gigabyte Internet in Some Wyoming Cities
Bluepeak plans to invest $70 million into Wyoming to provide up to 70,000 residents and businesses in Cheyenne, Laramie, Sheridan, and Casper with faster internet.
On Jan. 24, 2022, Bluepeak announced that they had installed their first fiber internet connection in Cheyenne.
Jesse Granger, Communications Director for Bluepeak, said they hope to finish installing new fiber cables by the end of 2022, with speeds announced to go up to five gigabytes for residents and 10 gigabytes for businesses.
Though it is also possible for speeds at businesses to go above 10 gigabytes, it would just depend on the size of the company.
Granger said they plan on providing the promised speeds to customers.
"We don't do anything like throttling, you get what you pay for," Granger said. "We're trying to deliver exactly what we promise. There are limitations between what kind of speeds come into the home then how you use those speeds, what kind of devices you're on, the set up in the home, what your wifi capabilities might look like. We're giving as much as we're promising for sure."
So far, Granger said they have provided services to over 400 residents in Cheyenne and based on a September press release, they plan on investing $24 million into Casper to provide their services to 24,000 residents and businesses.
Granger said at this time they don't know what the service area for Casper will look like, but will notify residences once they've installed the new fiber lines.
When it comes to cost, based on the prices on their website, one gigabyte would be $50 a month, two gigabytes would be $65 a month, and five gigabytes would be $100 a month.
The reason for the expansion Granger said is because Bluepeak hopes to increase competition in the internet market.
"I'm not an expert on Casper yet, I did speak with somebody in Cheyenne who complained about only being able to choose between Spectrum and Century Link," Granger said. "The whole idea behind Bluepeak, is we feel that the size of the city shouldn't determine the quality of the technology. So we strategically want to build out to places like Cheyenne, Casper, Perry, Oklahoma, and such that we feel have been overlooked by the large players in the telecom space."
In 2020, Vast Broadband, now called Bluepeak, was acquired by a private equity firm called GI Partners for an undisclosed amount.
Vast currently services around 60,000 residents in South Dakota and Minnesota, such as in Sioux Falls, Madison, and Rapid City, but plans on rebranding to Bluepeak soon.