Visionary Broadband, a provider of high-speed internet service to communities in the rural West including Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, acquired Aristata Communications, a home-grown telecom company that provides internet service in Chaffee, Fremont, Custer, Huerfano and Lake counties.
Aristata CEO Carlin Walsh said the acquisition will provide Aristata access to capital to upgrade aging and outdated infrastructure in order to provide its current and future customers with reliable high-speed internet they need and deserve.
“I made this choice because Visionary will be able to accelerate important infrastructure projects and tower upgrades we’ve identified but wouldn’t be able to address for several years due to limited capital,” Walsh said. “This business is about providing reliable connectivity to our community, and this acquisition represents my commitment to delivering on this for our region.”
Aristata has long used Visionary’s dual-routed network from Salida and Buena Vista to reach the internet and observed Visionary’s technical and operational abilities during that time. Visionary has a deep bench of staff that will improve Aristata’s abilities to grow and stay at pace with the broadband market.
“Over the coming months,” Visionary CEO Brian Worthen said, “we will be focused on upgrading Aristata’s infrastructure in order to meet standards we have set for ourselves at Visionary Broadband."
Visionary has a long track record of providing high-speed internet service in the challenging terrain of the Rocky Mountains, even in the most remote mountain communities.
“We just brought fiber to the homes and businesses in Lake City in Hinsdale County, and the Town of Marble in Gunnison County and the Town of Walden in Jackson County,” Worthen said. “Building rural fiber is not an easy or inexpensive feat, but we are proud of the work we do supporting these communities. We are bringing that commitment of reliability and affordability to the customers of Aristata Communications.”
Worthen explained that Visionary will retain the Aristata brand into the foreseeable future. He said the acquisition fits well with Visionary’s existing network in Gunnison to the west and a new fiber network Visionary is building in Cañon City to the east.
Walsh said the main reason he chose to partner with Visionary is the two companies share a similar history and values. Both Aristata and Visionary are home-grown ventures, with their roots in rural western communities, and they both value the communities they serve and just as importantly, their employees.
Last year, the two companies partnered on a grant application to the state of Colorado. The grant will allow the newly-combined companies to connect about 1,300 homes in and around Buena Vista and Nathrop with high-speed fiber internet service. Visionary has previously completed grant projects with support from the state of Colorado’s Broadband Deployment Board.
Perhaps most importantly, both Walsh and Worthen said, is that Aristata employees will retain their jobs. That, said Walsh, was a factor in his decision to partner with Visionary. “Aristata employees and their families live, work and play in the region we serve. I am so pleased they will continue to do so because of Visionary’s commitment to retain the capable team Aristata has assembled.”