Visionary Leases Seattle Fiber for Affordable Bandwidth for Montana and Wyoming Clients

Visionary Communications http://www.vcn.com/ has completed a network build that takes advantage of lower Internet bandwidth costs in Seattle. The rural Internet Service Provider is carrying Internet-bound traffic from Montana and Wyoming to Seattle in order to deliver affordable redundancy to their customers.

Visionary is a company that prides itself on rural broadband service. The rural nature of their business, however, was impeding the company’s ability to provide route redundancy to the Internet in the event their Wyoming feed experienced a failure. When the contract for their Billings-based Internet feed came due, the company immediately contracted an OC3 from Billings to Seattle, along with an Ethernet feed in Seattle’s Westin Building. The overall costs for both circuits were lower than Visionary would have paid carriers who provide service in Montana and Wyoming.

"Our coverage area is remote, meaning carrier options are limited. Feeds in Billings and Casper are carried to Denver before they hit the Internet," says Brian Worthen, President and CEO of Visionary. "That means our existing Casper feed would likely run over the same fiber to Denver. A fiber cut on a link with two feeds would be just as disastrous as having a single feed."

Worthen explained that carrying the Internet-bound traffic from Billings to Seattle provides a diverse route that won’t run the risk of interruption if a fiber is cut toward Denver. The company already had an OC3 in operation from Billings to Casper, connecting their two network cores. This existing fiber made it easier to pursue a Westbound connection out of Billings and altering the way their equipment routes traffic to the Internet via the two network cores.

Visionary’s network design allows the company to remain in operation if any of the three main fiber connections are cut. The company also benefits from connecting to major Internet hubs in two different parts of the country.

Visionary Communications is a pioneering broadband provider, offering DSL in 56 communities and wireless broadband in 11 communities. The company provides Internet Service in more than 90 towns and cities throughout Montana and Wyoming. The company operates their own DSL and fixed-wireless plants throughout the two states. The company is headquartered in Gillette, Wyoming.

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