BROADCASTS.com

b'When you hear founder and CEO Matt Larson talk about his company Vistabeam Internet, you\\u2019ll understand\\xa0he and his team\\xa0received the 2018 Provider of the Year Award at Mountain Connect. At the conference in June, Matt sat down with Christopher to discuss what it\\u2019s like to be in his shoes \\u2014 starting up and operating a wireless Internet service company primarily in the rural areas in some of the most rural areas of the country.It\\u2019s been about a decade and a half since Matt\\u2019s company began serving its first customers as Skybeam. The endeavor soon became Vistabeam and continued to expand throughout the areas where Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming meet. Vistabeam continued to grow, and now the company coverage area spans approximately 40,000 square miles. Matt explains his motivation behind starting Vistabeam and\\xa0widening the service area\\xa0as a way to\\xa0connect people without Internet access and to bring a little competition to areas where incumbents needed \\u201cinspiration.\\u201dIn the interview, Matt describes some of the practicalities of working in the field and how his company has dealt with similar unique challenges. He also shares the way Vistabeam has evolved as technology has improved over the years and the differences between providing service in extreme rural areas and more densely populated areas. In this interview, you\\u2019ll go from policy to practicality and learn about the experiences of a local provider.Read the transcript for this show here.This show is 42 minutes long and can be played on this page or\\xa0via iTunes\\xa0or the tool of your choice\\xa0using this feed.You can\\xa0download\\xa0this mp3 file directly from here. Listen to\\xa0other episodes here\\xa0or view all episodes\\xa0in our index.Thanks to Arne Huseby for the music. The song is\\xa0Warm Duck Shuffle\\xa0and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license.'