Through the ConnectWyoming program, funded by the federal CARES Act, the Wyoming Business Council awarded $3.8 million to TCT and $128,700 to Charter Communications for broadband projects in the Powell and Cody areas.

Since the funding for the Wyoming program is coming from the federal coronavirus relief act, the companies have only until the end of the year to complete all of the projects. Charter is building fiber east of Powell, covering the area between Roads 6 and 7, south of Cemetery Road (Lane 9).

TCT, meanwhile, has several projects lined up.

“We’re trying to get a year’s worth of work done in a couple months,” said Richard Wardell, COO for TCT.

In order to meet that tight deadline, the company is pushing for the approvals it needs from multiple agencies, including the railroad, county government, Bureau of Land Management, Wyoming Department of Transportation and irrigation districts.

“We’re trying our darndest to get approvals through these various agencies,” Wardell said.

Wardell said it required an enormous amount of paperwork and asked the various agencies for their cooperation in helping them meet the federal deadline.

“This is not a traditional type of schedule, and we’re running out of summer,” Wardell said.

The projects are designed to provide more reliable internet to areas that currently do not have at least one provider with 25 megabytes download speeds and 3 megabytes upload speeds.

The package of projects aided by CARES Act funding includes six new towers.

A new “Garland Tower” will be constructed on Coal Mine Hill off Wyo. Highway 114, providing wireless service to Garland and the area north of Powell below the airport. TCT is building fiber to the tower, and customers along the route between Deaver and the new tower will get fiber to their homes.

While the main focus of the new tower will be providing internet to rural customers, Wardell told county commissioners in August that the company fully intends to make it available for things like cellular service, “because there is a dead spot right through there.”

“So we truly are trying to make things better for that area and serve the residents of Park County … that are outside the normal service areas,” Wardell said Aug. 19.

When the Garland tower went through the county’s planning and zoning process, a couple  of residents spoke up in support of TCT’s plans.

Caryl Swander, who lives in the valley beneath Coal Mine Hill, said there are about 18 homes in the area that “have been really underserved.”

“This [new tower] will mean a whole change of life for us. We realized how handicapped and crippled we were during COVID,” Swander said at the Aug. 19 meeting, adding, “We’re ecstatic; we’re so grateful to TCT for this chance.”

Another tower will go up near the sugar beet dump on the eastern end of the Willwood area, and it, too, will be connected to fiber lines. Located southeast of Powell, it will provide wireless service to customers along the Shoshone River. Another new Willwood area tower will go up near Northrup Farms. Rather than connect to fiber, it will connect to other towers.

The CARES Act funding will be used for a new tower between Cody and Ralston, which will provide service to a spot that has little visibility to other towers.

The company will erect two other towers elsewhere in Park County with the same funding: One will go up along the Greybull Highway east of Cody and another will go up east of Meeteese.

The towers at the Willwood beet dump, north of Garland and between Cody and Ralston are 150-feet tall, while the other three Park County towers rise 60 feet.

In approving special use permits for two of the towers on Aug. 19, Commissioner Lloyd Thiel of Clark joked that the county should include a condition “that in the future you look out at Clark to add one of these towers — because our service sucks.”

In response, Wardell noted that TCT is performing a fiber upgrade to the company’s tower on Polecat Bench, which feeds the Clark school. The work will also connect the tower to commercial power; it’s currently relying on wind and solar power.

“So we’re adding capacity to that tower and some additional equipment,” Wardell told commissioners, adding, “we’re really trying to improve the coverage.”

Lastly, TCT’s McCullough Peaks towers will get fiber, and those fiber services will be available to other companies’ facilities on the mountain.

Gov. Mark Gordon authorized federal CARES Act dollars for the ConnectWyoming program, which is managed by the Wyoming Business Council. A total of 37 projects were approved in mid-August. Charter received nearly $1.1 million around the state while TCT received more than $10.16 million for projects in the northern Big Horn Basin.

Other TCT projects funded through ConnectWyoming will serve customers in Cody, Cowley, Lovell, Shell, Greybull, Manderson, Otto and Burlington. Once the work is complete, Wardell said it will greatly expand service to underserved rural areas that badly need broadband connectivity.

“It’ll definitely be a benefit to the residents of the Big Horn Basin,” he said.

(CJ Baker contributed reporting.)