Matt Larsen

CEO
Vistabeam Internet

Matt Larsen, who started deploying wireless broadband in 1999, is experienced in the design of data networks, NOC operations, wireless deployments, voice over IP implementation, business development and overall management of ISP operations.

In 1995, Larsen was part of the volunteer group that launched FortNet, the first ISP in Fort Collins, Colorado. After moving to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, in 1997, he started Scottsbluff Networx, an ISP that provided competitive dialup internet access in western Nebraska and was the first non-ILEC to offer DSL service in Nebraska. Frustrated with the incumbent bureaucracy, he turned to wireless as an alternate way to deliver broadband, bypassing the phone companies completely.

In November 2000, Larsen sold Scottsbluff Networx to Airwave Wireless, a company that held LMDS and cellular licenses for the Scottsbluff area. From November 2000 through October 2003, Larsen worked on ISP operations for Airwave, concentrating on business development and the deployment of unlicensed wireless broadband systems.

In October 2003, he left Airwave to pursue opportunities in wireless broadband access and established Vistabeam. Today, Vistabeam has deployed wireless broadband systems covering approximately 40,000 square miles across Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota and Nebraska.

Larsen is one of the innovators in the wireless broadband industry, a founding board member and past president of WISPA, the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association. He has also been a speaker at WISPCON, ISPCON, EC-Expo, NARUC, FCC Wireless Broadband Access Task Force, The Broadband Expo and Mountain Connect. He received the 1999 Visionary Rising Star Award from the Scottsbluff/Gering Chamber of Commerce; received the WISP Consultant of the Year Award at the Spring 2004 WISPCON, received the WISPA Operator of the Year Award for 2010 and Vistabeam was named Provider of the Year at the 2018 Mountain Connect Conference.