Hamilton, Corvallis to get high speed cable internet service from Bresnan Communications

Recent upgrades by the cable guy will increase services to customers in Hamilton and Corvallis.

By JENNY JOHNSON Staff Reporter

Bresnan Communications, which in March bought all of AT&T’s cable service in Montana, last month completed a $253,000 upgrade to the cable system serving Hamilton and Corvallis. Already, customers have more channels to choose from, but soon the company plans to offer high-speed broadband Internet connections and other services.

The rebuilt system uses new 550 MHz high-capacity broadband cable and 15 miles of fiber optic cable, replacing the older 300 MHz lines and increasing capacity. Bresnan general manager Doug Johnson said the improvements use the industry’s most advanced design.

The improvements also included changing the architecture of the cable system. Instead of a "tree trunk to branch" type of design, Johnson said the system is set up in 10 neighborhood nodes. Each node functions as a mini-system and serves about 400 homes. Some 77 miles of redesigned and rebuilt coaxial cable link individual homes to the nodes.

"This kind of advanced architecture is interesting," he said. "What it does is provide better system reliability, and we need to do that if people are online."

Hamilton and Corvallis will join Billings, Helena and Great Falls once cable Internet access is available next month, Johnson said. The connection will operate up to 1.4 million bits per second, compared to a standard dial-up modem at 56,000 bits per second.

"That’s a very noticeable difference in speed," he said.

Ultimately, the new system will allow customers to access Video-on-Demand – a system of ordering a program, event or movie at any time – and high definition television.

Bresnan serves most cities in Montana, and upgrades are expected in most areas. Stevensville is served by Bresnan, but the area doesn’t have the cable capacity to support these new services.

AT&T had started the upgrades in Hamilton and Corvallis when Bresnan bought the service, and the area was a priority for the company, Johnson said. Upgrades are occurring in all of the 40 Montana cable systems served by Bresnan, which serves also has operations in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah with corporate offices in New York.

For more information, call Bresnan’s Missoula office at 728-4200.

Reporter Jenny Johnson can be reached at 363-3300 or [email protected]

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