Bresnan builds new $4.4 million center in Billings with the future in mind

Bresnan Communications’ new regional operations center in Billings will help the company remain competitive in an industry that sees new competitors and new products almost daily.

"Our industry is changing quickly, and it’s up to us to change with it," William Bresnan, the company’s president and chief executive officer, said Friday. " This gives us an opportunity to provide new, better and faster services."

By TOM HOWARD
Of The Gazette Staff

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/05/22/build/local/30-bresnan.inc

Bresnan spoke at groundbreaking ceremonies at 19th Street West and Monad Road.

Bresnan said the operations center will help the company continue rolling out services such as high-definition television and video on demand. He said Bresnan will soon offer a new long-distance calling service using a technology known as Voice over Internet Protocol, which utilizes the Internet to carry voice messages.

The regional operations center, scheduled to be completed later this year at a cost of $4.4 million, will initially employ 100 people, including technical support personnel and systems engineers. But Bresnan said the 44,000-square-foot center is being built with expansion in mind and could eventually employ as many as 300 people.

Bresnan said the Billings center will handle jobs that were previously farmed out to companies outside Montana and sometimes outside the United States.

The company, based in Purchase, N.Y., has 314,000 subscribers in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming and Utah and employs about 800 people in four states.

Bresnan’s operations center is the biggest job-expansion event in Billings in recent years. The Big Sky Economic Development Authority, Yellowstone County’s economic development agency, helped land the deal by putting together a $1.6 million incentive package that included public and private funding.

"I’m real proud of the Big Sky EDA," said Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. Burns was a Yellowstone County commissioner when Big Sky EDA’s predecessor, the Montana Tradeport Authority, was created in 1989.

Burns said he argued for creating the port authority because at that time Butte seemed to have an advantage in landing economic development projects.

Over the years the Big Sky EDA has grown and evolved, and Burns said a coordinated effort helped bring Bresnan’s new center to Billings.

"If you see a turtle on top of the fence post, you know he didn’t get there by himself," Burns said.

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