Next Generation Broadband in Montana

This week, two Montana schools were awarded state match funds through the Broadband for Montana Schools program, with assistance from the national nonprofit EducationSuperHighway, to upgrade broadband capabilities and increase internet speeds: Belfry K-12 Schools and West Valley School near Kalispell.

The test satellites are another step forward for chief executive Elon Musk, who dreams of building a worldwide network of thousands of orbiting devices that can beam Internet signals down to Earth from low orbit.

Nowhere is the ‘digital divide’ more extreme than on tribal lands. Will Washington’s solution fix the problem?

Tester specifically wants to use the upcoming Farm Bill reauthorization to tear down the barriers and to cut red tape so service providers can more easily access the loan program.

With their focus toward closing the rural connectivity gaps, Connect Americans Now wants to see affordable broadband everywhere by 2022.

Native Americans on reservations are twice as underserved for broadband access than other rural Americans, and are 16 times more likely to be underserved than their urban counterparts.

65 percent of Montanans living on tribal land have no access to broadband internet. Compare that to only 4 percent of Americans in urban areas who do not have broadband access.

A Harvard study found that, in 27 communities and cities with both private and city owned internet, the municipal broadband was almost always cheaper.

Community-owned internet service providers are cheaper and better.

A media campaign funded by Comcast and CenturyLink failed to stop the ballot initiative in Fort Collins to install universal broadband service delivering gigabit speeds.