Meeting discusses how to expand broadband internet

ConnectMT held a meeting in Havre Wednesday to discuss a number of ways the state may use the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, passed in 2021, to increase broadband access to unserved and underserved locations in Montana.

Christian Piccolo, manager of Summit Consulting, which is working with Montana on developing a plan for using the hundreds of millions of dollars Montana likely will receive to serve these communities.

Piccolo said Montana is almost certainly not going to get enough money to reach every unserved location with fiber-optic cables, which would be ideal, but based on their current estimates they are anticipating Montana will receive around $380 million, a massive investment.

Anthony Curcio, also of Summit Consulting, said an investment like this isn't likely to come around again in the foreseeable future, so they need to seriously consider how to go about spending that money effectively.

Piccolo and Curcio said the $380 million estimate is based on the calculated need of Montana, taking into account the number of people in need and the geography of the state.

They said the federal government and the states are still working on calculations, but based on what's known they think roughly $380 million will come to Montana.

Piccolo led the presentation, saying 20 percent of locations in Montana are considered underserved or unserved, and explained what the difference between the two is.

He said an underserved location is one that doesn't have access to 120 megabits per second download speeds, which is considered the standard for high-speed broadband, but do have more than 25 megabits per second download speeds.

He said 25 mbps is exceptionally slow, allowing people to access the very basic functions of the internet, but not able to do much beyond that.

"You can send emails, but you certainly won't be doing any gaming," he said.

Unserved locations, Piccolo said, are places that don't even have that, and those locations are what the state is prioritizing, in part because of the infrastructure bill, which requires state's must provide 100 percent of unserved locations with at least 100 mbps download speeds before addressing the underserved.

He said the law also heavily pushed fiber as the method for providing that service, and with understandable reasons.

He said the upper limit on speed when it comes to fiber optic cables is essentially the speed of light, so any limitations to speed are the result of the inputs and outputs on either end of the cables, thus when technology improves all they really need to do is switch those out, which is not especially difficult or expensive.

However, Piccolo said, Montana's geography, the second-most difficult state to install fiber in behind Alaska, makes it a difficult option at times and if they stick with fiber exclusively they will only be able to cover 99.7 percent of the unserved and none of the underserved, which is not compliant with the law.

He said they could set aside some funds to provide fixed wireless or satellite service to the remaining 0.3 percent to make it compliant, but even that option would see the underserved group completely untouched.

There are other options, though, he said.

While installing fiber can be expensive overall, he said, some locations are statistical outliers, costing exponentially more to get fiber to than average, and by eliminating just a few of them, and providing them fixed wireless or satellite service instead, they can free up enough capital to provide a massive amount of the underserved with better service, most of them with fiber.

The third option would be to provide 97 percent of the unserved with fiber and to make up the last 3 percent with alternative methods, which would free up enough capital to provide 97 percent of the underserved with fiber as well, leaving only 3 percent of the underserved without 120 mbps download speeds.

Option 4 would see 95 percent of the unserved get fiber with 5 percent having to settle for an alternative, while 98.6 percent of the underserved get fiber and the remaining 1.4 percent get an alternative.

Most seemed to gravitate toward option 4, which Piccolo and Curcio said was similar to other responses they've gotten so far, but Pete Stiffarm of Island Mountain Development Group, who attended the meeting doubted the accuracy of the numbers presented.

Curcio said the data is preliminary and is not going to be exact but the majority of the analysts seem to agree with these projections.

Stiffarm wasn't entirely convinced.

"Sounds like (the analysts) watch too much 'Yellowstone,'" he said.

As for Triangle Communications Telephone Engineering and Operations Manager Robert Pleninger, who also attended the meeting. He said option 3 appeals to him the most from his perspective as an internet service provider, citing the previously discussed advantages of fiber.

Curcio said while people tend to gravitate to option three so far, people more familiar with the technology tend to be more likely to be in favor of the options that use fiber more exclusively, even options one and two, for those reasons.

Stiffarm said whatever they do they need to coordinate well with everyone involved so as many people as possible get proper internet speeds.

"If it's 2030 and I'm still under 100 mbps, I'm gonna be pretty pissed off about it," he said.

Piccolo and the group also discussed other barriers the state is looking to address, including the affordability of service, the devices that use it and the general proficiency people have with said devices.

He said the state is considering using various agencies to support adoption of the Affordable Connectivity Program, which is a program under the Federal Communications Commission that subsidizes the cost for plans for people with low incomes or other financial barriers.

He said they are talking about increasing awareness through local Departments of Motor Vehicles offices, including information about the program in electricity bills or tax documents.

Curcio said a huge number of people can make use of the program that they need to reach.

"It's amazing how many people qualify but don't sign up," he said.

Piccolo said people can find out more about the program at https://www.fcc.gov/acp .

Curcio said this program combined with providing more affordable plans could make a huge difference.

As for helping with device affordability, Piccolo said they are looking at improving lending programs through schools, libraries and some ISPs.

He said they are also considering increasing education about how to use devices necessary to use the internet effectively through schools and other organizations throughout Montana.

Piccolo and Curcio said this meeting is by no means the last chance people in the area will have to make their voices heard about their plans and if they can't make it to an in-person meeting they can always set up a virtual conversation.

In the meantime, they will be holding other meetings around the state including in Miles City and Billings.

Piccolo said the plan is to have a preliminary draft plan ready in the first quarter of next year, but Curcio said the full plan is a year out and the whole process of deploying these funds is going to take a few years.