MISSOULA — A simple web search takes less than a second in Missoula, but that's not the case everywhere in Western Montana.
In some rural communities, like Charlo, a web search can lead someone to sit and reflect while they wait for their search to load.
“It’s slow at my house, I don’t even get cell service at my house. Like it’s hard to get there, I live pretty much in the desert, middle of nowhere, next to the Bison Range. It’s hard. But anyways, here, it’s two, five minutes. Takes awhile. It’s not that fast, it’s kinda slow” said Cole Bigcraine, a mechanic at Charlo Pump and Tow.
Why does a search take so long? Well, it comes down to what kind of cable the service provider has installed — mainly if it is a fiber optic cable or not. The type of cable that is installed in an area largely dictates whether broadband internet access is available.
Broadband internet is the general term used for high-speed internet, with it needing to exceed download speeds of 100 megabits per second (mbps) and upload speeds of 25 mbps.
In order to effectively stream HD videos and shows, you need speeds of at least 5 Mbps while 25 mbps is the minimum speed required for online gaming — although the faster the speeds the better the performance is going to be.
The key thing about the speeds however is that they need to be consistent. And for rural communities, access to consistent broadband internet is spotty at best.
“You might have minutes into doing a Google search. On average, it’s probably a little faster but it’s not very fast. My wife’s fighting it in the office every day” explained Charlo Pump and Tow owner Rob Anschutz.
With these slow speeds, the state recently announced the opening of the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, allowing service providers to apply for funding to help expand broadband access.
“So it’s pretty common in these localities to see access to the hospital or the local library, the school. And then when you get a little farther outside of town that fiber may be there but it doesn’t actually connect to that business, that farm or that house. So those are the folks we’re trying to reach” Montana Department of Administration Director Misty Ann Giles told MTN.
The internet service providers will largely be the ones in charge of applying for the BEAD money and then using it to expand access.
The state is hoping to start distributing the money by early 2025 in order to be ready for the summer construction season.
Once the money is disbursed, the companies will then have four years to finish their projects.
EDITORS NOTE: Funding for the BEAD program comes from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The State of Montana is ultimately responsible for disbursing the funds with the Department of Administration organizing the disbursement. Of the Montana federal delegation, Senator Jon Tester was the only member to vote in favor of the IIJA. He also helped draft the BEAD program in a bipartisan effort.
