Gianforte administration says $308 million broadband internet plan will bring ‘service to every citizen’

This story was originally published by the Montana Free Press.

The administration of Gov. Greg Gianforte is seeking federal approval for a $308 million plan it says will fill the remaining gaps in the broadband connectivity for homes and businesses across Montana.

The proposal, currently under review by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, uses Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment, or BEAD, funding from the 2021 Infrastructure and Jobs Act. It envisions paying private internet service providers, including satellite internet providers such as Elon Musk-owned SpaceX, to expand their networks to provide service in areas that aren’t covered by current or planned expansions. Once complete, customers in the new service areas can purchase internet service from the providers.

Montana is currently ranked last in the nation for its internet access. Montana Department of Administration Director Misty Ann Giles, who has overseen broadband efforts under Gianforte, said at an Aug. 26 meeting of the state’s communications advisory commission that the BEAD proposal and other broadband spending will bring progress on that front.

“We’ve had a lot of great investment the last four years that are working that way, and this money will finally close that gap,” Giles said. “So that’s good news for all of us, that we are finally bringing service to every citizen in the state.”

The Department of Administration’s broadband office says the $308 million in public spending it proposes through the BEAD program will be matched with $148 million in private investment from the companies receiving the grants. The resulting buildout aims to bring connectivity to approximately 72,000 homes and businesses.

Maps produced by the broadband office indicate wired service via fiber-optic lines paid for by the latest round of grants will be generally concentrated around population centers and along major highways, with additional areas served by fixed wireless technology.

The proposal also anticipates serving the state’s furthest-flung locations via low-Earth-orbit satellites operated by SpaceX’s Starlink subsidiary and Amazon’s Project Kuiper.

A department spokesperson said Wednesday that the empty areas visible on the broadband office’s maps exist because the BEAD program isn’t able to pay for connectivity in unserved areas where buildout has already been funded by other public programs.

The current round of proposed broadband spending follows approximately $300 million in broadband grants the Gianforte administration awarded using dollars from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. Combined with the now-proposed grants, that puts the total amount likely to be awarded to private internet service providers by Gianforte, a Republican, at more than $600 million — or more than $500 for each Montana resident.

Other federal programs under the NTIA, the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have also put hundreds of millions into expanding Montana broadband connectivity in recent years. The state broadband office maintains an online map intended to show how the various project areas supported by different expansion efforts coordinate with each other.

According to materials presented by the department at the August meeting, major expansion grant recipients under the current BEAD proposal include Gallatin Wireless Internet, which is slated to receive $103 million to serve about 8,000 locations in Park and Stillwater counties, and Inland MT, which is slated to receive $60 million to serve about 4,000 locations in Pondera, Cascade, Fergus, Lewis and Clark and Rosebud counties.

Charter Communications, which does business in Montana under the Spectrum brand and was awarded $110 million in grants under the prior state program, is slated to receive $27 million to serve about 2,400 locations this go-around. Those grants would help the company expand its service in Carbon, Cascade, Flathead and Missoula counties.

The proposal awards Starlink and Amazon $34 million and $16 million, respectively, money that will help those companies provide otherwise unserved locations internet access via satellites. SpaceX and Amazon are slated to provide service to about 20,400 and 26,500 locations, respectively.

The program prioritized proposals from service providers that would meet specified connectivity standards, among them providing download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second, upload speeds of at least 20 megabits per section and connection latency below 100 milliseconds.

Assuming the state’s proposal for the newest round of grants through the BEAD program is approved by federal authorities, participating companies will have four years to complete their proposed projects.

Montana was initially allocated $629 million under the BEAD program, meaning the state’s current proposal leaves more than $300 million of that sum unused. Giles said at the August meeting that the U.S. Treasury would likely ask the state to return the unused money.

In a Aug. 28 press release, Gianforte, a Republican, applauded the state’s BEAD proposal as a “step toward making Montana a national leader in Internet connectivity.”

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed during Democrat Joe Biden’s term as president with support from most congressional Democrats and opposition from most Republicans, including Montana U.S. Sen. Steve Daines and then-U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale.

While the BEAD program was initially administered by the Biden administration, some components were reworked after President Donald Trump took office for his second term at the beginning of the year.

For example, the Biden administration had intended to limit the program to projects providing service via wired fiber optic connections, but the Trump administration widened eligibility to include wireless providers using both ground-based equipment and Starlink-style satellites. The new administration argued that flexibility would reduce the program’s cost.

The Trump administration also eliminated consumer protection provisions that would have prevented grant recipients from capping customer data usage and nixed some Biden-era requirements intended to ensure that the internet service subsidized by the program is affordable to lower-income consumers. Those and other changes were applauded by the Gianforte administration as reasonable ways to speed up the program’s work.