State Funded Broadband Projects Get Underway in Montana

Blackfoot Communications, a provider serving rural areas of Montana and Idaho, is getting set to begin work on seven fiber deployment projects for which the company was awarded $60 million through Montana’s ConnectMT program. Blackfoot will contribute an additional $16 million toward total project costs of $76 million. Funding was awarded in December 2022, but as Chris Laslovich, public affairs manager for Blackfoot, said any company planning fiber deployments using buried cable in Montana (as Blackfoot plans to do) has to wait until this time of year or later to begin construction. Charter Communications, another big winner in the program, was awarded $110 million. Bret Picciolo, senior director of communications for the company, said the company expects to start work in 2023 on all the projects for which it won funding. Those, also, are fiber broadband projects. Montana Governor Greg Gianforte announced in December 2022 that the state broadband office had recommended $309 million in awards for 61 projects through the ConnectMT program. The program was funded through the federal American Rescue Plan Act.