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Broadband projects expected to bring high-speed internet to 62,000 homes

Sixty new projects to expand broadband in Montana are expected to bring high-speed internet to 62,000 homes

Gov. Greg Gianforte held a press conference Wednesday to announce the state’s approval for using $309 million in federal COVID relief funding to pay for broadband expansion.

“All told, Montana will see over 3,000 miles of fiber put in the ground.”

The projects that will lay those lines are expected to begin in early 2023.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, a third of Montanans don’t have access to broadband. Gianforte says the broadband expansion will bolster health care and education opportunities in rural areas as well as provide benefits to agricultural industries.

Aaron graduated from the University of Minnesota School of Journalism in 2015 after interning at Minnesota Public Radio. He landed his first reporting gig in Wrangell, Alaska where he enjoyed the remote Alaskan lifestyle and eventually moved back to the road system as the KBBI News Director in Homer, Alaska. He joined the MTPR team in 2019. Aaron now reports on all things in northwest Montana and statewide health care.
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