Lack of Backup Makes Montana’s Telecom Backbone Vulnerable

(TNS) — When an accidentally damaged fiber optic cable cut out Internet, landline and cell service — including 911 service — in the Bitterroot Valley last week, it exposed a longstanding and widespread problem in Montana. Because of vast distances and a sparse population density, the state’s telecommunications infrastructure often lacks redundancy and there is often no back-up when an errant excavator hits a crucial line.

The CenturyLink cable that serves the Bitterroot Valley has been cut before, in 2011, causing the same outages. There hasn’t been much improvement to the problem since then. In 2017, a damaged CenturyLink fiber optic line in Kalispell cut out Internet in the Flathead Valley and 911 calls had to be rerouted to Missoula.

In October, according to the Havre Daily News, a "large swath of north-central Montana lost telephone, Internet and television service" when a Spectrum fiber optic cable was damaged.

In 2013, a big chunk of central Montana served by Triangle Communications lost phone service when a fiber optic cable was cut.

Geoff Feiss, the general manager of the Montana Telecommunications Association, said Montana’s geography has made it financially unfeasible for companies to dig expensive trenches and acquire right-of-way for backup lines.

“It’s much easier to be triply or quadruply backed up in a place like New York City,” he said. “When you have a state like Montana, it costs twice as much.”

Feiss compared the CenturyLink line in the Bitterroot to a backbone.

“It’s the only one in and out of the valley, and that’s a shame,” he said.

His 10 member organizations wouldn’t be opposed to a state or federal law requiring backup lines, he said.

“But somebody’s gonna have to pay for it,” he explained. “Especially in rural states like Montana, the more resources we can bring together, the more likely it is we can overcome the continuing barriers we’re facing. Rural providers are doing as much as they can as fast as they can.”

Feiss said he’s supportive of the new $600 million ReConnect Program that will be administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The initiative is meant to expand high-speed Internet access to rural communities around the country through both grants and loans.

Communities with fewer than 20,000 residents will be eligible for the new funding to expand high-speed Internet access. That means a whole lot of Montana communities will qualify. The first round of grant applications will be due to USDA by the end of April 2019.

“I think it’s got a lot of potential,” Feiss said. “I don’t know how many members [of the MTTA] are going to be able to take advantage of it. To the extent they have the hardest-to-serve, the most expensive-to-serve areas, the grants could come in handy. Probably not so much the loans. When you have fewer than three customers per square mile, there’s not a whole lot of payback.”

Feiss said the new Farm Bill that just passed the U.S. Senate also includes another $325 million for rural broadband deployment.

“So combined, that’s almost a new billion bucks in the last two years for rural broadband,” he said. “The rules (for the money in the Farm Bill) are a little tighter in terms of overbuilding existing providers where you can use the money. But it’s for the most remote and least-served areas.”

U.S. Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont., voted for the ReConnect funding in a budget bill in March.

“Schools, families, and businesses all need reliable access to high-speed Internet to thrive,” Tester said in an emailed statement. “This funding will specifically help the country’s most rural areas close the communication gap and bring new opportunities to folks across our state.”

U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., introduced the bipartisan Reprioritizing Unserved Rural Areas and Locations for Broadband (RURAL) Act of 2018 in May. The act prioritized unserved areas for broadband access over using federal funding to upgrade areas with existing service.

“We must work to close the rural-digital divide so our rural communities can be part of the 21st century economy,” Daines said in a statement. “My bill ensures that these critical funds be used for the communities who need them most.”

The rules for applying for the ReConnect Program funding will be published in February.

Montana companies and consumers can access assistance from USDA during the grant application process by visiting the ReConnect Program’s resource portal at https://reconnect.usda.gov/.

©2018 Ravalli Republic, Hamilton, Mont. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.