FCC documents show some internet providers struggling to bring service to rural Montana

Federal Communications Commission documents show internet service providers struggling to bring high-speed connectivity to Montanans, including one provider with contracts from the state through ConnectMT, the state’s organization for building out broadband infrastructure.

Blackfoot Communications told the FCC in May it was not going to be able to finish a project to bring broadband to certain areas, including those that have been targeted for federal funding. 

Blackfoot serves Western Montana and parts of Idaho and specifically has looked to complete projects in rural areas including Plains, Drummond and Darby. 

Meanwhile, NorthWestern Energy sent the FCC a letter in late February calling into question the construction practices of a multi-state internet service provider, Ziply Fiber, which is attempting to connect as many as 55,000 Montanans with high-speed internet. Ziply has focused on larger cities in Montana, including Missoula, Great Falls, Billings and Butte.

Ziply recently finished a merger process, which prompted the letter, though NorthWestern officially took no position on that acquisition by BCE, Inc. The acquisition was finalized earlier this month.

In another example, Intermountain Infrastructure Group’s legal battle with Burlington Northern Santa Fe centers on easements on railroad property. Court documents in that case stated BNSF had halted permits for all IIG fiber optic projects on the railroad company’s land.

Multiple internet service providers and fiber optic companies appear to be having issues in Montana, though what those impacts are on communities looking for high-speed access is unclear. According to the state’s broadband map, vast swaths of central and eastern Montana are considered “underserved.”

Some of these companies have contracts or are involved with the state’s ConnectMT project in some way. Blackfoot directly has contracts with the nearly billion-dollar program, while IIG is creating the fiber-optic infrastructure some companies with ConnectMT contracts are connecting into. Ziply, meanwhile, is attempting to jump into the fray.

ConnectMT and the state’s broadband buildout was created with two pieces of legislation from 2021 — Senate Bill 297 and House Bill 632. It’s a huge project, not only in cost, but in scale, too. It is estimated nearly a quarter of Montanans do not have an internet subscription of any kind, according to the state.

“The Governor approved 61 projects recommended for funding … covering 61,887 serviceable locations across Montana,” the ConnectMT website reads. “Of these locations, 38,631 are unserved communities, 21,956 are underserved communities, and 1,300 are frontier communities.”

‘Alternative funding’

In 2022, Blackfoot Communications applied for and was awarded funding through ConnectMT.

State project recommendation documents show Blackfoot was likely to receive around $60 million dollars for seven projects around the state. 

“Blackfoot will use these grants together with its own capital to build fiber broadband to more locations than ever before,” Blackfoot CEO Jason Williams wrote on the company’s website. “One way or another, Blackfoot plans to bring fiber-based broadband to all of its Cooperative members in the coming years.”

The company was at the top of the state’s priority list, which is shown in the ConnectMT planning documents — project applications are ranked, and Blackfoot Communications is at the top. While not all projects were recommended to be fully funded, every Blackfoot project was. Those documents do not include the number of new high-speed internet connections per project.

Blackfoot Communications did not respond to a request for comment. Locations impacted appeared to be in Missoula and Lake Counties, according to FCC documents.

The letter to the FCC states Blackfoot notified the Montana Broadband Office it wasn’t going to fulfill its obligations, in part “so they can become eligible for alternative funding, particularly Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (“BEAD”) funding.”

Montana qualifies for about $629 million in BEAD funding from that pot which is coming from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The state Legislature has also squirrelled away money for infrastructure upgrades.

ConnectMT reopened BEAD applications on July 7 of this year.

“The Montana Broadband Office is ready to move the BEAD process forward to finish the drill and connect Montanans,” said Department of Administration Director Misty Ann Giles said in a media release announcing the reopening. “We continue to be grateful for the new guidelines and know that broadband availability for unserved and underserved areas of our state is within reach.”

When asked if there were any long-term concerns with fiber optic providers in Montana in relation to ConnectMT, the Daily Montanan was asked by the program to file a records request.

It’s unclear how much money has been spent in the program since its 2021 inception, how many connections have actually been made and who, exactly, has contracts with the state. The Daily Montanan has filed a records request for every ConnectMT contract to date.

In Blackfoot’s case, costs and money apparently are at the heart of the problems, according to documents filed with FCC.  The company was awarded Rural Digital Opportunity Funding to complete fiber optic upgrades to its system. The letter said the company was “relinquishing” 688 of 2,687 total locations awarded to Blackfoot through the grant in a May, 13, 2025 letter to the FCC.

It’s unclear if each of the locations represent one business, home, or Community Anchor Institution, which are places like libraries and medical centers. The Flathead Valley, a place where Blackfoot is active, is among the most underserved areas in Montana, according to a five-year BEAD plan document.

“Blackfoot has experienced extraordinary cost increases to build fiber-to-the-premises (“FTTP”). While Blackfoot has made significant progress in building gigabit speed broadband Internet to hundreds of Rural Digital Opportunity Funding (RDOF) locations, it has already spent significantly more capital than it had planned to spend on its entire RDOF project area making it unfeasible to deploy FTTP gigabit speed broadband to the three Census Block Groups (CBGs) that Blackfoot is returning,” the letter reads.

In a response letter, the FCC said it was stopping financial support to Blackfoot for those areas, but would still hold the company responsible for its contractual obligations, according to FCC documents. It said that if Blackfoot doesn’t meet the terms of its contract that it would be placed on a “non-compliance” list.

The FCC said the grant does not provide for partial withdrawals from the program. It was unclear how much money Blackfoot is going to lose and neither FCC document mentions that number.

The FCC also said the census block areas Blackfoot is relinquishing are now available for “alternative funding.”

‘Unsafe actions’

Ziply’s problems are different from Blackfoot’s, but could impact thousands of Montanans.

NorthWestern, which owns vast amounts of infrastructure in the state, is concerned with how Ziply is attaching its fiber optic cables to its power poles.

In August 2024, NorthWestern filed a complaint for injunctive relief in Yellowstone County District Court against Ziply.

“In May of 2024, NorthWestern learned that Ziply Pacific, either directly or through Ziply Montana or Ziply Wireless, began attaching infrastructure, to NorthWestern’s poles without waiting for the make-ready work to be approved and completed,” court documents said, which went on to state it was in violation of established agreements.

NorthWestern was represented by Crist, Krough, Alke, & Nord, PLLC. Ziply, meanwhile, was represented by Monica Tranel and Moulton Bellingham P.C.

NorthWestern did not hold back in its letter to the FCC, which included a copy of the complaint and even a sworn statement from a separate investigation the Idaho Public Service Commission is conducting into Ziply.

“The concern we want the FCC to consider is that Ziply has not conducted itself for the good of its employees, customers, or the public,” the letter reads, which is signed by Shannon Heim, a vice president in NorthWestern’s legal department. “Its unsafe actions have negatively impacted, and continue to negatively impact, the communities it purports to serve – which are also our communities.”

The letter also includes agreements between Ziply and NorthWestern, which include specific stipulations for how the internet company could utilize the energy company’s powerlines.

In a 2023 letter from NorthWestern, it stated Ziply was looking to attach lines to approximately 19,500 poles. 

They wanted it to happen quickly, too.

“Ziply desires to expedite and facilitate the application, survey, engineering and make-ready construction process, including the process of replacing poles, which will benefit Ziply in furtherance of its effort to expand its footprint in Montana,” A NorthWestern email to Ziply said. “NorthWestern is willing to expedite and facilitate Ziply’s attachment requests pursuant to the following enumerated process.”

Ziply was expected to pay between $19.75 and $25.50 per pole for the attachments. NorthWestern and Ziply negotiated several agreements, court documents said, but those apparently soured. NorthWestern went so far as to say Ziply was putting its employees at risk, Charter employees utilizing NorthWestern poles at risk and homeowners at risk, too.

In one example, NorthWestern employees observed Ziply cables too close to one of their power lines.

“This creates the risk of the two touching, thereby energizing the Ziply line,” court documents stated. “This does not merely create a hazard for communications workers, it creates a hazard for homeowners or tree-trimmers who maintain trees and shrubs on their property.”

Ziply does not have contacts with the state, Ziply spokesperson Ryan Luckin wrote in an email. He added that Ziply is pursuing BEAD funding.

According to reporting from Fierce, a trade publication, the company was looking to add 55,000 new internet connections in 2024. It wasn’t immediately clear how many connections the company has in Montana, though it is still looking to expand. 

NorthWestern also took aim at where Ziply has targeted its operations.

“Ziply does not appear to be extending broadband services to Montana’s smaller communities or rural areas,” the NorthWestern letter to the FCC stated. “It is difficult to imagine the benefit of bringing an additional broadband service provider to the largest communities in Montana outweighs the risk of Ziply’s unsafe operation around NorthWestern’s electric facilities.”

In a response to the Daily Montanan, Ziply said it’s hoping to work with the energy company moving forward.

“The letter from NWE was submitted as part of the process the FCC runs when they review M&A transactions,” Luckin wrote in an email. “We’re excited to have that transaction closed and are working with NW Energy as we continue to bring our fiber network to communities across Montana, including Great Falls, Butte, Helena, and Billings.”