Montana Sky to improve service

Libby residents may soon notice an uptick in download speeds when watching cat videos on YouTube.

MontanaSky Networks recently completed a project laying fiber-optic cable from Kalispell to Libby, and customers will be able to reap the benefits shortly.

“This just completely changed the game in the Libby area,” MontanaSky Networks CEO Joe Sullivan said. “If you are thinking of moving a business to Libby, there are a lot of attractive aspects: the dam, the river, rail. But information technology drives any business. If an IT business was thinking of coming to Libby before, it would say no way. With fiber, we can provide big-city speeds in an area with low cost of living and high quality of life.”

Packages and prices are yet to be finalized, but Sullivan said offers featuring initial speed upgrades will be available by mid-April.

Company founder Fred Weber said the fiber optic cable is the result of more than two years of work.

“We had problems with the weather, contractors, permitting, environmental impact drafts, but we got it done,” Weber said. “When we took over from out-of-state owners, the system in Libby had a small amount of bandwidth. There were slow download times; it was awful.”

Weber said people’s bandwidth consumption doubles every sixth months.

“I remember when it used to be that people had one desktop per household,” Weber said. “Now homes have two or three desktops, a couple iPads, an Xbox, a Wii, and they are all connected.”

The fiber-optic cable offers 10 times the amount of bandwidth previously available. Further planned upgrades will double the bandwidth again, up to one gigabyte. That upgrade is expected sometime during the summer.

“This is huge. It gives us the opportunity to bring in more businesses,” Commissioner Tony Berget said. “A lot of businesses rely on high-speed Internet. Some of them work at home, and this is a beautiful place to do that. It’s good to see a private business doing well.”

The number of special interest groups expressing concerns about the project surprised Weber.

“Getting the tree huggers and highway huggers to let us through myriad restrictions slowed the process,” Weber said. “It was surprising because the line goes along power poles that were already there.”

Wayde Block, president of the Libby Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, said the upgrade would be a benefit for the community.

“We will consider promoting this,” Block said.

Weber did not hold back when expressing the impact of the upgrade.

“We can be as competitive as anyone in Northwest Montana to supply big bandwidth for a tech company,” Weber said. “We could even accommodate Bitcoin.”