Lincoln ahead of other rural areas in broadband access

Broadband internet is a big buzzword these days, as employees and students frantically started working and learning from home when businesses and schools shut down earlier this year due to COVID-19.

Connection to fast and reliable internet, which is usually better with broadband, can affect students' access to materials, employees abilities to do their jobs, as well as tele-health capabilities, which can be especially important in rural communities like Lincoln.

Over the past few years, Montana has consistently ranked 50th in broadband access. These same reports share that rural communities are often the farthest left behind when it comes to broadband access. However in Lincoln, fiber optic broadband, regarded currently as the fastest broadband internet on the market, is available to all residents.

This is a matter of being independent and looking toward the future, said Lincoln Telephone Company manager Aaron Daniel.

In the early days of telephone access, Lincoln residents worked together to run their own telephone lines and build an independent company that continues to adapt to changing community needs.

"We like to stay ahead of the ballgame," said Daniel. "That's kind of our motto here."

The Lincoln Telephone Company switched over to broadband access across the community on Dec. 31, 2019. "My network tech, Bryce - my son - he's kinda the backbone to the whole broadband deal. We said for years if we don't dump cable tv and get broadband going, we're going to be behind the ballgame."

"We just bit the bullet and did it. We decided five years ago to do it. It took a couple years to get the loan process done. A-CAM (Alternative Connect America Model) is a new way of funding from the government to get this stuff up on it's feet. We had to take a $10 million loan out from the government. We get some funding back as an incentive for the broadband. It's not 100 percent paid, but it does cover some of the costs," said Daniel.

According to the FCC, A-CAM "is designed to ensure that consumers in rural, insular, and high-cost areas have access to modern communications networks capable of providing voice and broadband service...at rates that are reasonably comparable to those in urban areas."

The program allows carriers to recover some costs from the federal Universal Service Fund.

While Montana in general lags far behind in broadband, Daniel pointed out that while larger internet companies don't necessarily provide broadband access in Montana, the smaller independent companies, like 3 Rivers, do. "All the independents that we work with are all 70-80 percent built out and will be built out [for broadband]," said Daniel.