Community Broadband Initiative
To lay the groundwork for creative public/private partnerships to improve broadband access, Montana West Economic Development and Northwest Montana Association of Realtors/MLS hosted approximately 90 engaged attendees at the Community Broadband Initiative on Wednesday, June 13th at FVCC. Facilitated by Kate McMahon of Applied Communications, LLC; Paul DeWolfe of Access Consulting; and MWED Staff, this important event organized community conversations about options to address the well-documented gap in crucial infrastructure for new technology and broadband access as demonstrated in the 2017 CEDS.
The workshop was designed to educate key players and the community at large about new public and private initiative and finance tools available throughout the country to maximize opportunity in the Valley. Break-out sessions and discussion were carried-out by each community, resulting in initial plans and follow-up methods to move forward for implementation. Stakeholder and Provider Panels gave way to a question and answer period to get the issues that are plaguing each community out in the open, to find solutions instead of placing blame.
To better serve the needs of the communities broadband issues, we created a survey that went out to the community to gain key information to help move this project forward. The survey results are below.
Important links and information to keep you informed on better broadband opportunities.
Community Broadband Initiative PowerPoint Presentations & Results
- Broadband Basics PowerPoint Presentation
- MWED Broadband Initiative PowerPoint Presentation
- Planning for Broadband Networks PowerPoint Presentation
- State of Broadband PowerPoint Presentation
- Small Group Discussion
- Provider Panel
- Stakeholder Panel
- Questions and Answers
Broadband Resources
- Federal Communications Commission
- BroadbandUSA
- Municipal Networks Resources
- Interactive Maps
- US Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration
- Fiber Broadband Association
- Fixed Broadband Deployment by Provider and Address