On May 17, 1955, the Montana Telephone Association was founded in Great Falls, MT. Now called the Montana Telecommunications Association (MTA) and located in Helena, MT. MTA continues to provide public policy advocacy and consultation, communications, training and education, trade shows and related services to independent rural telecommunications service providers throughout Montana. The Association is actively engaged in state and federal legislative and regulatory affairs.

MTA member companies provide advanced telecommunications services to business and residential consumers in Montana. MTA members have over $500 million of fixed investment in place, and they invest over $80 million each year in capital and operating expenditures. With tens of thousands of miles of fiber optic facilities (over 20,000 miles) deployed throughout the state (see the Montana Fiber Map link), MTA members provide access to high speed broadband Internet service to over 80% (and often near 100%) of their customers. To learn more about how MTA members are conquering the challenge of low population density and high deployment costs, download the State of Rural Broadband Report at BroadbandMT.com.

MTA’s ConnectMT™ Initiative, announced in March 2014, adopts a goal to deliver up to gigabit broadband speeds to Montana’s school, libraries and other anchor institutions by 2020. MTA members took a major step in fulfilling this commitment by announcing that every school they serve will have fiber connectivity by the end of 2017. By investing in tomorrow’s technology today, MTA members are connecting rural Montana to the future.