New opportunity minutes from Glacier Park- telecommuting a great possibility for entrepreneurs and out of state buyers in Montana's burgeoning Columbia Falls community! Columbia Falls Real Estate continues to flourish with over $25.5 million in gross residential sales in just the 3rd quarter of 2019 alone. To boot these homes on average were sold in just 102 days!
BRET ANNE SERBIN of the Daily Inter Lake recently put out an article detailing the install of fiber optics in downtown Columbia Falls. (See Below)
"MontanaSky is in the process of installing fiber-optic cables through downtown Columbia Falls to provide faster and more reliable internet service to local businesses.
The locally based internet service provider received a loan from Montana West Economic Development to complete the $120,000 project.
“Previously, we only had wireless in that area,” reported MontanaSky Marketing Director Amber Pacheco-Holm. “It was definitely an underserved area from our perspective.”
Fiber-optic cables provide faster, more reliable internet service and support larger bandwidths than the existing wireless service. Pacheco-Holm said the new service will have the capability of operating at 10 gigabytes per second.
“There are endless possibilities” with fiber-optic internet, she said. “We’re all evolving toward fiber optic,” she said of the internet provider landscape, noting other providers such as CenturyLink already operate fiber-optic cables in Columbia Falls.
Pacheco-Holm explained MontanaSky’s service is unique because it is the only provider in the area to utilize three redundant paths to provide service. This way, if there is a disruption in one of the paths, the company can reroute to the others to keep customers connected. She said this system allowed MontanaSky to avoid losing service during the high winds and storms in September that knocked out internet and cell service for many people throughout the valley.
She clarified the new service is primarily geared toward business customers, rather than residential internet users. For now, at least, she said, “it’s not really a residential solution.”
“Columbia Falls is growing,” Pacheco-Holms explained. “There are a lot of new businesses coming in...They have growing bandwidth needs, especially in rural Montana.”