Rural North Dakota and Montana receives $18.5 million for broadband

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - It can be expensive to run internet to rural areas. That’s why the federal government has granted $18.5 million for high-speed internet for more than a thousand rural residents in North Dakota and Montana.

The money is available in part through the United States Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect Program and is a part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed into law last year.

Those involved with the program say the grant component of the program is vital because of the high costs associated with running internet to rural areas.

“It is very expensive to serve some of these very, very rural areas. It can cost almost as much as your home infrastructure, meaning your house, to get a cable several miles down a road from a central office to your location,” said Shane Hart of RTC Networks.

Reservation Telephone Cooperative will use the $18.5 million grant to connect more than a thousand people, 67 businesses and 91 farms in Dunn, McKenzie, and McLean counties in North Dakota and Richland and Wibaux counties in Montana.