ARPA

ARPA

This funding authority is pursuant to section 9901 of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021, H.R. 1319, Public Law No.117-2, as well as to Montana's 67th Legislature HB (House Bill) 632, also pursuant to Montana's 67th Legislature SB (Senate Bill) 297, signed May 11, 2021, establishing Broadband Infrastructure Deployment Laws, and establishing the Connect Montana Act.

On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed ARPA into law. Section 9901 of ARPA establishes the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund. Under the U.S. Treasury's Interim Final Rule, 31 CFR (Code of Federal Regulation) Part 35, the Secretary of the Treasury issued its Interim Final Rule to implement the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund established under the ARPA-21.

On September 20, 2021, the U.S. Treasury issued its Interim Final Rule regarding the 602 Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and the 602 Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, allocating $275 million to the State of Montana. The 602 Coronavirus Local and State Fiscal Recovery Funds, in combination with 604 Capital Projects Fund (CPF), were distributed through a competitive award process to promote the deployment of improved broadband internet connectivity in Montana.

ARPA broadband deployment is comprised of 602 State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund and 604 Capital Projects Fund. During the 68th Legislative Session (i.e., LC 1234) a shift of $44,148,748 of 602 funds to this program was passed by an appropriation change. The State applied to Treasury and has received approval for the $119.9M of CPF 604 funds. Total funding for grant awards were increased from $266M to approximately $310M.

Funding & Resources

ARPA broadband deployment is comprised of 602 State & Local Fiscal Recovery Funds and 604 Capital Projects Funds. During the 68th legislative session (i.e., LC 1234) a shift of $44,148,748 of 602 funds to this program was passed by an appropriation change. The State applied to Treasury and has received approval for the $119.9M of CPF 604 funds. Total funding for grant awards increased from $266M to approximately $310M.

On December 14, 2022, Governor Gianforte approved 61 projects recommended for funding by the Montana Department of Administration, covering 61,887 serviceable locations across Montana. Of these locations, 38,631 are unserved communities, 21,956 are underserved communities, and 1,300 are rural communities.

You can view the approved projects by clicking here.

As discussed in the October 2025 Communications Advisory Commission meeting, approximately $18M in funds are eligible to be reprogrammed, and the Department of Administration conducted an ARPA Lightning Round seeking eligible applications. On December 3, 2025, Governor Gianforte approved five projects totaling approximately $16.3M that were recommended for funding by DOA, covering ~1,480 serviceable locations across Montana. You can view the approved projects by clicking here. DOA will continue to seek to reprogram funds, through a structured framework, to high performing ARPA Subrecipients to allocate any additional remaining funds.

State of Montana ARPA Dashboard

Internet Service Provider Information

The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) determined that ConnectMT projects have a low likelihood of impacting Cultural Resources when the construction is expected to take place fully within ground where non-historic activity resulted in a disturbance or displacement of soil, such as existing Right-of-Way (ROW) or Utility Corridor. The SHPO defines cultural resources as places of human activity, construction, or modification occurring 50 years ago or more. For broadband projects considered to have a low likelihood of impacting Cultural Resources, Internet Service Providers (“ISPs”, “subgrantees”), at the recommendation of SHPO, will be allowed to self-certify via their Submittable portal, as an alternative to formal file searches.

In all other circumstances, if some or all of the Project Area is within previously undisturbed ground, native rangeland, or attached to any Resource that is over fifty years of age or is outside of an existing Right-of-Way (ROW) or Utility Corridor, the ISP should contact SHPO and submit a file search request form along with the applicable Project Area map to the SHPO. If SHPO then does not recommend a cultural resource inventory, SHPO will prepare a letter for the ISP to submit to the DOA ConnectMT Broadband Program. If the File Search results recommend conducting a cultural resource inventory, SHPO will advise the ISP to hire a cultural resource consultant to survey the areas where the new ground disturbance will be taking place. Further information on this process can be found here: SHPO Consultation

The following chart is comprised of all eighty (80) application packages received by the ConnectMT Federal Allocation Program, First Allocation Offering Season (ConnectMT’22 Program). Each application package can be identified by a unique Application #, the Application Title (provided by Applicant), and the Applicant Organization. The ConnectMT’22 Program received allocation requests for $521,488,379.64, proposing to serve 158,019 locations throughout underserved, unserved, and frontier areas in Montana. The categories below reflect the priorities set forth in Montana’s 67th Legislature HB 632 and Montana’s 67th Legislature HB 297.

Other categories include:

  • Technology Types Deployed: Fixed Wireless, Combination of Fixed Wireless and FTTH (Combination), and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH)
  • Total Allocation Request
  • Total Project Budget
  • Project Location, by County
  • Serviceable Locations Connected, by Frontier (no/extremely limited terrestrial broadband), Unserved (under 25/3), Underserved (under 100/20), and Served locations
  • Deployment Timeline
  • Project Summary Narrative (short narrative provided by Applicant for public release)

Mapping data for all complete and submitted applications is available here

Sixty challenges were received through the ConnectMT website. The ConnectMT Program reviewed those challenges and conducted its own review of the proposed project areas, the results of this review are presented in the table below. The primary purpose of the challenge process was to ensure the accuracy of the ConnectMT map and that all awarded funds are used to deploy broadband service infrastructure to unserved or underserved areas. (Note: Only challenges to active applications are shown in the table.)

Click here to view the Challenge Process Results

ARPA Map

To request access to the Montana Broadband Application Map, please submit the form below with the necessary information. Requests will be reviewed by the Broadband team as quickly as possible.

Note: please ensure you have registered for an Okta account prior to filling out the request form.

Prior to requesting access to the Montana Broadband Application Map, users must have an Okta account. You can sign in to https://login.mt.gov in any of these ways:

  • If this is your first time signing in, you may be able to sign in with your existing ePass Montana login email address, or
  • By creating a new account through https://login.mt.gov

For additional assistance with Okta, you can visit https://okta.mt.gov/Help.