Ronan Telephone Company is proposing a new high-speed middle-mile fiber network that would expand broadband services across an underserved region of Montana with high unemployment rates and a great need for improved Internet services. Ronan’s Montana West project proposes to expand broadband and high-speed wireless services to the Blackfeet and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Native American Tribes, while improving access options in the underserved communities of St. Mary, Babb, Santa Rita, Heart Butte, Elmo, Big Arm, and Evaro, Montana. The project plans to make the economic development and recovery of these communities a chief focus of its operations by linking residents to skills training and distance learning. This investment would also improve existing bandwidth and connectivity to the Blackfeet Reservation community of East Glacier Park.