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Many Montanans live in rural areas where cell and internet services are spotty, but as legislators heard today, more and more of those people are accessing broadband than ever before.

During a meeting of the Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee, a group of independent telecommunications companies told legislators that broadband service is growing at a tremendous rate in rural Montana, adding that this is due to smaller businesses making an effort to reach out.

They reported that larger companies like Verizon and Qwest tend to focus service on larger communities cities, so the smaller companies have stepped in to fill the gap.

Bonnie Lorang, MT Independent Telecommunications Systems general manager, noted, "Broadband is going to open up their homes and their businesses to the type of applications that, right there from their homes they can do e-commerce and they can do e-business. They can take classes at the schools or the universities."

She reported the biggest problem the smaller companies have is predictability of revenue and customers.

Also at Wednesday's meeting, an AT&T official spoke about the recent purchase of Alltel in Montana by AT&T.

Adam Grzybicki, president of AT&T Oregon, told legislators that not much will change for existing Alltel customers.

Grzybicki said, "All you have to do as a customer to make this as seamless as possible...is pick a new phone, a new compatible phone, and turn one off and turn one on when the time is ready."

AT& T says customers will start seeing these changes in about a year.