With ultra-high-speed, 100 percent fiber-optic networks now ready for service, thousands of Billings residences and businesses have the opportunity to access fiber speeds ranging from 100 Mbps to 50 Gig – service that is 500 times faster – the fastest home internet available.

The new service is a “bold expansion throughout major cities in Montana” by Ziply Fiber, a fiber-optic network provider, headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, which is rapidly expanding throughout the northwestern US.

People in the Billings area have probably seen crews installing the system throughout the community, and now some 19,000 homes and businesses in Billings, and nearly 10,000 addresses in Great Falls, can connect for better service at less price, according to Ryan Luckin, vice president of marketing.

“We are talking about a technology that is super reliable and more inexpensive,” said Luckin. The higher speeds will enable a lot of uses, but especially so for the increasing number of people who work at home. “You will be able to get reliable connection and down load very quickly.”

Most of Ziply Fiber’s executive team, which consists of former executives from AT&T, CenturyLink, and Wave Broadband, either grew up in the Northwest or have spent the better part of 30 years living here, according to Ryan Luckin, vice president of marketing.

That local ownership and market familiarity is an important part of the company mindset and culture, according to Luckin.

The company was founded by Harold Zeitz . The company also has major offices in Everett, Washington; Beaverton, Oregon; and Hayden, Idaho. “Expansion in Montana has been a long time coming and I’m so thankful that the day is finally here,” said Zeitz, “I can’t tell you the number of people and business owners who have reached out to us asking when we’re coming and telling us stories of the limited options they have and what fast, reliable fiber will mean to them. Today we help fulfill that wish.”

Billings and Great Falls are just the first two cities of at least five in the state with brand new, state-of-the-art fiber infrastructure being built by Ziply Fiber, which previously had only offered service in the communities of Libby and Troy. The plan is to be available throughout Montana except for very rural areas, said Luckin. “If you can’t see your neighbor the prospect of being able to provide service isn’t very good,” he explained, since having infrastructure such as telephone poles is usually necessary.

This means that as of today, both Billings and Great Falls now have the fastest household internet speeds in the nation. Customers at every speed tier can be confident they’re on the best and fastest network available, giving them great speed and reliable service for everything they want to do online today and into the future.

All Ziply Fiber plans offer symmetrical download/upload speeds and the company’s entry-level Fiber 100 plan exceeds the minimum residential broadband speed required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with no contracts or data caps.

Throughout the region, “since we started four years ago, we have brought fiber to more than a hundred markets,” said Luckin, “and not just to large metra areas but to rural  areas, too, who have never had high speed broad band and fiber.”

Residents and business owners can check for fiber availability at Ziplyfiber.com and sign up to be alerted when service is available at their location. Residential customers can switch to fiber internet for as little as $20 per month and receive a $50 bill credit for themselves and any new customer they refer.

The Many Benefits of Fiber Internet

Fiber internet, unlike other options like cable or satellite, provides the bandwidth and capacity to keep entire families streaming without interruption. Fiber provides symmetrical upload and download speeds and lower latency to easily power video conferencing and online gaming without lag and delivers the reliability to empower residents and businesses for decades.