Primary Investigator:

Richard Wolff, Montana State University 

Partnering Organization:

Montana Common Cause

As an increasing number of participatory democratic processes assume access to modern, high-speed telecommunications services, this study investigated the determining factors that influence the availability of telecommunications services in rural/remote communities and how access affects civic participation. The range of telecommunications options studied included conventional telephone service, cellular or wireless service, and high-speed Internet service.

Montana Common Cause and researcher Richard Wolff gathered survey data from a cross section of representative communities and rural areas in Montana and combined and compared this information with the results of larger scale surveys conducted periodically by the Federal Communications Commission and other organizations.

Using county wide and local information where available, the study reveals a number of significant patterns and gaps:

• While about two thirds of the counties have web sites, the services offered in the rural areas are not comparable to those available in the metro areas, and are well behind national levels.
• Many of the rural county websites are sponsored by business interests such as tourist agencies, chambers of commerce or real estate interests. These sites offer little in the way of transactional services that would enable citizen engagement in government.
• Rural counties offer online services in less than 50% of the categories defined in a nationwide county and municipal e-government assessment. Even in Montana's metro counties, there are six of twenty service categories where none of the counties offer the service online.
• Internet services and community-run electronic media, such as low power FM and TV coverage are less available in areas with older and declining populations. Similarly, these areas are not being served by wireless hot spots or community networks.
• While universal service fund expenditures for internet access for schools and libraries have been higher on a per capita basis in the rural areas of the state, the benefit to the general population is still very limited.  
• Internet service costs in Montana tend to run higher than the US overall. With the average cost in Montana exceeding the US average by 20%-40%.

Montana Common Cause has publicized and distributed the project findings through a variety of channels, including a media event, citizen-group presentations, group newsletter articles, group website postings, and presentations at events and conferences. With pro-bono support from M+R Strategic Services, Montana Common Cause has also developed a strategic statewide community grassroots campaign to continue to educate, outreach and mobilize citizens around emerging communication and media issues.

See the project's press release: "Citizen access to democracy hurting in rural America"

The full report: “Citizen Political Enfranchisement and Information Access: Telecommunications Services in Rural and Remote Areas”

And additional coverage, from all eight major daily Montana newspapers (including the Helena Independent Record, New West, and Billings Gazette); radio stations (including Yellowstone Public Radio, Montana Public Radio-Morning News, and Big Sky News); and various websites, e-news letters, and blogs (Common Cause).