Montana Resources and Washington Corp. will give a $250,000 grant to MERDI of Butte to expand a cutting-edge fiber optic network for the Butte school district and local businesses.
The grant, announced Tuesday at the summit, will pay for a core network upgrade in the MERDI data center, for fiber optic equipment, installation and implementation of a hybrid community fiber optic network.
This will result in reliable high speed, “fault tolerable” voice and data transmission, according to a news release.
“We’re just so grateful to Montana Resources and the Washington Companies,” said Jim Kambich, MERDI president. “It’s so great to meet primarily the educational and economic needs of Butte.”
Larry Simkins, president of the Washington Companies, related the news as part of the Montana Solutions for Montana Jobs panel during day two of the Montana Economic Development Summit.
MERDI — the Montana Economic Revitalization and Development Institute — located in the Thornton Building in Uptown Butte, has been working on securing the grant for awhile, said Kambich.
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