Sanders County is genuinely hard to serve. 13.2% of locations here have no fixed broadband at all, so for a lot of addresses the real choice is satellite or a cellular home-internet gateway, not a wired provider.
Everything below comes from the FCC's Broadband Data Collection, the filings providers are legally required to make about where they offer service. It describes the county; your own address can differ, and that is exactly why the technology mix matters.
Where Sanders County sits in Montana
Share of addresses with no fixed broadband at 25/3 Mbps
0.0% to 4.8%
4.8% to 6.4%
6.4% to 8.5%
8.5% to 13%
13% to 17%
17% to 27%
27% and above
not published
This county is outlined. Darker means a larger share of addresses with no fixed broadband. Select any county to open it.
What reaches homes in Sanders County
Locations covered by each technology, out of 7,091 broadband serviceable locations. An address can be reached by more than one technology, so these add up to more than 100%.
Fiber5,310 · 75%
Cable0 · 0.0%
Licensed fixed wireless2,330 · 33%
Unlicensed fixed wireless0 · 0.0%
DSL over copper57 · 0.8%
Served, underserved, unserved
The FCC's three categories. "Served" means at least 100/20 Mbps is available; "underserved" means at least 25/3 but below 100/20; "unserved" means below 25/3 or nothing at all.
Category
Locations
Share of county
Served
5,680
80.1%
Underserved
472
6.7%
Unserved
939
13.2%
What that means if you live here
The USDA classes Sanders County as a completely rural county, or one with an urban population under 5,000, adjacent to a metro area (continuum code 8).
About 12,959 people live across those locations, roughly 1.8 people per serviceable address.
13.2% of addresses here, 939 of them, fall below 25/3 Mbps or have no fixed option at all.
Another 472 can get something, but not the 100/20 Mbps the FCC now treats as the benchmark.
The most widely available technology here is fiber, reaching 5,310 locations (74.9%); next is licensed fixed wireless at 32.9%.
Fiber already reaches 74.9% of the county (5,310 locations), which puts Sanders County well ahead of most rural America.
Licensed fixed wireless covers 32.9% of the county. It does not reach as far as fiber does here, but it reaches places fiber does not.
Filings come from 12 providers, of which 3 offer fiber and 3 licensed fixed wireless.
Fiber reached 233 more locations in Sanders County over the last twelve months, a 3.3% swing in the county's total.
Served locations rose 0.76% year on year.
Fiber is further along here than in most of Montana, where the median county reaches 52.7%.
What people actually measure in Montana
Median of real speed tests run on each network during 2024, from M-Lab. This is measured performance, not an advertised plan speed, and not a customer review. The middle-half column shows how consistent a network is: a wide spread means your experience depends heavily on where and when.
Network
Median download
Middle half of tests
Median upload
Latency
Tests
Charter Communications
125 Mbps
49.5 Mbps to 239 Mbps
10.5 Mbps
52 ms
34,897
3 Rivers Telephone Cooperative
109 Mbps
46.0 Mbps to 211 Mbps
111 Mbps
30 ms
6,171
CenturyLink Communications
16.3 Mbps
5.9 Mbps to 42.6 Mbps
1.7 Mbps
53 ms
4,899
Blackfoot Telephone Cooperative
30.9 Mbps
9.6 Mbps to 93.7 Mbps
10.2 Mbps
30 ms
2,849
Mid-Rivers Telephone Cooperative
139 Mbps
73.2 Mbps to 288 Mbps
57.5 Mbps
32 ms
1,613
Montana Sky Networks
25.9 Mbps
14.4 Mbps to 51.7 Mbps
9.8 Mbps
18 ms
1,043
Montana Opticom
68.5 Mbps
42.0 Mbps to 77.3 Mbps
43.8 Mbps
50 ms
1,029
Nemont
65.6 Mbps
27.0 Mbps to 93.0 Mbps
52.9 Mbps
38 ms
964
Global Net
26.2 Mbps
20.3 Mbps to 93.5 Mbps
9.1 Mbps
62 ms
927
Gallatin Wireless Internet
15.1 Mbps
7.1 Mbps to 28.8 Mbps
4.8 Mbps
44 ms
901
Latency is the number that decides whether video calls and gaming feel right, and it is where satellite differs most from everything else. Measured data is statewide: below county level there are usually too few tests to report an honest number.
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Your realistic options in Sanders County
Satellite
Starlink
Low-earth-orbit satellite. Latency is low enough for video calls and most gaming, unlike older satellite services.
Best for
Anywhere with a clear view of the sky and no wired option
Watch out
Hardware costs money up front, and heavy tree cover or a north-facing obstruction will cost you throughput