After the E-Rate subsidy, MCPS would pay about $1.5 million over 20 years for its fiber network.

"What we would pay in five years for a service provider is equal to what we would pay to build our own fiber network," Littman said. "And that includes annual maintenance costs and equipment put on either end of the strands of fiber."

This proposal leaves out Mount Jumbo School and Seeley-Swan High School due to their distance. The committee is still evaluating options for those schools, Littman said, and will come back to the board March 22 with recommendations.

MCPS couldn't wait for a proposed Missoula citywide fiber network, Littman said.

"The reason we went through this onerous process was because the Missoula fiber network is not an entity. It's not real. It doesn't exist right now," she said. "It would be a great idea if it did. But we had to meet our needs ... with a sunsetting contract at the end of the school year. We could not wait on some sort of idea out in the future."

Wide Open Networks' proposal was the most aggressive build plan, she said, as well as being mostly underground rather than aerial.

A negotiated contract will be up for board approval on March 22.

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