Chris Galloway was building infrastructure for telecommunication networks back when phone companies would curl their lips and ask, “What’s this DSL thing?”
Today you can trace Galloway’s work across the West, but the heart of his operations is right here in the Flathead Valley, the place he has called home since 2000. After nearly two decades in the field of telecommunications, Galloway has decided to enter the Internet-provider business. In February, Montana Digital, Galloway’s Kalispell-based company, unveiled Mountain Max, a new high-speed Internet Service Provider.
Stemming from his background in building and coordinating networks, Galloway said Mountain Max has an advantage over some other providers in Montana – it has its own extensive backbone. This means that it doesn’t have to buy bandwidth from a big provider such as Qwest. It simply uses its own backbone network, which extends out of the valley.
This, Galloway said, has enabled him to come out of the gates with residential offers such as one year of free Internet with a three-year contract. Mountain Max also offers six months free with a two-year contract, as well as numerous other residential packages. There are also a variety of business deals.
“We don’t have to pay to get from here to Missoula, or to Denver, or to Seattle,” Galloway said. “People don’t quite get it, they think there’s strings attached.”
Galloway also said having the extensive backbone helps keep his services running when unforeseen things happen to fiber networks.
“When everybody goes down, we’re still up,” he said.
Mountain Max – also written as MtnMAX – joins other area Internet providers Bresnan, Centurytel and MontanaSky.Net. Mountain Max recently worked out a deal with Burton Satellite to offer dish and DirecTV packages as well. Galloway also hopes to begin offering digital phone services and cable television within the near future.
Debbie Street, sales director for Mountain Max, said the goal is to be a versatile and far-reaching communications company. Currently, outlets that provide Mountain Max’s services are Radio Active and Allied Computing in Kalispell, as well as Radio Shack in Whitefish.
“We want to establish ourselves as the maximum communications provider in the valley,” Street said.
Mountain Max offers a 30-day guarantee on contracts, meaning customers can still choose to opt out within the first month. The company also provides 24/7 technical support and a team of installation technicians.
Among Mountain Max’s other services are a free modem rental, free personal Web page hosting and up to five e-mail accounts at no cost for residential deals. For businesses, the company offers up to 25 e-mail accounts and Web hosting. Customers can opt for any of five different download speeds, from 1.5 to 12 megabits per second. Depending on the speed, monthly rates are between $38.95 and $64.95.
Galloway said he helped build the largest DSL network in the state of Colorado in 1991. He has also set up the communications networks at local subdivisions such as Starling and Silverbrook Estates, as well working on infrastructure in multiple other states.
So it’s not surprising that he sees things in regional – not just local – terms. While his company’s services now extend only to Flathead and Lake counties, he said he is already putting together a proposal to eventually extend Mountain Max’s reach beyond Montana’s boundaries.
“If we can prove this model and make it profitable, I think we can then take it on the road,” Galloway said. “I’ve been around this long enough to know what works and what doesn’t work.”
Log on to www.mtnmax.com or call 257-6161 for more information.