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Bozeman broadband firm, Cutthroat Communications expands in Billings

A Bozeman broadband company formed in the fall of 2000 is increasing its presence in Billings.

By JAN FALSTAD
Of The Gazette Staff

Cutthroat Communications http://cutthroatcom.com/
already is offering broadband and technology services to Billings businesses wanting high-speed Internet access. Now, the company is moving Chris Hunter to town to serve as a roving customer service representative.

"It’s a natural strategy for us to grow into Billings," said Roger Lang, founder and chairman of the board of Cutthroat. "This is a thriving business community and we will open an office at some point."

Hunter will join Katherine Dayton in servicing Cutthroat customers in Billings. Dayton commutes from Bozeman to her hometown of Billings two to three days a week.

Lang, who has a master’s degree from Stanford University, developed his Internet expertise in California’s Silicon Valley. In 1989, he started a company called Infinity Financial Technology Inc., which sold software to manage investment risk. In 1996, he sold out to SunGuard Data Systems Inc.

While working in the high-tech heartland, Lang was named by Risk Magazine as one of the world’s 50 most influential people in risk management.

In 1998, Lang bought the Sun Ranch in the Madison Valley near Ennis. He now commutes from the Bay Area to direct business at the ranch and at Cutthroat.

Lang wants to bridge the gap between big city residents who have access to the latest broadband technology and folks living in rural America.

"There is an under-served part of America that we call extra urban," Lang said. "We go where the big guys aren’t."

He defines "extra urban" as cities with 200,000 or fewer residents, which means all of Montana.

Cutthroat offers business customers full-time Internet connections with other services like hosting Web sites, online security, backing up data and linking multiple offices.

"Rather than think of us as a radical new departure from dial-up, think of it as a faster version of dial-up that you just don’t have to dial-up," Lang said.

Some Billings companies that have hired Cutthroat include St. Vincent Healthcare clinics and The Mansfield Center, CTA Architects Engineers, Morrison Maierle Inc., Tire Rama and School District 2.

Cutthroat Communications is privately held by a group of investors, so Lang doesn’t divulge revenue figures or the number of customers.

While the lingering meltdown in the telecom industry has killed hundreds of start-ups, Cutthroat and Billings-based OneEighty Communications http://www.oneeighty.com/ are surviving nicely, Lang said.

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Cutthroat Communications
7330 Shedhorn Drive, Bozeman, MT 59718
TEL: 866-585-4600 (toll-free) or 406-556-1700
FAX: 406-585-9645
http://cutthroatcom.com/

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OneEighty Communications
206 North 29th
Billings, MT 59101
406-294-4000
888-342-5987
http://www.oneeighty.com/

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"We’re two companies which are thriving in the vacuum that was opened up by the failure of the giants to serve the extra-urban market," Lang said.

Lang said his company’s revenues have jumped five-fold in the past year, and his company has good relations with OneEighty.

Cutthroat focuses more on data transmission while OneEighty focuses more on voice communications. So there is only about one-third overlap in what the two companies do, said OneEighty chief executive Chris Dimock.

"It’s sometimes called co-competition," Lang said. "There are some things we both want that only one can have, but there are lots more cooperative services."

Jan Falstad can be contacted at (406) 657-1306 or at [email protected].

Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.

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