Billings is more than you think.
There is a little more to Yellowstone County than you think. First, Conoco/Phillips and Farmer Mutual both have 90K barrel/day refineries and both use APCO25 radio systems with industrial frequencies that can transfer to public safety bandwidth with this conversion. Second, Billings serves as the command and control element for Yellowstone National Park. Given the community topography (its about a 400 FSL transition from the airport to downtown Billings - and it occurs in about 3 miles) it's going to be challenging for public safety radio coverage. I suspect the refineries are covering a large percentage of the radio system costs because it benefits all parties.
Interesting concept: industry and government working together for the community. Refreshing.
Good for them as a City to make these upgrades. In my job I teach fire code and hazardous material seminars for the State of Montana annually and I always do it in Billings, Brooks or Helena. Billings may be considered a rural area, but it's very metropolitan from how they operate their fire protection, law enforcement and EMS.
PS: They have a killer steak house downtown that serves one of the best smoked Elk ribeyes known to man. It's worth the price of the travel from my town.
