North Dakota Nearing 100 Percent Fiber Connectivity

An impressive milestone is inching its way to completion in North Dakota. In one of the most rural parts of the US, the Peace Garden State is close to being the first in the nation in which every home and business has (or will soon have) access to fiber service, the gold standard of Internet connectivity. An estimated 95 percent of households in North Dakota – including nearly eight out of 10 farms – have access to broadband at speeds of at least 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) while close to 70 percent have access to Gig speed fiber service. It’s why the state’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program allocation is set at only $130 million, just $30 million more than the $100 million minimum. The relatively small amount of BEAD funds for North Dakota in comparison to other states is because there are not many unserved locations left in the state.