The director of North Dakota’s Information Technology Department says the state is very close to 100-percent coverage by high-speed Internet.
That’s something the state has been working on for a while. Federal funding has been available for that project, through the Biden Administration-passed bipartisan infrastructure law.
"I think we're down to the last few hundred, maybe upwards of about a thousand, serviceable addresses that have yet to have that connection made," said State Information Technology Department director Corey Mock. "I know work is being done."
Mock said every project still pending has broken ground.
"I think the plan is to have all the broadband access completed by the middle of next year," Mock said.
Mock said one of the reasons it's taking a little longer is that the state amde a commitment that the connections to the Internet be hard-wired.
"So it's not just a fixed-base wireless or a satellite connection, which states that invested in some of that infrastructure, because it was more convenient, have now invested state money to go back to a hard-line connection," Mock said. "In North Dakota, we did that on the front end."
Mock said that was a prudent move.
"It gives us a little bit more stability, and it's a little bit more scalable," Mock said. "And it's going to be a boon to North Dakota's economy in a lot of ways."
