'As essential as roads': How North Dakota became a broadband leader

North Dakota has fostered a tech sector thanks in part to being one of the most connected states in the country — a giant feat considering it’s also one of the most rural. “We realized that for us to be competitive, we had to have that connectivity,” says Doug Burgum, who was president of Great Plains Software when it was bought by Microsoft and is now governor of the state. 

A 2018 report on broadband connectivity ranked ND as the 18th most connected state in the country, just behind much more urbanized Illinois. Montana is North Dakota’s neighbor and came in dead last — 50th — in the report. 69% of Montanans have broadband access while 92% of North Dakotans can access high speed internet. The story of ND’s internet success is both a lesson of how decisions can pay off decades later but also the deep-set challenges that many rural states face as they try to catch up, and then keep up, with the speed of technology.

Mike Saperstein, VP of Strategic Initiatives & Partnerships at USTelecom, notes that the greater concentration of fiber in places like ND is thanks to “historical differences about how these rural areas, and the carriers that serve them, are supported by government.” These differences in support allowed local companies “to invest more heavily in fiber to the home solutions.” Gov Burgum (R-ND), who likes to mention his small government bona-fides, also supports a greater role for Washington using the model of rural electrification and telephones from decades ago. “In the same way we needed to bring electricity and telephone connection to rural areas,” he says, “we've got to do that with broadband.”