Rural internet's importance highlighted by coronavirus

Getting broadband internet access to rural areas has been a goal for rural advocates and service providers alike for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made such access more important than ever. Seth Arndorfer, the CEO of DCN, which is owned by North Dakota’s independent rural telecommunications companies, said internet usage on the member companies’ systems increased by 10% to 40% during the first 10 days since people in the state were urged to stay home. Internet congestion and slowdowns have been more rare than in some places, because North Dakota already had the ability to expand bandwidth. It’s been similar in South Dakota. Jake VanDewater is the vice president of engineering, operations and IT at SDN Communications, a South Dakota company that provides business to business internet and also has 17 rural telephone companies that it works with to provide broadband service to rural areas across the state. He said the companies have been preparing for a few weeks for the changes that would come with people staying home more. While they continue to monitor changes in use patterns, so far, things are going well.