As home to high-tech Dakota State University, you would think Madison and Lake County would be among the best places in South Dakota for broadband access. Data from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration show that's not quite the case:
As of June 30, 2011, 83% of Lake County's population could get 6Mbps download speeds or better. 65% had access to 25 Mbps download speed or better. That's not bad. But check out those darker green counties. Along the James River corridor from Aberdeen to Yankton, the eastern 212 corridor through Watertown, and predictably in Minnehaha and Lincoln counties, folks not sitting within tin-can-telephone range of the premier computer school in the state have more access to broadband Internet.
Can you say spillover...not?
Now the numbers are complicated. Compare Lake County with purportedly broadbandier Sanborn County two squares to its west. Sanborn County has a fifth of Lake County's population and 14% lower median income, but the penetration rate for 6Mbps+ is 98%. Jump to 25Mbps, however, and penetration plummets to 14%.
Comparing Madison to Woonsocket should be small comfort my my techie hometown, which once tagged itself as "In Touch with the World." We might just as well compare Madison to Ipswich, Edmunds County, where 25Mbps+ reach is 88%.
Pump up that WiMAX, Sioux Valley! Lake County is getting beat!
Lake County has fairly decent access to high speed internet compared to McCook or Kingbury counties or many sparse counties in the state. You fail to complain about their lack of access yet bash Lake County as usual.
As I said, Michael, comparing us to smaller counties with no high-tech university isn't exactly a way to make Lake County look awesome. I don't like seeing residents of county go without what is becoming a basic essential service. But I own property in Lake County, and I still consider it my permanent address. Do you really expect me to complain about life in Walworth County more than life in Lake County. (Oh, oops: they have slightly better broadband penetration than Lake, too. Remind me: what high-tech industry does Selby have?)
Dakota State's presence in Madison has little to do with the economics of offering broadband access to rural residents.
Apparently. What good is a university without some nice tech spillover effects for everyone?
Much of rural Lake County has been upgraded to fiber. ITC dug in the new line in Rutland a few years ago. I don't know where the progress is at north, west and south of Madison that are not part of ITC. I do know that my father is looking at dropping his landline because his costs for basic service have dramatically increased for no reason. It doesn't make financial sense to invest heavily in digging in fiber if few people take advantage of the service.