[addflip]

I work for a company that is deeply rooted in the Energy sector in ND. The reason that rural areas in ND are getting access to fiber is because the oil/natural gas companies need it. Trust me it's not out of the kindest of their hearts. They have most of the Bakken shale covered. You can even tell that from the map.

[mkautzm]

The entire state is covered because the coops made a deal with the state and each other decades ago.

The communication co-ops have a responsibility to one group: Their co-op members. If they bitch, that's a really bad thing because then the state will start to scrutinize, and if that happens, their funding gets put in jeopardy.

The end result of that relationship is that it's in the best interests of the co-ops to keep their members extremely content. If you turn back time to the mid 90s, you will see that a lot of the state was offered DSL in a pretty timely manner despite being sparsely populated. Our communication services have always been at least a step or two ahead of the curve and priced pretty competitively even in places where there is literally no competition.

This isn't a result of the Bakken either. This has been an ongoing thing that has existed since the co-ops have been established. The system ends up working really well, and the irony is that in competitive areas, the service is generally worse and more expensive because the small co-ops don't have the cash to lay down the 9 figures of infrastructure it'd take to wire up all of Fargo.