According to WDAY news, Senator John Hoeven said that North Dakota is at the forefront of technology, but I can disagree. It may be improving more this year, but the fact is, AT&T came, just recently, to North Dakota in 2011, but the AT&T stores were all over the U.S. long before that.Looking for the newest clothing styles, filling up our water bottles, and searching for answers to help with homework are seemingly effortless tasks that we do nonchalantly day in and day out, but let your mind wander a bit, what if our style isn’t the “in” style of the season, what if our drinks could be filled up two seconds faster, what if the web browser on our computers have one of the slowest reaction times? Well, it’s true. Research from CNN Money shows that in January 2011, North Dakota had the 21 slowest Internet connection out of all the states in the U.S. This doesn’t seem too bad, but it seems like it should be faster, considering we are ranked one of the top states in the nation for job growth in technology. Let us take a look at the statistics. The average Internet speed in North Dakota is 4.7 Mb/second (2011). The fastest Internet speed in the U.S. is 1000 Mb/second. This is a colossal difference. Think about how much extra time you would have if you hardly had to wait for your Twitter feed to load or a YouTube video to buffer! Next to Google Fiber, it seems as if North Dakota has the slowest Internet ever. However, Google Fiber’s speeds of 1000 Mb/second are only available to those living in Kansas City, Mo.
Launched on July 26, 2012, Google Fiber is a new broadband Internet network, which combines Internet and TV. It costs $70/month for Internet and $120/month for Internet and TV. Google Fiber is different than any other network because its connection is 100 times faster than what most Americans use today, which is 5.6 Mb/second. Additionally, Google Fiber is limited to only neighborhoods that can generate enough interest in their area. According to CNET news, several of the so called “fiberhoods” in Kansas City that did not meet the goal of pre-registered citizens for that area will have to wait until “sometime next year” for a chance to access the fastest Internet in the U.S. Who knows how long will it be until people in North Dakota will generate enough interest to opt for the new network. Will it take as long to come to our state as the iPhone did?
In apple retail stores in cities such as Nashville, Tenn., Arlington, Va., and New York City, the iPhone was released as early as June 29, 2007, four years before any city in North Dakota. To this day, North Dakota is one of the six states that does not have an apple store. It seems as if we have to wait longer and longer to get the latest technology systems and gadgets. For example, Bismarck was the 228 market and the first in North Dakota to access the 4G LTE wireless services from Verizon Wireless out of the now 371 markets to access the network. The nearby city of Duluth, Minn., was the 166 market to get the 4G LTE network. The two cities are seven hours apart, but it seems like Bismarck had to run miles to catch up.
Overall, I view North Dakota as rising in new technology, but I do not think we are one of the top states in new technological devices and services.
If you are interested in what else you are missing out on, check out http://news.cnet.com/ for the latest updates on the newest gadgets. For more information on Google Fiber and to see where I got my facts and figures on Google Fiber, go to https://fiber.google.com/.