• Reporting by Garrick Moritz, Faulk County Record, and Bill Krikac, Clark County Courier
• In February 2010, Google announced it was going to build and operate its own fiber optic network, which would provide a phenomenal 1-gigabite-per-second connection for the residents of the city that was chosen to receive it.
• Cities across the country clamored to be the one chosen. Topeka, Kans., ceremonially renamed itself Google, Kans., and one city councilman in North Carolina offered to name his unborn twins after Google's founders, according to an arstechnica.com story. More than a thousand cities applied for the honor; Kansas City, Kans., was selected, and its residents are slated to have the ultra-fast connections available sometime this spring. Many of the other cities were vocal in their disappointment after trying so hard to get on Google's good side.
• For many in the rural Dakotas, however, there's no reason to be envious: The fiber connection that these cities were competing for is already installed to thousands of homes and businesses here.
• In 2010, only 3 percent of households that connected to the Internet via personal computers did so through fiber optic lines, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That has likely increased in the past two years but remains far less than those who connect through lower-capacity DSL or cable modem connections (33 percent and 43 percent, respectively, as of 2010).
• Compare that to the situation in southeastern North Dakota: In the 10,000-