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The infomap "Broadband is still foreign to much of the U.S." shows high speed internet largely confined to urban areas, as the article discusses. But large swathes of North Dakota are deep green. What's the reason for that?

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Oil money, North Dakota is the second largest producer of oil in the US. There was no big announced project, just a large number of grants and tax cuts to promote infrastructure investment. And, from the looks of it, a depressing amount of the area without access are the reservations.

> a depressing amount of the area without access are the reservations.

I'm from North Dakota and went to high school on the Standing Rock reservation. They have their own institutions and legal system, so it's not surprising that they would have different coverage.

Standing Rock also has to deal with two state governments.

Uhm, well Three Affilated has a lot of oil money. It is actually going to the people instead of the tribe’s coffers (although the tribe is doing quite well too).

The tribes have a lot of issues dealing with connectivity (the fed doesn’t help nor the BIE) but some are better off than Grand Forks and Fargo.

BEK and other rural electric cooperatives are really laying down the fiber. Plus, if you look at a competition map of ND most places have multiple choices.

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