South Dakota Moves Ahead With Plan to Join High-Speed Network

South Dakota’s plan to join a proposed high-speed network, called I-3 Internet, appears to be coming to fruition, the Associated Press reports.

The network — which is expected to serve colleges and government agencies in Idaho, Montana, and North Dakota — was a hot topic this month (The Chronicle, January 9), when state lawmakers argued that I-3 was necessary to lure a national research laboratory coveted by the state. At the time South Dakota’s governor, Mike Rounds, hadn’t made room for the network upgrade in his yearly budget.

But Governor Rounds, a Republican, appears to have changed his tune. After the Great Plains Education Foundation pledged $8-million to the project, the governor agreed to chip in $1.7-million annually in state funds to help South Dakota join the fiber-optic network. —Brock Read