Idaho is the 39th most connected state in the U.S. A glance at the state shows that connectivity is fairly spread out, with some areas being much less connected than others. The average reported speed in the state was 38.5 Mbps.
The Digital Divide in Idaho
The state of Idaho is home to 140 internet providers. Connectivity is varied for the residents of Idaho. There are 307,000 people in Idaho without access to a wired connection that is capable of 25 Mbps download speeds. There are another 263,000 people that only have access to one wired provider, which leaves them with no other options if they want to switch. An additional 107,000 people simply don’t have any wired internet providers where they live at all.
Our latest data shows us that 62.3% of residents have access to a wired low-price plan of $60 or less. 81.2% of Idahoans have access to wired broadband speeds of 25 Mbps or faster. 79.4% of Idahoans have access to broadband 100 Mbps or faster. As for 1-gigabit broadband, 63.2% of Idahoans have access to this.
Best-Connected Cities
Boise is the most connected city in Idaho. It’s followed by Lewiston, Idaho Falls, Eagle, and Pocatello. 100% of the population in all five of these cities have access to broadband coverage. 97% of the populations in both Boise and Lewiston have access to affordably-priced wired broadband.
Internet for Rural Areas in Idaho
The five worst connected cities in Idaho are Murray, Reubens, Elk River, Hill City, and Lowman. While all five of these cities have access to broadband coverage, none of them have access to low-priced wired broadband.
Governmental Initiatives
Idaho’s government has turned its attention to improving the state’s broadband infrastructure in the past decade. Since 2010, LINK Idaho has been awarded over $4.4 million in federal grants for Idaho’s Broadband Initiative. An additional $8,169.716 was put toward improving broadband infrastructure projects in Idaho. Since 2011, access to a wired connection of at least 10mbps has improved from 76.8% to 89.6% of all Idaho residents.