Nebraska lands itself at number 48 on the list of best-connected states. Nebraska is made up of mostly rural areas and with only a few large cities, this agricultural state doesn’t have the same sprawling broadband ecosystem as other states.
Broadband coverage varies from county to county, with no single area of the state at a significant advantage. Nebraska also has a statewide average download speed of 46.4 and 186 available internet service providers.
The Digital Divide in Nebraska
In every state, you will find a significant gap or “divide” between areas that have access to modern communication technology and those that do not. When we were quantifying Nebraska’s digital divide, two major factors that we considered were accessibility and affordability.
In Nebraska, the vast majority of the population (87.1%) has access to a wired connection capable of 25 Mbps. However, this means that there are still 217,000 people who aren’t able to achieve the same speeds via a wired connection and yet another 74,000 who don’t have any wired internet providers available where they live.
According to our latest affordability data, only 10.8% of Nebraska residents have access to a standalone wired broadband internet plan under $60 per month.
Best-Connected Cities
Being the only two large cities in Nebraska, Omaha, and Lincoln have the best broadband ecosystems in the state. Both of these metropolitan areas have 100% broadband coverage. Additionally, 100% of their population has access to an affordable internet connection under $60/Month.
Internet for Rural Areas in Nebraska
In contrast, Oak, Hubbell, and Virginia are the three worst connected towns in Nebraska. They rely on wireless broadband service, meaning they aren’t able to get the same high speed internet that comes along with a wired connection.
See how Nebraska compares with other States.
Governmental Initiatives
In 2010 the Nebraska Broadband program was created by the state government with hopes “To increase economic development opportunities, attract and retain population, overcome the barriers of distance, and enhance the quality of life in Nebraska by facilitating the continuing deployment of broadband technologies which meet the need for increasing connection speeds”
Since its installment, Nebraska Broadband has been awarded $5,662,785 in federal grants towards its broadband improvement plan. The Nebraska Government has also awarded an additional $11,547,866 to various other broadband improvement projects.
This has helped the percentage of Nebraskans with access to a wired connection of at least 10 Mbps jump from 82.7% to 92.7% since 2011.
The information above is taken from a mix of public and private datasets. More about our data here.