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Ryan Thompson, the general manager and CEO of Santel, was pleasantly surprised – and greatly appreciative - when both of the cooperative’s applications were approved recently as part of Gov. Kristi Noem’s Connect South Dakota broadband program.

The past four months have delivered plenty of change. Where better to turn for some lessons in coping than Dr. Seuss’s well-known book, “Green Eggs and Ham.”

Our member companies are helping lure experienced professionals back to their home state, a hiring practice that is good for the regional economy as well as employers.

SDN Communications and its 17 member companies across the state, which have been concerned about the issue for several years, have joined with three other regional business organizations to help address the housing crunch.

SDN is announcing a $1 million pledge in a housing-development initiative that is part of a revolving loan fund administered through East River Electric Power Cooperative of Madison.

Most SDN employees have been working from their homes since March 19, when COVID-19 was beginning to spread across the Upper Midwest. HR Director Amy Preator says the transition for SDN has gone extremely well and very smoothly.

Greg Robinson’s first two years with SDN Communications’ Rapid City office have been fun as well as challenging, and he’s upbeat about the future of the area.

SDN Communications is making substantial progress in upgrading its core transmission routes to serve customers’ future needs. It's going to enable SDN and its member companies to efficiently provide higher levels of broadband services.

It’s extremely important that the state and telecommunications industry continue to close gaps in connectivity that have left some rural areas of South Dakota underserved. A second round of grants from the Connect South Dakota broadband program will help plug some of the holes.

I was scheduled to connect with Brad Engbarth by phone recently. But an urgent cable-moving situation arose and his plans changed. When he answered my call, he was standing at the bottom of a 20-foot hole at a street-construction site in Sioux Falls.

Governor Kristi Noem announced today that 14 projects have been awarded grants to fund broadband projects to better connect unserved and underserved areas across South Dakota.

As the IT administrator for Midwestern Mechanical, Inc., Matt Allen needs a good, reliable partner to help keep communications technology at the growing company operating smoothly and securely.

Video conferencing has been available for years. However, until COVID-19 started disrupting workplaces, companies used the technology mostly just to connect with employees and business partners not located within convenient driving distance.

The COVID-19 outbreak is changing the way business is conducted, probably for the long term. Dave Fehrs says in terms of network communications and broadband usage, some of the changes are probably for the better.

The pandemic has thrust Avera eCARE into an even greater role in remotely providing medical assistance to regional affiliates of Avera Health and other health-care facilities across the nation.

As encouraging signs go, this isn’t much. It’s minuscule. However, “password,” one of the weakest computer passwords of all time, might have been slightly less popular in 2019 than it was in 2018.

It’s too early to say for sure, but 2020 could turn into a record year for network improvement projects at SDN Communications. While the pandemic has slowed activity in some business organizations, telecommunications, generally speaking, is not among them.

Detailed information in SDN Communications' customer portal gives companies the ability to assess internet usage, analyze secure, data-transmitting techniques, schedule networking tasks, and more.

Interns at SDN are entrusted with real work duties across the company. Some stayed with the company in permanent positions. Others have built successful careers elsewhere across the region. We checked in with two to see where they are today.

The broadband industry that makes it possible for you to read this article online needs technical workers, and Mitchell Technical Institute has immediate openings, possibly even full-ride scholarships, for students of any age who are ready to get hired even before graduation.