Idaho internet speeds not so speedy

As the internet becomes more and more incorporated into our daily lives, so does the importance of the reliability and speed of that internet. In the case of internet speed, Idaho doesn’t do too well.

According to the website Speedtest, the average internet speed for Idaho is 35.94 mbps. That places the state 44th in the country, meaning most states in the US have average internet speeds that are faster than the Gem State’s.

For people that use the internet as part of their job, like Kreg Roenfeld of Idaho Falls, those slow speeds can be time consuming and on occasion frustrating.

“I currently work as a cyber security researcher,” said Roenfeld. “So when I’m at home, there may be times when I need to connect with work. And I need to be reachable, I need to have a reliable network that isn’t going to be slow, isn’t going to be latent. And I may need to connect to multiple networks at once.”

Roenfeld says the internet at their house is almost always busy as his wife also uses the internet heavily as an online teacher.

“When my wife records a video for her students, she doesn’t want to spend a half hour uploading a video she recorded through a 2 megabit upload speed, she wants to be able to get that submitted and move on with her life,” said Roenfeld.

One reason for Idaho’s slower speeds is that we’re a rural state, and the infrastructure used to support the internet is relatively old.

“Most of the entities that want to change that are commercial, so they need a return on investment so that they can afford to put it (new internet infrastructure) in.” said Bruce Patterson, the technology director for Ammon. “Idaho is a very rural state, and that creates an environment where the price is extremely high for the entities that want to upgrade their internet capabilities.”

Luckily for hungry web users, things are changing. Many private companies are already offering internet speeds that are much faster than what was available only a year ago. Several cities across the region are looking into or installing fiber optic lines to boost their average internet speeds. Ammon City has been working for several years to launch its own fiber optic network, and is planning to start connecting homes in the next few days.

“Residents will be able to have speeds of up to one gigabit per second,” said Patterson. “People will have so many options with those kinds of speeds.”

A link to the Speedtest website can be found HERE.