July 25, 2012 Sioux Falls, SD --- Midcontinent Communications has announced that the extension of their Northern Plains Network (NpNet®) from Minot, ND to Williston, ND – known as the Bakken Extension -- is now complete and the network connection has been lit. This means that customers will experience less Internet congestion and more services are in the works, said Midcontinent’s Vice President of Technology Jon Pederson.

“We now have plenty of additional bandwidth and fiber capacity to serve Williston and any areas between Williston and Minot,” he said. “We also have the ability for much larger commercial connections.”
 

The network connects directly to major network hubs in Minneapolis, MN, Fargo, ND and Sioux Falls, SD. The extension from Minot to Williston has an initial capacity of 100 gigabits per second which is expandable to 4 terabits per second as need and usage rise.

Pederson said that Midcontinent’s Internet utilization jumped 25% the first night the connection was live – which indicates that there was some “pent-up demand” for Internet during peak times. “Our present Internet circuit is now 20 times larger than before,” he said.

This connection will enable Midcontinent to offer customers Video on Demand and up to 100 total HD channels (planned for early 2013). In addition, the new 100 Gbps circuit into Williston will provide the connectivity for facilities-based phone services sometime this fall, Pederson said.

Customers will receive notifications when digital phone, VOD and the new HD channels are available.