The Worthington Globe reports…

Through a partnership between SDN Communications and the Southwest West Central (SWWC) Service Cooperative, a fiber-based internet service will come to more than 30 school districts in southwest Minnesota, including every public school district in Nobles, Murray, Rock, Cottonwood and Pipestone counties.

The new Wide Area Network, which will offer gigabit upload and download speeds and above, will be up and running by July 1.

About 12 years ago, SWWC installed a fixed microwave wireless internet to its school district members. The service was a huge upgrade at the time, but has become somewhat dated as the demand for bandwidth has increased, said Josh Sumption, SWWC director of technology.

“This new fiber-based network will be another huge upgrade of about tenfold for most of the schools involved,” Sumption said. “We’re extremely excited to make this transition and start moving ahead.”