Ziebach County is genuinely hard to serve. 10.3% of locations here have no fixed broadband at all, so for a lot of addresses the real choice is satellite or a cellular home-internet gateway, not a wired provider.
Everything below comes from the FCC's Broadband Data Collection, the filings providers are legally required to make about where they offer service. It describes the county; your own address can differ, and that is exactly why the technology mix matters.
Where Ziebach County sits in South Dakota
Share of addresses with no fixed broadband at 25/3 Mbps
0.0% to 0.0%
0.0% to 0.2%
0.2% to 0.8%
0.8% to 1.2%
1.2% to 2.3%
2.3% to 9.9%
9.9% and above
not published
This county is outlined. Darker means a larger share of addresses with no fixed broadband. Select any county to open it.
What reaches homes in Ziebach County
Locations covered by each technology, out of 1,262 broadband serviceable locations. An address can be reached by more than one technology, so these add up to more than 100%.
Fiber1,131 · 90%
Cable0 · 0.0%
Licensed fixed wireless4 · 0.3%
Unlicensed fixed wireless0 · 0.0%
DSL over copper0 · 0.0%
Served, underserved, unserved
The FCC's three categories. "Served" means at least 100/20 Mbps is available; "underserved" means at least 25/3 but below 100/20; "unserved" means below 25/3 or nothing at all.
Category
Locations
Share of county
Served
1,132
89.7%
Underserved
0
0.0%
Unserved
130
10.3%
What that means if you live here
The USDA classes Ziebach County as a completely rural county, or one with an urban population under 5,000, not adjacent to any metro area (continuum code 9).
Population is around 2,380, which works out to about 1.9 people for every address on the list.
130 locations, 10.3% of the county, have nothing that reaches 25/3 Mbps.
The most widely available technology here is fiber, reaching 1,131 locations (89.6%); next is licensed fixed wireless at 0.3%.
Fiber already reaches 89.6% of the county (1,131 locations), which puts Ziebach County well ahead of most rural America.
8 providers file coverage in Ziebach County: 3 with fiber, 0 with cable, 2 with licensed fixed wireless.
Reported fiber coverage fell by 70 locations over twelve months. That normally means a provider corrected an earlier over-report, not that service was removed.
Served locations fell 5.75% year on year, usually a filing correction rather than a loss of service.
Ziebach County is harder-served than the typical South Dakota county, where the median unserved share is 1.1%.
What people actually measure in South Dakota
Median of real speed tests run on each network during 2024, from M-Lab. This is measured performance, not an advertised plan speed, and not a customer review. The middle-half column shows how consistent a network is: a wide spread means your experience depends heavily on where and when.
Network
Median download
Middle half of tests
Median upload
Latency
Tests
Midcontinent Communications
116 Mbps
60.1 Mbps to 244 Mbps
30.1 Mbps
32 ms
15,783
Clarity Telecom
125 Mbps
66.4 Mbps to 206 Mbps
19.0 Mbps
27 ms
6,284
SDN Communications
87.3 Mbps
36.4 Mbps to 168 Mbps
39.0 Mbps
33 ms
4,771
Golden West Telecommunications Coop
99.5 Mbps
26.6 Mbps to 197 Mbps
81.2 Mbps
31 ms
2,408
CenturyLink Communications
27.7 Mbps
8.2 Mbps to 61.9 Mbps
3.7 Mbps
49 ms
1,025
Northern Valley Communications
51.6 Mbps
29.5 Mbps to 92.4 Mbps
16.4 Mbps
34 ms
948
SWIFTEL COMMUNICATIONS
64.6 Mbps
37.8 Mbps to 102 Mbps
9.8 Mbps
31 ms
880
Mediacom Communications
124 Mbps
42.2 Mbps to 184 Mbps
21.4 Mbps
39 ms
875
Long Lines Internet
87.8 Mbps
71.7 Mbps to 138 Mbps
14.3 Mbps
29 ms
526
South Dakota State Government
87.9 Mbps
52.1 Mbps to 149 Mbps
62.3 Mbps
34 ms
411
Latency is the number that decides whether video calls and gaming feel right, and it is where satellite differs most from everything else. Measured data is statewide: below county level there are usually too few tests to report an honest number.
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Your realistic options in Ziebach County
Satellite
Starlink
Low-earth-orbit satellite. Latency is low enough for video calls and most gaming, unlike older satellite services.
Best for
Anywhere with a clear view of the sky and no wired option
Watch out
Hardware costs money up front, and heavy tree cover or a north-facing obstruction will cost you throughput