The organization was formed in 1966 to interconnect computers at three Michigan universities. Merit is now the largest Internet service organization in Michigan. Merit provides connectivity to educational institutions, libraries, health care providers, governments and businesses. Merit's network puts 95 percent of the state's residents within a local dial-up. No roadmap to Michigan's information technology network exists.
Phone companies consider such information to be proprietary.
The Michigan Public Service Commission, federal agencies, trade publications, phone company officials andconsultants all failed to provide the Michigan Information Technology Commission with pertinent statistics in this arena. One high-ranking telecommunications executive suggests it would take many months of concerted effort to fully diagram Michigan's information technology infrastructure. Other states have done a better job of planning and implementing integrated networks, suggests a 1998 analysis of statewide information technology by Hezel Associates for the Michigan Information Technology Commission. Integrated networks have been more evident in states with smaller populations such as Utah, Oregon, and Maine. Is the larger states with islands of networks that have posed continuous challenge for statewide planners of information technology.