Connect Minnesota recently released their latest report on broadband availability in Minnesota. The good news is that we’ve gained 5 percentage points since April 2013. The bad news is that we’re still a far cry from the broadband goals set for 2015.
Here are some of the stats:
- 74.5% of Minnesota households can access fixed and mobile broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps download/6 Mbps upload – the minimum speed threshold for Minnesota’s goal of ubiquitous broadband availability*. This represents a nearly 5% increase from April 2013, and for the first time in Connect Minnesota’s work, shows the impact of mobile broadband in meeting state speed goals in areas previously not served by those speeds (excluding satellite services).
- Since Connect Minnesota began measuring availability at the 10 Mbps download/6 Mbps upload speed tier in April 2011, there has been an increase of nearly 20% in fixed and mobile broadband availability from 56.4% to 74.5%.
Unfortunately there is a great disparity in availability by County. The following map shows Broadband Availability by Percentage of Households Served by Terrestrial and Mobile Broadband Service by County. The yellow represents areas with less than 20 access – you can see how many areas are stuck there.
This latest data is already outdated. The data submitted by providers was only allowed to be the maximum advertised/available download/upload speed by June 30th 2013. By July, we (Mediacom) had already made a 105Mb/10Mb service available for every home and business we service for broadband in the counties of Lake, St. Louis, Itasca, Carlton, and Pine in Northern MN. I’m not sure exactly how much that data will “lift” the percentages shown above, but it is nonetheless significant. I just want you to know that there’s a lag in the reporting data. I, for one, am very proud that we’ve met and exceeded the state goal for the homes and businesses in our area of Northern MN – even though this data doesn’t reflect that achievement today.
I wish there was a way to get that real time data! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have an app that tracked broadband deployment?
The Mediacom upgrade might not move the needle as much as make a mark on the map – but it’s huge step forward for your customers. Congrats!