In November, Connect Minnesota released their final report on broadband availability. Here is how Becker County stacked up:

• Household Density: 9.2%
• Number of Households: 13,224
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 59.68%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 59.68%

Becker ranks at 61 (out of 87 counties) in Minnesota for broadband coverage. You can see from the map that the northern portion of the county appears to be pretty well served but in the southern half most of the area is underserved (which means wireline Broad band of at least 3M/768K but less than 10M/5M) and swaths of the area are complete unserved. I was surprised to see areas around Detroit Lakes (the county seat) were underserved.

Detroit Lakes was a part of the Enventis Greater Minnesota Broadband Collaborative Project, which received ARRA funding in 2010 to build middle mile networks through Minnesota including Staples, Wadena and Detroit Lakes as it connects Brainerd to Moorhead. Otherwise I have to admit that I don’t hear much about broadband in Becker County, despite the fact that I have several clients (not broadband related) in that area.

One organization I work with in that area is the Detroit Lakes Regional Chamber of Commerce. So I know that tourism is a big piece of what they do in that area and online is how much of it is promoted. Broadband is important to tourism for several reasons. First, most tourists want to stay connected when on the road. Second, tourists research travel plans and destinations online. Third, people trust peer reviews over ads – which from a tourism perspective means – you want to encourage your guests to talk about you on review site and on social media. But it’s hard to get them to do that when they can’t get online from your location or at least can’t do it as easily as they can from home.

Another tricky part of tourism in areas that aren’t well served is that some people make plans on the road. If they can’t get online in our town, they’re going to keep driving until they can to make hotel reservations. (I have done this myself – especially outside of Minnesota where I don’t know the areas as well.)

At less than 60 percent served, Becker County is a place that looks like it needs help getting better broadband coverage. It’s an area that I’m sure has a much greater population in the summer, which adds a tricky dimension to creating a business plan BUT it’s also an area where lots of people live, work and go to school year-round. It’s an area where WiFi on the buses could make a difference to students daily and where home health monitoring would keep people in their homes longer. 

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage…

How does Minnesota define broadband?

The 2015 broadband goal for Minnesota is ubiquitous access to speeds of 10-20 Mbps (down) and 5-10 Mbps (up). These numbers actually reflect 6-10 Mbps up because Minnesota goals are a little out of synch with standard federal measurements. Connect MN measured access with and without including mobile access as it is often considered a slightly different service, in part because of the data caps involved with wireless services. (Data caps can make wireless an expensive primary broadband connection – especially for a household.)

Learn how the other Minnesota counties rank.

How is Minnesota working to promote border to border broadband?

In 2014, the Legislature approved $20 million for broadband grants to support broadband expansion in Minnesota. You can find a list of applicants online. The hope is the broadband sector is that more funding will be made available in 2015.