In November, Connect Minnesota released their final report on broadband availability. Here is how Carlton County stacked up:
- Household Density: 15.5
- Number of Households: 13,538
- Percentage serviced (without mobile): 57.25%
- Percentage serviced (with mobile): 62.81%
Here’s a county where the picture tells a story – that’s a lot of red (unserved)! And 57-63 percent coverage is not great. I spent a lot of time in Carlton County last year doing training on the Fond du Lac reservation. It’s a beautiful part of the world – but it’s a good day when your phone works everywhere. The Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe were part of the Blandin Broadband Communities project. They did a training with students and community members. (Their summer app camp for junior high kids was a favorite of mine!) They also worked to expand wireless access around the reservation.
In November Carlton County was named one of the new Blandin Broadband Communities, which means they’ll get support promoting broadband and the idea of broadband. That will help build demand. Here’s a little bit on their plans…
Carlton County plans to stimulate community conversation that looks beyond infrastructure to innovative ideas about how to reduce the county’s digital divide. A key focus of their efforts will be to identify opportunities that will benefit the unserved and underserved areas in the county.
Carlton County Commissioner Marv Bodie expressed his excitement on the invitation to participate, “The Blandin Broadband Communities Program is the vehicle that will help Carlton County explore its future. We will bring together individuals who normally do not have the opportunity to interact but who will now provide new energy and creativity on this common issue. We recognize that by working together greater benefits will be generated for all of Carlton County.”
Leading their work is the Carlton County Economic Development Authority. Together, with government, education, nonprofit and business partners throughout the county, the EDA will rally local leaders to develop a sustainable model for broadband access and use in Carlton County.
Carlton is part of the East Central Broadband Initiative (as is Aitkin County); a collaborative that is actively seeking to improve broadband in the area. And Carlton is a county that has seen some great strrides in the last couple of years. In November 2013, Connect Minnesota reported that only 13.91 percent of the county was served with broadband (at speeds of 10+ Mbps down and 5+ Mbps up). From 14 percent to 60-ish percent is fantastic. I know Mediacom announced upgrades in summer of 2013. And fall of 2013, Frontier reported getting Connect America Funds for upgrades in Carlton County. So we’ll see how that goes.
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 sync 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.