In 2010, Clearwater County made the list of one of the nine worst served counties in Minnesota. Now they are number 4 county in the state with more than 99 percent coverage for speeds of 25/3 (Mbps down/up) and 73 percent coverage for speeds of 100/20. The local provider is Garden Valley Telephone Cooperative, they have made serious upgrades to their network. I know they have received federal funding but I don’t know that the upgrades funded were in Clearwater. Garden Valley has also received state funds, but not for Clearwater County.

Garden Valley is one of a few cooperatives in Minnesota that has been able to bring high speed broadband connectivity to their rural customers.

Clearwater County is in line to receive $58,269 in CAF 2 funding to upgrade 102 locations. Unfortunately CAF 2 recipients are only required to upgrade to 10/1 access. Many may choose to upgrade to better speeds but there are no requirements.

Numbers:

The Office of Broadband Development released data on broadband covered in fall of 2016, based on information gathered in July 2016. Here’s how Clearwater County ranked:

• Percentage served with 25/3 or better: 99.58
• Percentage served with 100/20 or better: 73.41

Mississippi State University Extension have come up with a ranking system to gauge the digital divide index (DDI) by county. (The lower the number the better – the state average is 40.66.) Here’s how Clearwater ranked:

DDI score of 47.01 out of 100.

More info:

• Find more articles on broadband in Clearwater County. (http://tinyurl.com/homdjrt)
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 02
  House: 02A, 02B

I plan to profile each county in Minnesota – tracking broadband access, digital divide and annotated links to news of what’s happening with broadband in the county. I’m keeping it high level because there are 87 counties!