Lac qui Parle (LqP) County is well served due in large part to an ARRA grant and partnership between the County and Federated Telephone.

LqP County is unlike most counties in that the county seat (Madison) is not as well served as the rest of the county. To be eligible for the ARRA funding, planners had to remove Madison from the plan because at the time connectivity in the town was fast enough to be considered served. They are an example of the leapfrogging that can happen when portions of a county (or region) are not upgraded because they are considered served or underserved while other parts are upgraded to a higher standard. Madison is investigating and campaigning to get better broadband to compete with their neighbors.

LqP County is in line to receive $14,003 in CAF 2 funding to upgrade 25 locations. 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.

LqP has been a Blandin Broadband Community through partnership with Lac qui Parle Valley school district. They have also worked with Blandin to help with planning, a feasibility study and boost adoption with programs such as the Computer Commuter, a refurbished van turned into a traveling computer lab that travels throughout the county weekly.

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 LqP County ranked:

• Percentage served with 25/3 or better: 99.36
• Percentage served with 100/20 or better: 99.36

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 they ranked:

DDI score of 39.08 out of 100.

More info:

• Find more articles on broadband in Lac qui Parle. (http://tinyurl.com/zc2tfay)

• There is a matrix of Minnesota broadband adoption projects; it includes projects from this area.
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 16
  House: 16A

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!