In 2010, the FCC listed Mahnomen County as one of the nine least served counties in Minnesota. In 2014, 55 percent of Mahnomen had access. (Although broadband was defined with lower speeds.) Today 71 percent of the county has access to broadband at speeds of 25/3 (Mbps down/up). So they are catching up, unfortunately as they catch up to today’s speed the speeds get faster. Only 13 percent of Mahnomen has access to broadband speeds of 100/20, which is the 2026 speed goals for Minnesota.

Mahnomen County is  in line to receive $293,759 in CAF 2 funding to upgrade 599 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.

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 they ranked:

• Percentage served with 25/3 or better: 71.95
• Percentage served with 100/20 or better: 13.03

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 66.72 out of 100.

More info:

• Find more articles on broadband in Mahnomen County (http://tinyurl.com/hnlovzh)

• There is a matrix of Minnesota broadband adoption projects.
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 02
  House: 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!