I am doing the annual look at broadband in each county – based on maps from the Office of Broadband Development and news gathered from the last year.

Big Stone is one of the rural counties in Minnesota that is looking good for meeting their 2026 goals. They are currently ranked 4th in the state – up from 25 last year. In 2015, Federated Telephone received almost $4 million in state funding to upgrade to FTTH and the impact is showing.

In January, Big Stone was part of an Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Center study on broadband speeds in various points of their region.

Info on Access:

The speeds reflect the Minnesota speed goals:

• 25 Mbps down and 3 up by 2022
• 100 Mbps down and 20 up by 2026

Current ranking for 100/20 access: 4

• Find more articles on broadband in Big Stone County. (http://tinyurl.com/zfgwstd)
• There is a matrix of Minnesota broadband adoption projects; it includes projects from this area.
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 12
  House: 12A