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.

Clearwater ranking has improved from 23 to 13 with almost 90 percent coverage. They are one of the Cinderella counties that was named worst served in 2010 and now is near the top of the list. They are served by Garden Valley Telephone Cooperative.

Good news for Clearwater County, Garden Valley received a $20 million loan from the USDA last summer. So, service should just keep improving…

Recipient: Garden Valley Telephone Company
Loan amount: $20,360,000
Project description: This Rural Development investment will be used to make system improvements in Polk, Clearwater, Pennington, Marshall and Red Lake counties, and in the vacation resort areas of Maple Lake and Union Lake. The borrower proposes to construct 295.1 miles of fiber-optic facilities and construct fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) facilities. These improvements will enable Garden Valley to enhance services and provide voice, video and higher broadband speeds for subscribers.

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: 13

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