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.
Cook County has made it to the top 10 rank for broadband service – bumping up from 12 last year. Not bad for a county that made the worst served list in 2010. The unfortunate thing is that their coverage hasn’t changed, which means someone else must have slipped. It also might indicate that they need to address getting the last 5 percent of their area covered.
Cook County was featured in CoBank’s report in the last year ( Making the Move to Broadband: Rural Electric Co-ops Detail Their Experience). They take an in depth look from the provider perspective.
Cook County was an early Blandin Broadband Community (actually MIRC) and they continue to do community programming on broadband use. The kids in Cook County are also just starting a new digital newspaper at and at least one young participant has become a vocal advocate for better broadband for the entire state.
Info on Access:
| Speeds | % served 2017 | % served 2018 |
| 25/3 | 94.50 | 94.50 |
| 100/20 | 94.46 | 94.50 |
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: 10
- Cook County has worked with the Blandin Foundation
- Find more articles on broadband in Cook County. (http://tinyurl.com/hgbzlt7)
- There is a matrix of Minnesota broadband adoption projects; it includes projects from this area.
- Districts: CD 8 / 03
