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.

Kittson County has bumped up from ranking 82 to 30. In 2016, Wikstrom Telephone received $950,823 to serve 236 unserved households and 26 unserved businesses in sparsely populated areas of Kittson, Marshall, Roseau and Lake of the Woods counties. That must have had some impact.

And Wikstrom received another grant at the end of 2017…

Wikstrom Telephone, Wiktel NW MN Broadband – $1,307,785. This project will serve rural sparsely populated areas in Kittson, Marshall, and Roseau counties in far northwestern Minnesota, passing 300 unserved homes and 31 unserved business locations. In a funding partnership with the State of Minnesota, Wikstrom will improve broadband services levels to 1 Gbps down and up, exceeding the 2026 state speed goal, on a fiber optic network, and in some locations will extend the service from routes built via the 2016 Border to Border State Grant program.

Senator Johnson celebrates the state’s investment in the area.

AT&T has talked about upgrades they have made in the last five years. Although that might not have a big impact on 100/20 coverage.

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: 30

• Find more articles on broadband in Kandiyohi. (http://tinyurl.com/z9wk7bm)
• There is a matrix of Minnesota broadband adoption projects; it includes projects from this area.
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 01
  House: 01A