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.
Martin County broadband ranking has dipped from 39 to 48. The problem really is that they have seen no improvement since the last mapping survey. Martin County was a Blandin Broadband Community (BBC) and through that partnership they had a feasibility study done. It seems that Martini County is in a position that other rural counties may find themselves…
Martin County is in a challenging position. The two largest cities – Fairmont and Sherburn, along with the community Granada and its surrounding rural area, are relatively well connected. However, the remaining rural areas and communities throughout the county in some cases have no access to any broadband options at all. The digital divide challenges any provider to build a business case for expanding service offerings in the rural areas.
Incumbent providers have plans to improve some areas of Martin County, but the specifics have not been determined.
They used the feasibility study to create a successful state broadband grant in 2016…
The county was awarded $1.68 million to serve 1,784 unserved households, 51 unserved businesses and nine unserved community institutions.
Presumably the next mapping will reflect the impact of that project.
Info on Access:
| Speeds | % served 2017 | % served 2018 |
| 25/3 | 55.64 | 50.84 |
| 100/20 | 54.06 | 54.80 |
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: 48
- Martin County has worked with the Blandin Foundation
- Find more articles on broadband in Martin County (http://tinyurl.com/h37zf6l)
- There is a matrix of Minnesota broadband adoption projects.
- Districts: CD 1
Senate: 23
House: 23A