Clay County may reach the 2022 speed goals but seems unlikely to meet the 2026 goals that being said, they have made bold leaps in the past. They will need another leap to get to the 2026 goals.
| Percentage of Served Population by Speed and Date | |||
| Clay | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
| 100/20 (2026 goal) | 82.32 | 82.52 | 74.13 |
| 25/3 (2022 goal) | 95.82 | 95.45 | 83.15 |
Green=served Purple=underesrved Red=unserved
Back in 2010, Clay County made the list of the nine unserved counties in Minnesota based on the FCC Annual Broadband Report, which defined broadband as 4 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. Clearly Clay County has improved since then. Maybe proximity to North Dakota has helped, but again they will need a push like they had 10 years ago.
In 2018, Red River Valley Coop got $1.5 million USDA loan going into the area for smartgrid development; perhaps that investment can be used to leverage future broadband builds. Short of that, the county will need to mount a concerted effort to close the gaps to the 2026 state speed goal.
Clay County could benefit from future grants. In 2019, Arvig applied to upgrade service in Clay. (That doesn’t mean they will get the grant; they have only applied.)
Checklist:
- 100/20 ranking: 29 (down 10 places)
- 25/3 ranking: 18
- Has worked with Blandin: no
- Has received a MN Broadband grant: no
- Household density: 21.2
- Number of providers: 9
Details:
- Find more articles on broadband in Clay County. (http://tinyurl.com/hcgg9rm)
- Districts: CD 7
Senate: 04
House: 04A, 04B - Find your reps
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. I’m looking at progress toward the 2022 (25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up) and 2026 (100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up) and will code each:
- Red (yikes)
- Yellow (warning)
- Green (good shape)
Blandin on Broadband 