Lake of the Woods is not poised to meet the state broadband goals for 2022 or 2026. But in 2018 they went from literally zero to almost 60. So they could rally.

Green=served Purple=underesrved Red=unserved

Lake of the Woods is about as north as you can get in Minnesota. It’s remote and there are only four providers in the area.

Lake of the Woods benefited from two state grants:

• 2016 – SJOBERG’S INC. ROSEAU AND LAKE OF THE WOODS COUNTIES — GRANT: $354,740
  Serving 126 unserved households, 30 unserved businesses and 1 community anchor institution in several areas in Roseau and Lake of the Woods Counties with services up to 1 Gigabit service.
• 2016 – WIKSTROM TELEPHONE COMPANY WIKTEL NW MN – GRANT: $950,823
  Serving 236 unserved households and 26 unserved business in rural sparsely populated areas in Kittson, Marshall, Roseau, and Lake of the Woods counties to improve unserved levels to 1 Gigabit speed.

The impact of the grants is apparent in the table above. They need more of the same. Right now they are a county of haves and have-nots, with some residents having good broadband and the rest having nothing.

Lake of the Woods County could benefit from future grants. In 2019, Wikstrom Telephone Company applied to upgrade service in Lake of the Woods. (That doesn’t mean they will get the grant; they have only applied.)

Checklist:

• 100/20 ranking: 65
• 25/3 ranking: 86
• Has worked with Blandin: yes
• Has received a MN Broadband grant: yes
• Household density: 1
• Number of providers: 4

Details:

• Find more articles on broadband in Lake of the Woods County (http://tinyurl.com/gpfu7dd)
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 02
  House: 02A
• 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)