Lyon County is not poised to make the MN speed goals for either 2022 or 2026, but they have the potential. They saw a huge increase in access leading in 2018. They need another push.

Green=served Purple=underesrved Red=unserved

Lyon County benefited from two state grants:

• 2017 – MVTC (Minnesota Valley Telephone Company, Inc.) – Milroy Broadband Project – GRANT $742,365
  Serving 246 unserved households and 22 unserved businesses in the Milroy Broadband Project located in both Redwood and Lyon Counties with service levels to 1 Gbps down and 1 Gbps up.
• 2017 – Woodstock Telephone Company – Balaton FTTP – GRANT $413,009
  Serving 305 underserved households, 28 underserved businesses, and 6 underserved community anchor institutions in the city of Balaton in Lyon County with service levels to 1 Gbps down and 1 Gbps up.
• 2016 – MIDCO CANBY TO MARSHALL MIDDLE MILE AND LAST MILE – GRANT AMOUNT: $623,000
  Serving unserved households, 29 unserved businesses, and 11 unserved community institutions in and around the towns of Porter, Taunton, Minneota, Ghent, and Canby, between Canby and Marshall in Yellow Medicine and Lyon Counties with service levels up to 200 Mbps down by 20 Mbps up.
• 2015 – MVTV Wireless Middle Mile
  Grant award: $808,080
  This project is a Middle Mile broadband infrastructure buildout to upgrade backhaul capacity between site locations within 20 southwestern Minnesota counties: Blue Earth, Chippewa, Cottonwood, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Lac Qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Meeker, Murray, Nicollet, Nobles, Pipestone, Rock, Redwood, Renville, Sibley Swift, Watonwan, and Yellow Medicine.

In Spring of 2018, with support from Blandin Foundation, the county released the results of a feasibility study, it determined…

analysis shows that it is not economically feasible to build fiber everywhere in the rural parts of the county using the existing Border-to-Border grant program—the 50% grant matching in that program is not enough to create a sustainable network. However, the hybrid fiber and wireless solutions all look to be economically viable.

In early 2019, the county promoted an app that would help test local broadband speeds. So they continue to be engaged as a county, they just need to persuade providers to meet their needs.

Lyon County could benefit from future grants. In 2019, Woodstock applied to upgrade service in Lyon. (That doesn’t mean they will get the grant; they have only applied.)

Checklist:

• 100/20 ranking: 30 (down from 29)
• 25/3 ranking: 44
• Has worked with Blandin: yes
• Has received a MN Broadband grant: yes
• Household density: 14.2
• Number of providers: 11

Details:

• Find more articles on broadband in Lyon County (http://tinyurl.com/hzlzzvs)
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 16, 22
  House: 16A, 22A
• 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)