Pipestone County could meet the broadband speed goals for both 2022 and 2026 with a concerted effort. The numbers aren’t too far from reality; the impact of Vast Broadband may make a big difference. If that impact isn’t great, they will need to work on building partnerships with other providers.

Green=served Purple=underesrved Red=unserved

Pipestone County has benefited from two grants:

• 2017 – Woodstock Telephone Company – Pipestone County Wireless – GRANT $363,851
  Serving 135 unserved households, 540 unserved businesses, and 1 unserved community anchor institution in rural Pipestone with service levels to a minimum of 25Mbps download and 3Mbps upload with higher speeds of 75Mbps/25Mbps.
• 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 April (2019), Vast Broadband launched Gigabit access in Marshall, Pipestone and Worthington Counties. In September 2019, Woodstock Telephone’s grant-funded network was completed. It will be interesting to see the impact these projects will have on county’s pursuit of Minnesota’s 2026 speed goals.

Checklist:

• 100/20 ranking: 35 (down from 22)
• 25/3 ranking: 54
• Has worked with Blandin: no
• Has received a MN Broadband grant: yes
• Household density: 8.7
• Number of providers: 6

Details:

• Find more articles on broadband in Pipestone County (http://tinyurl.com/zhjm4pe)
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 22
  House: 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)