Roseau County is not poised to meet the MN broadband goals for either 2022 or 2026. They have been fortunate with state grants; getting more would increase their chances for meeting the goals.

Green=served Purple=underesrved Red=unserved

Roseau has benefited from several MN broadband grants:

• 2017 – Wikstrom Telephone – Wiktel NW MN Broadband – GRANT $1,307,785
  This project will serve rural sparsely populated areas in Kittson, Marshall, and Roseau counties in far northwestern Minnesota, passing 300 unserved homes and 31 unserved business locations.  In a funding partnership with the State of Minnesota, Wikstrom will improve broadband services levels to 1 Gbps down and up, exceeding the 2026 state speed goal, on a fiber optic network, and in some locations will extend the service from routes built via the 2016 Border to Border State Grant program. The broadband improvements will foster opportunities in economic development, successful education services for children and adults alike, and allow for critical home health care monitoring in this remote area.
• 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 service exceeding 100 Mbps by 20 Mbps.
• 2016 – CENTURYLINK THIEF RIVER MIDDLE MILE – GRANT: $1,324,400
  Serving 491 unserved households and 118 unserved businesses in a 71.4 mile fiber build from Thief River to Roseau With services at 25 Mbps download by 3 Mbps.
• 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 with service levels to 1 Gigabit.
• 2014 – Sjoberg Cable, Broadband Grant Proposal
  Award: $261,575. Total project cost: $523,150. Impact: Services to 107 unserved and 49 underserved homes, farms and businesses in five areas in Roseau County near Roseau, Warroad and Salol.
• 2014 – Wikstrom Telephone, Kittson, Marshall, Roseau Broadband Extension
  Award: $425,000. Total project cost: $943,827. Impact: Service to 73 unserved and 43 underserved homes in Kittson, Marshall and Roseau counties

In 2018, at a regional discussion on broadband hosted by the Blandin Foundation, Mark Klinkhammer of Garden Valley Telephone mentioned that he had been talking with Roseau Electric to expand to some areas. As a cooperative, they are motivated to get services to their people.

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

Checklist:

• 100/20 ranking:48 (down from 35)
• 25/3 ranking: 66
• Has worked with Blandin: no
• Has received a MN Broadband grant: yes
• Household density: 3.7
• Number of providers: 5

Details:

• Find more articles on broadband in Roseau County (http://tinyurl.com/gsq45ua)
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 01
  House: 01A
• 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)