Stevens County is poised to meet the MN broadband speed goals for both 2022 and 2026. But they will need to make a final push for ubiquitous coverage.

Green=served Purple=underesrved Red=unserved

Stevens County has been involved with broadband for a while. They were members of the 2009-2012 Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) program led by Blandin Foundation and federally funded through ARRA. It was an effort to promote use of broadband across rural Minnesota.

Stevens County has benefited from two MN broadband grants:

• 2017 – Advantenon – Rural Grant, Stevens and Wilkin Counties – Grant $316,554
  Serving 528 unserved households, 132 unserved businesses, and 8 unserved community anchor institutions in eligible in Grant, Stevens and Wilkin Counties with service levels to 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload, exceeding the state speed goal set for the year 2026.
• 2014 – Otter Tail Telcom, Swan Lake West
  Award: $438,937. Total project cost: $877,874. Impact: Service to 110 unserved locations near Swan Lake, on the outskirts of Fergus Falls.

Checklist:

• 100/20 ranking: 10 (down from 7)
• 25/3 ranking: 9
• Has worked with Blandin: yes
• Has received a MN Broadband grant: yes
• Household density: 6.5
• Number of providers: 10

Details:

• Find more articles on broadband in Stevens County (http://tinyurl.com/joutu2h)
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 12
  House: 12A
• 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)