Winona County is not poised to meet the broadband speed goals for either 2022 or 2026 unless they build a momentum comparable to the momentum they had 20 years ago.

Green=served Purple=underesrved Red=unserved

Winona has benefited from several broadband grants:

• 2016 – WINONA COUNTY PICKWICK AREA – GRANT: $416,640
  Serving 88 unserved households, 89 unserved businesses, 2 unserved community anchor institutions, and 23 underserved households and 23 underserved businesses within Wilson, Homer, Richmond, Pleasant Hill, and Wiscoy Townships in Winona County with service levels to 1 Gigabit speed.
• 2015 – Hiawatha Broadband Communications – Winona County Whitewater Area
  Grant Award: $247,000
  Serving 418 passings including 135 households, 70 businesses and 5 community anchor institutions in in Elba and Norton Townships including Whitewater State Park.
• 2015 – Winona County Hiawatha Broadband Communications – Cedar Valley Area
  Grant award: $314,450
  Serving 256 households, 117 businesses and 3 community anchor institutions in area lies south and west of Winona from Hwy 61 along the Mississippi River to I-90.

Winona County was part of the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) starting in 2010, a Blandin-led and federal (ARRA) funded digital inclusion project. So there has been a focus on broadband for a decade. In fact, Winona is the home of Luminet, a early broadband provider that eventually because Hiawatha Broadband and then Schurz Communications.

Unfortunately, Winona has not kept pace. They need to build a momentum to get them on track to meet the speed goals.

Checklist:

• 100/20 ranking: 24 (down from 15)
• 25/3 ranking: 41
• Has worked with Blandin: yes
• Has received a MN Broadband grant: yes
• Household density: 30.4
• Number of providers: 14

Details:

• Find more articles on broadband in Winona County (http://tinyurl.com/hqsckxg)
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 21, 28
  House: 21B, 28A
• 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)