I am working on the annual broadband county profiles and I built a table (with the help of Mary Magnuson) that I had to share. It guestimates the cost to deploy ubiquitous broadband in Minnesota ($2.7 billion) and I was able to determine how much is would cost for each county.
I figured out the number of households in each county without broadband based on percentages (and populations) from the Office of Broadband Development. I was in the MN Broadband Task Force meeting where they determined that the average cost to reach these last homes is $9300 each. That number is not far off what it has been in the past. So I multiplied number of households by $9300 to come up with the guestimate. Clearly some houses will cost more and some will cost less but the totals are sobering for most counties.
It has been said, here are other places, that unprecedented amounts of money are being invested in broadband in the next few years, but the numbers I have seen have been more like $650 million not $2.7 billion. This is a reminder that those who are prepared will get the funding. Let’s be prepared Minnesota!
I will paste the table below but you can also download it in Excel.
| County | Housing Unit Density | Number of Housing Units | 100/20 Mbps | houses unserved | Cost to close the gap |
| Aitkin | 7.9 | 13,944 | 60.36 | 5527 | $ 51,404,834.88 |
| Anoka | 309.3 | 138,017 | 96.64 | 4637 | $ 43,127,552.16 |
| Becker | 13.6 | 19,620 | 78.45 | 4228 | $ 39,321,423.00 |
| Beltrami | 7.0 | 21,271 | 98.86 | 242 | $ 2,255,151.42 |
| Benton | 41.9 | 17,315 | 89.94 | 1742 | $ 16,199,567.70 |
| Big Stone | 5.6 | 2,982 | 97.09 | 87 | $ 807,018.66 |
| Blue Earth | 38.0 | 29,169 | 81.88 | 5285 | $ 49,154,432.04 |
| Brown | 19.0 | 11,780 | 79.96 | 2361 | $ 21,954,621.60 |
| Carlton | 17.9 | 15,688 | 48.71 | 8046 | $ 74,831,289.36 |
| Carver | 107.4 | 40,380 | 93.2 | 2746 | $ 25,536,312.00 |
| Cass | 9.9 | 23,872 | 56.37 | 10415 | $ 96,862,788.48 |
| Chippewa | 9.6 | 5,627 | 80.55 | 1094 | $ 10,178,398.95 |
| Chisago | 50.4 | 22,294 | 73.63 | 5879 | $ 54,674,028.54 |
| Clay | 25.5 | 26,844 | 92.06 | 2131 | $ 19,822,146.48 |
| Clearwater | 4.3 | 4,448 | 98.85 | 51 | $ 475,713.60 |
| Cook | 1.8 | 5,936 | 90.95 | 537 | $ 4,996,034.40 |
| Cottonwood | 7.9 | 5,152 | 67.02 | 1699 | $ 15,801,905.28 |
| Crow Wing | 35.9 | 41,568 | 87.51 | 5192 | $ 48,284,141.76 |
| Dakota | 295.4 | 173,469 | 96.82 | 5516 | $ 51,301,722.06 |
| Dodge | 18.8 | 8,291 | 84.2 | 1310 | $ 12,182,795.40 |
| Douglas | 30.2 | 21,769 | 74.59 | 5532 | $ 51,442,976.97 |
| Faribault | 9.6 | 6,916 | 72.68 | 1889 | $ 17,571,896.16 |
| Fillmore | 11.1 | 9,583 | 64.95 | 3359 | $ 31,237,225.95 |
| Freeborn | 19.5 | 14,114 | 86.36 | 1925 | $ 17,903,891.28 |
| Goodhue | 26.7 | 20,864 | 78.56 | 4473 | $ 41,601,146.88 |
| Grant | 5.5 | 3,155 | 77.71 | 703 | $ 6,540,220.35 |
| Hennepin | 915.6 | 555,779 | 98.69 | 7281 | $ 67,710,555.57 |
| Houston | 15.3 | 8,731 | 82.98 | 1486 | $ 13,819,950.66 |
| Hubbard | 14.7 | 14,705 | 90.07 | 1460 | $ 13,579,920.45 |
| Isanti | 36.6 | 16,550 | 50.09 | 8260 | $ 76,818,976.50 |
| Itasca | 8.7 | 25,375 | 85.5 | 3679 | $ 34,218,187.50 |
| Jackson | 6.8 | 4,891 | 61.98 | 1860 | $ 17,293,891.26 |
| Kanabec | 14.5 | 7,735 | 23.46 | 5920 | $ 55,059,431.70 |
| Kandiyohi | 23.1 | 19,950 | 68.18 | 6348 | $ 59,037,237.00 |
| Kittson | 2.1 | 2,272 | 87.57 | 282 | $ 2,626,409.28 |
| Koochiching | 2.3 | 7,402 | 72.3 | 2050 | $ 19,068,292.20 |
| Lac qui Parle | 4.5 | 3,471 | 99.86 | 5 | $ 45,192.42 |
| Lake | 2.4 | 7,311 | 84.15 | 1159 | $ 10,776,779.55 |
| Lake of the Woods | 1.9 | 3,391 | 74.26 | 873 | $ 8,117,443.62 |
| Le Sueur | 27.0 | 12,811 | 74.92 | 3213 | $ 29,880,888.84 |
| Lincoln | 5.6 | 3,051 | 99.99 | 0 | $ 2,837.43 |
| Lyon | 15.5 | 11,180 | 84.27 | 1759 | $ 16,355,110.20 |
| McLeod | 31.3 | 15,820 | 75.48 | 3879 | $ 36,075,295.20 |
| Mahnomen | 4.4 | 2,550 | 70.81 | 744 | $ 6,922,408.50 |
| Marshall | 2.4 | 4,416 | 82.9 | 755 | $ 7,022,764.80 |
| Martin | 13.3 | 9,748 | 67.03 | 3214 | $ 29,889,415.08 |
| Meeker | 16.4 | 10,576 | 72.85 | 2871 | $ 26,703,871.20 |
| Mille Lacs | 18.8 | 12,786 | 66.71 | 4256 | $ 39,585,072.42 |
| Morrison | 13.9 | 16,074 | 77.57 | 3605 | $ 33,530,203.26 |
| Mower | 23.7 | 16,928 | 83.25 | 2835 | $ 26,369,592.00 |
| Murray | 6.1 | 4,388 | 51.38 | 2133 | $ 19,841,044.08 |
| Nicollet | 28.6 | 13,371 | 77.29 | 3037 | $ 28,239,953.13 |
| Nobles | 11.6 | 8,394 | 80.27 | 1656 | $ 15,402,066.66 |
| Norman | 3.7 | 3,230 | 55.52 | 1437 | $ 13,361,347.20 |
| Olmsted | 105.6 | 69,270 | 94.38 | 3893 | $ 36,204,658.20 |
| Otter Tail | 16.4 | 36,506 | 70.54 | 10755 | $ 100,018,408.68 |
| Pennington | 10.7 | 6,639 | 99.4 | 40 | $ 370,456.20 |
| Pine | 11.8 | 16,886 | 35.1 | 10959 | $ 101,918,830.20 |
| Pipestone | 9.3 | 4,337 | 80.7 | 837 | $ 7,784,481.30 |
| Polk | 7.3 | 14,623 | 95.24 | 696 | $ 6,473,309.64 |
| Pope | 8.9 | 6,367 | 79.15 | 1328 | $ 12,345,931.35 |
| Ramsey | 1343.8 | 228,546 | 99.63 | 846 | $ 7,864,267.86 |
| Red Lake | 4.3 | 1,876 | 100 | 0 | $ – |
| Redwood | 8.0 | 7,086 | 48.35 | 3660 | $ 34,037,246.70 |
| Renville | 7.0 | 6,913 | 70.79 | 2019 | $ 18,779,371.89 |
| Rice | 48.4 | 25,018 | 85.23 | 3695 | $ 34,364,974.98 |
| Rock | 8.7 | 4,222 | 99.9 | 4 | $ 39,264.60 |
| Roseau | 4.2 | 7,137 | 90.71 | 663 | $ 6,166,153.89 |
| St. Louis | 15.1 | 103,681 | 74.89 | 26034 | $ 242,118,981.63 |
| Scott | 148.3 | 54,658 | 92.04 | 4351 | $ 40,462,224.24 |
| Sherburne | 79.6 | 35,909 | 82.82 | 6169 | $ 57,373,245.66 |
| Sibley | 10.7 | 6,454 | 65.63 | 2218 | $ 20,629,630.14 |
| Stearns | 47.3 | 65,684 | 84.69 | 10056 | $ 93,522,849.72 |
| Steele | 36.2 | 15,691 | 88.28 | 1839 | $ 17,102,562.36 |
| Stevens | 7.3 | 4,213 | 97.08 | 123 | $ 1,144,082.28 |
| Swift | 6.2 | 4,693 | 97.5 | 117 | $ 1,091,122.50 |
| Todd | 13.0 | 12,770 | 47.52 | 6702 | $ 62,325,772.80 |
| Traverse | 3.2 | 1,877 | 67.5 | 610 | $ 5,673,232.50 |
| Wabasha | 18.5 | 10,158 | 71.24 | 2921 | $ 27,169,399.44 |
| Wadena | 12.8 | 6,939 | 98.88 | 78 | $ 722,766.24 |
| Waseca | 18.2 | 7,895 | 75.12 | 1964 | $ 18,267,766.80 |
| Washington | 245.6 | 104,014 | 93.59 | 6667 | $ 62,005,865.82 |
| Watonwan | 11.1 | 4,874 | 71.06 | 1411 | $ 13,117,981.08 |
| Wilkin | 4.0 | 2,972 | 77.48 | 669 | $ 6,224,437.92 |
| Winona | 33.8 | 21,716 | 85.62 | 3123 | $ 29,041,675.44 |
| Wright | 76.2 | 54,467 | 78.02 | 11972 | $ 111,338,173.38 |
| Yellow Medicine | 5.9 | 4,513 | 58.17 | 1888 | $ 17,556,427.47 |
| $ 2,706,078,925.98 | |||||
Blandin on Broadband 