The Office of Office of Broadband Development has shared data for wireline broadband by county (Updated Oct 2023), which is the first step to me doing the broadband profiles so expect some charts and ranking and then a lot of profiles in the next few weeks. These charts look at access to 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps (100/20). Speeds slower than 100/20 are considered underserved and qualify for federal BEAD funding. It is also the Minnesota state speed goal for 2026 – for ubiquitous coverage at speeds of at least 100/20.
(I’ll be sharing a few quick ranking posts today. You can download the spreadsheet of data for posts on access to 25/3, 100/20 and Gig for easier manipulation.)
Here are the top 10 counties – with a look to their ranking last year:
| County | ≥ 100 Mbps Download/20 Mbps Upload Speeds | 2023 100/20 ranking |
2022 100/20 ranking |
| Lincoln | 100 | 1 | 2 |
| Red Lake | 100 | 1 | 1 |
| Rock | 100 | 1 | 3 |
| Ramsey | 99.98 | 4 | 5 |
| Lac qui Parle | 99.94 | 5 | 4 |
| Big Stone | 99.71 | 6 | 12 |
| Pennington | 99.53 | 7 | 6 |
| Wadena | 99.32 | 8 | 7 |
| Hennepin | 99.11 | 9 | 10 |
| Swift | 98.94 | 10 | 11 |
Here are the bottom 10 counties – with a look to their ranking last year:
| County | ≥ 100 Mbps Download/20 Mbps Upload Speeds | 2023 ranking | 2022 ranking |
| Jackson | 62.34 | 78 | 76 |
| Yellow Medicine | 61.09 | 79 | 78 |
| Cass | 56.15 | 80 | 79 |
| Murray | 55.9 | 81 | 81 |
| Carlton | 54.47 | 82 | 83 |
| Norman | 54.22 | 83 | 80 |
| Isanti | 54.09 | 84 | 82 |
| Todd | 53.43 | 85 | 85 |
| Pine | 40.71 | 86 | 86 |
| Kanabec | 20.45 | 87 | 87 |
It’s hard to see counties maintain a stronghold on lower ranking despite best efforts. It’s fun to see more counties at the other get getting to 100 percent coverage but some of the most interesting stories come from movement in the middle. Here are the folks who saw the great movement up the ranking in 2023.
| county | 2022 100/20 ranking | 2023 100/20 ranking |
delta |
| Aitkin | 77 | 40 | 37 |
| Mahnomen | 66 | 47 | 21 |
| Redwood | 84 | 63 | 21 |
| Traverse | 70 | 52 | 18 |
| Marshall | 39 | 27 | 12 |
| Otter Tail | 68 | 56 | 12 |
| Fillmore | 75 | 66 | 11 |
| Lake | 36 | 29 | 7 |
| Sherburne | 40 | 33 | 7 |
| Pipestone | 42 | 35 | 7 |
And here are folks who saw the greatest decrease in ranking:
| county | 2022 100/20 ranking | 2023 100/20 ranking | delta |
| Mower | 37 | 46 | -9 |
| Brown | 45 | 54 | -9 |
| Grant | 50 | 59 | -9 |
| Nicollet | 53 | 62 | -9 |
| Waseca | 55 | 64 | -9 |
| Faribault | 62 | 72 | -10 |
| St. Louis | 57 | 68 | -11 |
| Rice | 32 | 45 | -13 |
| Wright | 49 | 65 | -16 |
| Blue Earth | 41 | 61 | -20 |
I’ll learn more about these folks when I dig into the county profiles. Sometimes the jump or drop in ranking has a lot more to do with what’s happening in other counties. If you’re near the top of the list, you can celebrate with your peers. If you’re dropping down the list you probably need to look at what’s happening and how you can turn it around.