Rank: 12
Code: Green
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)
Beltrami County well served thanks to Paul Bunyan
Beltrami County ranks 12 for broadband access. They have hovered around 99 percent access to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up since 2019. They have 230 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $230,000 to get ubiquitous broadband in the county.
| County | Residential Location Density | number of residential locations | ≥ 100 Mbps Download/20 Mbps Upload Speeds | unserved households | Cost to close gap |
| Beltrami | 6.0 | 18,401 | 98.75 | 230 | 213900 |
Beltrami County has fallen in the ranking for broadband coverage but that’s only because others have been catching up. They have an engaged cooperative provider and it seems likely that they should reach the goal of ubiquitous broadband. It’s worth noting that they rank number 4 for Gig access.
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |
| 100/20 (2026 goal) | 98.75 | 98.86 | 99.25 | 99.25 | 98.79 | 96.3 | 96.35 |
| 25/3 (2022 goal) | 98.93 | 98.92 | 99.49 | 99.49 | 99.41 | 99.4 | 99.36 |
Grants:
- 2020: Paul Bunyan received a MN Border to Border grant to bring fiber to the Leach Lake Indian Reservation and the southeast Beltrami.
Checklist:
Find more articles on broadband in Beltrami County. (http://tinyurl.com/z5yvec6)
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)
The maps below on the left comes from the Office of Broadband Development interactive map, reflecting data updated on Oct 31, 2023. Red dots represent locations unserved with wireline broadband; the Orange dots represent underserved locations. The map on the right comes from the FCC National Broadband map showing access to wired and licensed fixed wireless access, the darker the color, the greater percentage of broadband coverage.
