Rank: 13
Code: Green
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)
Clearwater County: nearly there
Clearwater County ranks 13 (down from 9) for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 98.28 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 60 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $558,000 to get to 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 |
| Clearwater | 3.4 | 3,497 | 98.28 | 60 | 558000 |
Clearwater County benefited from a Garden Valley Telephone Company upgrade in 2018. They dipped in ranking this year but that’s really just other counties catching up. They rank fifth in Gig access. They retain their green ranking because they are so close to the goal.
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |
| 100/20 (2026 goal) | 98.28 | 98.85 | 99.59 | 89.32 | 89.3 | 89.3 | 73.41 |
| 25/3 (2022 goal) | 99.26 | 99.29 | 99.76 | 99.74 | 99.74 | 99.58 | 99.58 |
Grants/Funding:
- In 2018, Garden Valley Telephone Company received a $20 million loan from the USDA to deploy fiber in Polk, Clearwater, Pennington, Marshall and Red Lake counties.
- AT&T launched a new FirstNet cell site in Clearwater County.
Find more articles on broadband in Clearwater County. (http://tinyurl.com/homdjrt)
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.
