Rank: 66
Code: Yellow
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

Fillmore County: ReConnect award and a story could put them back on track

Fillmore County ranks 66 (up 9 places) for broadband access out of 87 counties. Fillmore has 74.18 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 2381 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $22.1 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.

Fillmore had a nice increase of broadband in 2022 from 56 percent in 2021 to 65 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up in 2022. They benefited in 2022 with expansion from Mediacom (in Wykoff) and Harmony (in Harmony). In December 2022, Harmony Telephone Company received a Border to Border grant of $1,129,740 to  serve 34 unserved households, 22 unserved businesses, and 56 unserved farms in the rural portions of Fillmore County. In 2023, Harmony Telephone Company received a grant of $2,991,038 to serve 311 households, businesses, and farms in Fillmore County and a grant of $1,044,436 to 68 households, businesses, and farms in the rural portions of Fillmore County.

Ace Telephone and Mediacom have submitted grant applications in the latest Border to Border grant round; awards should be made in early 2023.

Fillmore gets a yellow ranking because, while there are efforts being made, they are still at 74 percent coverage but having engaged providers should stand them in good stead for benefiting from BEAD funding.

Grants:

• 2023: Harmony Telephone Company – North Fountain Fiber-To-The-Premises GRANT – $2,991,038
• 2023: Harmony Telephone Company – Rural Preston Fiber-To-The-Premises GRANT – $1,044,436
• 2022: Harmony Telephone Company, $1,129,740.00

• 2017 – Rushford Village/Rural Rushford Fiber Build – Grant $2,011,628
• 2017 – Mediacom Minnesota LLC – Fountain 2018 Broadband Build – GRANT $202,125
• 2016 – ACENTEK RURAL LANESBORO FIBER BUILD – GRANT: $1,777,936
• (2020), Harmony Telephone received a USDA ReConnect award to better serve Fillmore County. They received a $2.7 million ReConnect Program loan and a $2.7 million ReConnect Program grant.
• AcenTek – Rural Peterson Exchange FTTH – GRANT $1,492,096 This last mile project will serve 214 unserved households, 18 unserved businesses, 88 unserved farms, and two unserved community anchor institutions as well as 47 underserved households and five underserved businesses in areas of Fillmore and Winona counties. In a funding partnership with the State of Minnesota and Fillmore County EDA, AcenTek will improve these 374 locations’ broadband levels up to 1 Gbps download and 100 Mbps upload.
• MiBroadband, LLC – Rural Preston FTTP – GRANT $1,173,330 The Rural Preston fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) project will serve 231 unserved and 26 underserved locations in the rural portions of southern Fillmore County.

Find more articles on broadband in Fillmore County. (http://tinyurl.com/hxe6jal)

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.