Rank: 51
Code: Red
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

Goodhue County: still holding onto haves and have-nots

Goodhue County ranks 51 (down 4 spots) for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 80.51 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 3546 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $33 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.

Goodhue County has seen incremental progress over the last few years including 2023. Rural Goodhue County been lagging behind Red Wing, a hotspot of gigabit access for too long, which is how they find themselves in code red.

In July, Goodhue County Commissioners decided to invest $112,138 ARPA funds in broadband for Southeast MN Wifi LLC in Welch Township. However, they declined a larger project in March.

Goodhue could benefit from a Border to Border grant; both Hiawatha Broadband or Nuvera Communications have applied for funding in the current round, where grants are still in process.

Grants:

• $3.2 million for Goodhue County to provide broadband coverage to multiple rural unserved and under-served areas.

• 2022: $4 million grant Red Wing Ignite received to encourage broadband-based entrepreneurship and innovation
• 2017 – Midco (Midcontinent Communications) – Wanamingo – GRANT $768,600
• 2017 – New Ulm Telecom, Inc. – White Rock Rural East FTTP – GRANT $411,704
• 2016 – NEW ULM TELECOM, INC. GOODHUE-BELLECHESTER – GRANT: $ 332,328
• 2015 – New Ulm Telecom Goodhue Fiber Project – Grant award: $115,934
• BEVCOMM (Pine Island Telephone Company) – NE Pine Island Fiber Project Phase I – GRANT $222,222
• Nuvera Communications, Inc. – Goodhue Welch FTTP – GRANT $340,790 This last mile project south of Welch will serve 100 unserved and 15 underserved locations in Goodhue County.
• Nuvera Communications, Inc. – Goodhue West FTTP – GRANT $532,232 – This last mile project will serve 148 unserved and two underserved locations in Goodhue, Zumbrota, Minneola, and Belle Creek townships in Goodhue County and Chester Township in Wabasha County.

Find more articles on broadband in Goodhue County. (http://tinyurl.com/z3jwte4)

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.