Rank: 78
Code: Red
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

Jackson County stuck near the bottom of the ranking

Jackson County ranks 78 for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 62.34 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 11709 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $15.9 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.

Jackson hovered at 68 percent coverage from 2017 to 2021 but saw a decrease in the last year to 61.98, which may reflect an increase in granularity of reporting. This year there is slight improvement that aligns with the 2022 decrease. In 2023, Federated Rural Electric got a  $7 million Border to Border grant to serve 480 households, businesses, and farms in Jackson County.

It looks like improvements are being made and the recent Federated grants may help start a momentum, but they stay at their red ranking with less than 70 percent coverage.

Jackson County is in a potentially precarious position because looking at access in Chippewa County using the FCC National Map there is a big discrepancy between wireline access (61.47 percent coverage) and wireline with fixed wireless (89.57 percent). Minnesota doesn’t currently take fixed wireless into consideration when defining areas eligible for grants; the federal government does include access to fixed wireless. That could make a big difference to who is eligible for BEAD funding.

Jackson County residents were awarded 27 line extension funding requests, which means state funding will subsidize last mile broadband extension to their homes.

Broadband Access:

Grants:

• 2023: Federated Rural Electric Assoc. – Jackson County Fiber-To-The-Premises – GRANT $7,068,222
• In 2010, Southwest Minnesota Broadband Services (SMBS) received ARRA funds to deploy fiber to the home in Jackson and other counties. Through SMBS, Jackson County was also part of the Blandin Broadband Communities initiative in 2015-2016
• 2015 – MVTV Wireless Middle Mile – Grant award: $808,080

Find more articles on broadband in Jackson County. (http://tinyurl.com/h3vyqx9)

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.