Rank: 34
Code: Red
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)
Lyon County: Incremental upgrades
Lyon County ranks 34 for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 86.81 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 1130 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $10.5 million 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 |
| Lyon | 11.9 | 8,568 | 86.81 | 1130 | 10509000 |
Lyon has had incremental improvement in coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up since we have been tracking statistics. In 2023, the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce hosted an event to talk about broadband options with SDN.
ITC has applied for a grant in the latest (and still in-process) Border to Border grant round. But there haven’t been any successful grant applications and that is why they retain their red ranking.
They may be concerned about being in a potentially precarious position because looking at access in the County using the FCC National Map there is a big discrepancy between wireline access (79.68 percent coverage) and wireline with fixed wireless (99.81 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.
Broadband Access:
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |
| 100/20 (2026 goal) | 86.81 | 84.27 | 82.31 | 79.92 | 81.89 | 72.77 | 0 |
| 25/3 (2022 goal) | 87.07 | 85.29 | 84.52 | 85.82 | 85.8 | 80.71 | 72.37 |
Grants:
- Woodstock Telephone Company – Lynd FTTP – GRANT $325,548 (Lyon County) – This middle and last mile project will serve 203 underserved households, three underserved businesses and three underserved anchor institutions in the City of Lynd in Lyon County.
- 2017 – MVTC (Minnesota Valley Telephone Company, Inc.) – Milroy Broadband Project – GRANT $742,365
- 2017 – Woodstock Telephone Company – Balaton FTTP – GRANT $413,009
- 2016 – MIDCO CANBY TO MARSHALL MIDDLE MILE AND LAST MILE – GRANT AMOUNT: $623,000
- 2015 – MVTV Wireless Middle Mile – Grant award: $808,080
Checklist:
- Find more articles on broadband in Lyon County (http://tinyurl.com/hzlzzvs)
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.
