Rank: 48
Code: Yellow
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

Morrison County: steady progress but recent grant might help

Morrison County ranks 48 (up three) for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 82.53 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 2602 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $24.1 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.

Morrison County has seen steady but incremental improvement since we started tracking. They been actively engaged in seeking better broadband for several years, including as part of the Resilient Region as a Blandin Broadband Community and in 2022, Officials from Morrison County and the city of Little Falls met to talk about broadband options.

Benton Telephone has applied for funding in the latest (and open) round of Border to Border broadband funds. The seem organized enough to take advantage of federal (BEAD) funding coming in the next few years but until that starts to happen, they retain their yellow ranking.

Grants:

• 2022: Morrison County will benefit from a ReConnect grant through Upsala Cooperative.

• 2017 – Benton Cooperative Telephone Company – Rice Ramey – GRANT $765,015
• 2016 – BENTON COOPERATIVE TELEPHONE COMPANY BUCKMAN – GRANT: $276,230
• 2014 – Consolidated Telephone Cooperative, Region 5 Virtual Highway Project – Amount $2 million
• 2019: CTC (Consolidated Telephone Company) – Fort Ripley/Executive Acres Project – GRANT $830,587
• 2019: Benton Cooperative Telephone Company – Ramey Phase I – GRANT $936,759

• MN State Grants awarded in 2021: Benton Cooperative Telephone Company – Ramey Phase 2 Project – GRANT $338,011 This last mile project will serve 119 unserved locations in the Ramey telephone exchange located in portions of Lakin and Mount Morris townships in Morrison County and a small portion of Dailey and Page townships located in Mille Lacs County.

• Sytek Communications – Morrison/Todd/Stearns County FTTP Project – GRANT $1,048,668 This last mile project will bring service to 130 locations in Southwest Morrison, Southeastern Todd and Northeastern Stearns counties.

Find more articles on broadband in Morrison County (http://tinyurl.com/hxkk5ur)

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.