Rank: 43
Code: Green
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)
Pope County: latest grant project will make a difference
Pope County ranks 43 (up 3 points) for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 84.65 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 911 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $8.4million 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 |
| Pope | 8.3 | 5,936 | 84.65 | 911 | 8472300 |
Pope County had incremental improvement to broadband until now but saw a little bump in the last year. In December 2022, Hanson Communications received $4.3 million in Border to Border money to serve 504 underserved locations and 553 unserved locations in the greater Southeast Pope County area, Minnesota.
They continue on the march with a yellow ranking.
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |
| 100/20 (2026 goal) | 84.65 | 79.15 | 74.48 | 73 | 68.92 | 23.67 | 24.33 |
| 25/3 (2022 goal) | 90.82 | 87.81 | 82.95 | 80.81 | 76.99 | 61.27 | 62.73 |
Grant:
- 2022: Hanson Communications, Inc., $4,248,796.00
- 2017 – Hanson Communications – Minnewaska Area FTTP – GRANT $4,996,791
Checklist:
- Find more articles on broadband in Pope County (http://tinyurl.com/hx7q9fd)
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.
