Rank: 70
Code: Red
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)
Renville County: Feels like being stuck
Renville County ranks 70 (down 3) for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 72.23 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 1818 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $16 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.
| County | Reseidential Location Denisty | number of residential locations | ≥ 100 Mbps Download/20 Mbps Upload Speeds | unserved households | Cost to close gap |
| Renville | 6.6 | 6,546 | 72.23 | 1818 | 16907400 |
Renville County has been working on better broadband for more than 10 years, but they have stayed stagnant at 70 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up since 2021.
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 (70.18 percent coverage) and wireline with fixed wireless (96.42 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.
In 2023, Renville set up a broadband survey for community members. Actions like that will help them prepare for federal (BEAD) funding once it is available. Unfortunately until they can engage provider activity, they retail their red ranking.
Broadband Access:
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |
| 100/20 (2026 goal) | 72.23 | 70.79 | 70.86 | 63.23 | 59.06 | 51.78 | 50.43 |
| 25/3 (2022 goal) | 73.98 | 73.41 | 74.48 | 67.74 | 61.9 | 55.06 | 59.27 |
Grants:
- 2016 – RENVILLE COUNTY HBC & RS FIBER – GRANT: $807,966
- 2015 – MVTV Wireless Middle Mile – Grant award: $808,080
- 2014 – R-S Fiber Cooperative, FTTH Project – Award: $1 million.
- 2019: Nuvera Communications, Inc. – Hutchinson W Project – GRANT $346,282
- 2019: Midco (Midcontinent Communications) – Renville Project – GRANT $230,835
- MN State Grant awarded in 2021: Minnesota Valley Telephone Company (MVTC) – Rural Franklin Fiber Project – GRANT $226,800 This middle and last mile project will serve approximately 45 unserved locations in the City of Franklin and the townships of Sherman, Eden, Camp and Birch Cooley in Redwood, Renville and Brown counties.
Find more articles on broadband in Renville County (http://tinyurl.com/hfazdvf)
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.
