Rank: 45
Code: Red
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)
Rice County: Dropped from yellow to red ranking
Rice County ranks 45 (down 13 points) for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 84.16 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 3316 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $30.8 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 |
| Rice | 40.6 | 20,932 | 84.16 | 3316 | 30838800 |
Rice County had a great leap of broadband in 2019; they have been stagnant since. Northfield Wifi has submitted an application for the latest (open) round of Border to Border funding. They will learn the results in early 2024.
Because they have been stagnant for so long, Rice County has dropped from yellow to red ranking
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |
| 100/20 (2026 goal) | 84.16 | 85.23 | 85.58 | 82.95 | 82.43 | 32.63 | 48.85 |
| 25/3 (2022 goal) | 88.89 | 90.12 | 94.18 | 93.75 | 92.46 | 93.2 | 97.93 |
Grants:
- MN State Grants awarded in 2021: Nuvera Communications, Inc. – Webster Rural FTTP – GRANT $431,260 This last mile project will serve 103 unserved and 178 underserved locations in Wheatland and Webster townships in Rice County, Euraka and Greenvale townships in Dakota County, and New Market and Cedar Lake townships in Scott County.
- BEVCOMM (Cannon Valley Telecom, Inc.) – Rural Morristown Fiber Expansion Project – GRANT $210,692 This last mile project will serve approximately 14 unserved and 94 underserved locations in portions of Rice, Waseca, and Steele counties.
Find more articles on broadband in Rice County (http://tinyurl.com/jg6q8gs)
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.
