Rank: 32
Code: Yellow
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)
Steele County: Decent coverage but not much community engagement
Steele County ranks 32 (down six points) for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 87.59 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 1661households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $15.4 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 |
| Steele | 31.0 | 13,384 | 87.59 | 1661 | 15447300 |
Steele County has not worked with the Blandin Foundation. They have never received a MN Border to Border grant. They were home to a local provider (Jaguar), which was acquired two years ago.
LTD Broadband was awarded the opportunity to submit a long form to get federal funding (RDOF) to deploy FTTH throughout much of Minnesota, including parts of Steele County. The potential RDOF award meant Le Sueur’s state grant application was no longer eligible for other funding. In 2023, the federal funders disqualifies LTD Broadband from receiving funding and the MN Public Utilities Commission is looking at revoking the ETC designation they needed to qualify for funding. Steele mourns the lost opportunity of being eligible for funding during the LTD Broadband saga.
In December 2022, Spectrum received $158,052 to cover 56 households in Steele County. Steele County retains a yellow ranking but with some concern given the stagnant ranking since 2019.
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |
| 100/20 (2026 goal) | 87.59 | 88.28 | 88.95 | 87.05 | 86.86 | 56.16 | 95.64 |
| 25/3 (2022 goal) | 88.38 | 89 | 93.26 | 88.29 | 88.44 | 87.79 | 99.86 |
Grant
- Spectrum Mid-America, LLC managed by Charter Communications Inc., $158,052.00
Find more articles on broadband in Steele County (http://tinyurl.com/zd4qhbu)
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.
