Rank: 73
Code: Red
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)
Watonwan County: hovering around 70 percent
Watonwan County ranks 73 for broadband access and out of 87 counties. They have 70.03 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 1336 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $12.4 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 |
| Watonwan | 10.1 | 4,458 | 70.03 | 1336 | 12424800 |
Watonwan County has been hovering around 70 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up since we began tracking. I don’t see any grants in the hopper or yet to be spent that could help them. They retain their red ranking.
Also they may also 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 (68.15 percent coverage) and wireline with fixed wireless (99.74 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.
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | |
| 100/20 (2026 goal) | 70.03 | 71.06 | 69.25 | 68.5 | 67.75 | 68.42 | 64.58 |
| 25/3 (2022 goal) | 74.61 | 78.27 | 77.62 | 79.32 | 79.21 | 70.7 | 65.26 |
Grants:
- 2017 – New Ulm Telecom, Inc. – Hanska A&D FTTP – GRANT $324,894
- 2016 – NEW ULM TELECOM, INC. HANSKA – GRANT: $ 200,397
- 2015 – MVTV Wireless Middle Mile – Grant award: $808,080
Find more articles on broadband in Watonwan County (http://tinyurl.com/jpnf6xv)
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.
