It’s MN broadband county ranking time of year! The Office of Broadband Development updated the interactive broadband map on Dec 16, 2024. I have tracked county speeds at speeds of

• 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up (BEAD defines “served” as 25/3)
• 100/20 (MN state speed goal is 100/20 in 2024)
• Gig access (Gig is top speed measured.)
• download spreadsheet for all three speeds

For these rankings, I have looked at “wireline” access (not wireless) because that is the definition in Minnesota.

Here are the top 10 ranked for speeds of 25/3

There are some changes in the top 10; I suspect because the last year has been spent challenging past maps in order to create a map that will determine which households that are eligible for federal (BEAD) funding. That led to changes/corrections. (That being said, BEAD eligibility is defined based on wireless access.)

New to the top 10 maps:

• Pope
• Wadena
• Hennepin

Removed from the top 10:

• Lincoln
• Norman
• Big Stone

Here are the bottom 10 ranked for speeds of 25/3

If you are a community leader or resident, you will want to be thinking about how to improve your ranking, especially since federal BEAD funding is being put into place to reach unserved areas.

New to the bottom 10 maps:

• Todd

Removed from the bottom 10:

• Cottonwood

Here are the counties with the greatest improvement:

I hope to get the County Profiles done before the end of the year, where there will be more info and greater detail for each county based on the new maps and more.

Here’s the full list