Rank: 51
Code: Red
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

Goodhue County: still holding onto haves and have-nots

Goodhue County ranks 62 (down 11 spots) for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have been stalled at about 80 percent coverage for several years and therefore maintain red ranking. There’s a great difference between Red Wing and more rural parts of Goodhue County.

• Over the years, Goodhue County (or cities within) has invested $15,000 to matches one successful MN Broadband grant. This is an indicator of local government that is engaged and (literally) invested in better, local broadband.
• Goodhue County will benefit from a 2024 $1,8 million MN Broadband grant award that will serve 73 locations.
• Goodhue County will benefit from 6 line extension awards (Rounds 1 and 2), which extend broadband to individual locations.
• Last years’ estimates indicated that it would cost $33 million to get ubiquitous broadband in the county. (I haven’t updated the number because recent report offers scenarios of costs based on BEAD funding rules that make current estimates less predictable than in the past. Yet, I think the number is still helpful.)
• In 2022, Goodhue ranked 11 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.
• In July 2023, Goodhue County Commissioners decided to invest $112,138 ARPA funds in broadband for Southeast MN Wifi LLC in Welch Township. However, they declined a larger project in March.

2024 Grant:

• County: Goodhue
  Nuvera Communications, Inc.
  Nuvera White Rock
  Grant: $1,884,429
  Local Match: $628,143
  Total Budget: $2,512,572
  Nuvera’s White Rock Low Density project will bring fiber to rural areas West of White Rock MN in Goodhue County. The project is located in Goodhue County: Belle Creek, Cannon Falls, Leon, and Vasa Townships would be partially covered. There are 73 unserved households, 13 underserved households, 8 unserved businesses, 1 underserved business, 32 unserved farms & 9 underserved farms. Nuvera is headquartered in New Ulm, MN and has been providing communication solutions for both home and business for over 119 years. As of December 31, 2021, the company served 32,520 broadband connections and 17,216 access lines in the Minnesota communities of Bellechester, Courtland, Elko, Evan, Goodhue, Hanska, Hutchinson, Klossner, Litchfield, Mazeppa, New Market, New Ulm, Prior Lake, Redwood Falls, Sanborn, Savage, Searles, Sleepy Eye, Springfield, and White Rock, as well as the adjacent rural areas of Blue Earth, Brown, Goodhue, McLeod, Meeker, Nicollet, Redwood, Rice, Scott and Wabasha counties in south-central Minnesota. Goodhue County is contributing $277,733 toward the project.

Past Grants:

• $3.2 million for Goodhue County to provide broadband coverage to multiple rural unserved and under-served areas.

• 2022: $4 million grant Red Wing Ignite received to encourage broadband-based entrepreneurship and innovation
• 2017 – Midco (Midcontinent Communications) – Wanamingo – GRANT $768,600
• 2017 – New Ulm Telecom, Inc. – White Rock Rural East FTTP – GRANT $411,704
• 2016 – NEW ULM TELECOM, INC. GOODHUE-BELLECHESTER – GRANT: $ 332,328
• 2015 – New Ulm Telecom Goodhue Fiber Project – Grant award: $115,934
• BEVCOMM (Pine Island Telephone Company) – NE Pine Island Fiber Project Phase I – GRANT $222,222
• Nuvera Communications, Inc. – Goodhue Welch FTTP – GRANT $340,790 This last mile project south of Welch will serve 100 unserved and 15 underserved locations in Goodhue County.
• Nuvera Communications, Inc. – Goodhue West FTTP – GRANT $532,232 – This last mile project will serve 148 unserved and two underserved locations in Goodhue, Zumbrota, Minneola, and Belle Creek townships in Goodhue County and Chester Township in Wabasha County.

Find more articles on broadband in Goodhue County. (http://tinyurl.com/z3jwte4)

The maps below on the left comes from the Office of Broadband Development interactive map, reflecting data updated on December 16, 2024. Red dots represent locations unserved locations. Above I have tracked wireline access because that is the Minnesota definition of broadband. The info below includes wired and wireless. BEAD includes fixed wireless connections as served locations. (I wrote more on the distinction between the two last year, which may be if interest in the numbers range greatly for your county.)

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)