Rank: 74
Code: Yellow
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

Kandiyohi County: bumped up to yellow ranking

Kandiyohi County’s rank has bumped up from 74 to 60 for broadband access out of 87 counties.

Led by the Kandiyohi County has been working on better broadband for years but it seems as if they were able to get traction with a couple of providers last year that is continuing based on grants awarded.

Kandiyohi is creating partnerships that should help them get better broadband, especially when federal (BEAD) funding becomes available. The county continues to plan for better broadband in the future.

• Over the years, Kandiyohi County (or cities within) has invested $3,144,780 (total) for matches for 3 successful MN Broadband grants. This is an indicator of local government that is engaged and (literally) invested in better, local broadband.
• Kandiyohi County will benefit from four 2024 MN Broadband grant:
  $662,430 to serve 167 locations,
  $744,965 to serve 188 locations,
  $8,202,000 to serve 1,289 locations and
  $590,709 to serve 124 locations.
• Kandiyohi County will benefit from 35 line extension awards (Rounds 1 and 2), which extend broadband to individual locations.
• Last years’ estimates indicated that it would cost $19.5 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, Kandiyohi ranked 84^th using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.

Broadband Access:

2024 Grants

• County: Kandiyohi
  Meeker Cooperative Light & Power Association Gennessee Township
  Grant: $662,430
  Local Match: $809,637
  Total Budget: $1,472,067
  The Meeker Cooperative Light & Power Association Gennessee Township project will provide fiber-to-the premise broadband access to rural sites in Gennessee Township in Kandiyohi County, Minnesota. This project will improve unserved/underserved levels of service up to 1 gigabit per second download and upload speeds resulting in more efficient and effective e-learning, telemedicine options and enhanced precision agriculture tools to 167 locations, including 120 unserved and 47 underserved addresses. Kandiyohi County has pledged $327,692 and Gennessee Township has pledged $71,200 towards this project.
• County: Kandiyohi
  Representative Dave Baker, Senator Andrew R. Lang
  Meeker Cooperative Light & Power Association 58 – Kandiyohi Township
  Grant: $744,965
  Local Match: $910,513
  Total Budget: $1,655,478
  The Meeker Cooperative Light & Power Association Kandiyohi Township project will provide fiber-to-the premise broadband access to rural sites in Kandiyohi Township in Kandiyohi County, Minnesota. This project will improve unserved/underserved levels of service up to 1 gigabit per second download and upload speeds resulting in more efficient and effective e-learning, telemedicine options and enhanced precision agriculture tools to 188 locations, including 136 unserved and 52 underserved addresses. Kandiyohi County has pledged $224,000 and Kandiyohi Township has pledged $71,600 towards this project.
• County: Kandiyohi
  Federated Telephone Cooperated
  Federated Tel – W Kandiyohi
  Grant: $8,202,000
  Local Match: $8,202,000
  Total Budget: $16,404,000
  The Kandiyohi County Western FTTP Project is a buried Fiber to the Premise (FTTP) high-speed wireline broadband development project that will serve 1,289 locations in the five Kandiyohi County Townships of Colfax, Dovre, Lake Andrew, Norway Lake and St. Johns. Funding partners include Kandiyohi County ($2,423,575), Colfax Township ($483,600), Dovre Township ($11,700), Lake Andrew Township ($1,103,700), Norway Lake Township ($3,510) and St. Johns Township ($45,500). Of the total 1,289 locations that will be served, 458 are currently unserved (including at least 35 farms, 22 businesses, and 2 community anchor institutions) and 831 are underserved (including at least 23 farms, 27 business, and 2 community anchor institutions). At the completion of this project, all 1,289 locations will have access to service packages up to one (1) gigabit symmetrical speeds. Currently, FTC’s service area includes eight different Minnesota counties covering approximately 2,000 square miles with 2,800 miles of fiber.
• County: Kandiyohi
  Meeker Coop Light & Power Association
  Meeker Fahlun
  Grant: $590,709
  Local Match: $590,710
  Total Budget: $1,181,419
  Meeker’s Fahlun project includes $333,587 of Kandiyohi County ($283,986.50) and Fahlun Township ($49,600) ARPA funds in order to provide fiber-to-the-premise broadband to 124 rural sites in Fahlun Township in Kandiyohi County, Minnesota. The project area includes several businesses and farms, as well as a township hall. Meeker has provided electrical power to its members since 1935 and satellite internet service since 2005. As VIBRANT Broadband, they launched fixed wireless and fiber to the home broadband services in July 2019. VIBRANT Broadband is currently installed in over 5100 locations in rural central Minnesota.

Past Grants:

• 2023: Meeker Coop Light & Power – Lake Elizabeth-East Lake Lillian Townships – GRANT $1,428,066
• 2023: Meeker Coop Light & Power – Harrison Township – GRANT $533,959
• 2022: Federated Telephone Cooperative, $4,913,505.50

• 2016 – FRONTIER KANDIYOHI INITIATIVE – GRANT: $1,015,275
• 2015 – MVTV Wireless Middle Mile – Grant award: $808,080
• 2017, Consolidated Telecommunications Co. (CTC) was awarded a $4.94 million grant to improve serves in New London, Spicer and Willmar, and Frontier was awarded a grant of $1.02 million to improve service in rural Kandiyohi County. Unfortunately, the CTC project did not work out.

Find more articles on broadband in Kandiyohi. (http://tinyurl.com/z9wk7bm)

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)