Rank: 49
Code: Yellow
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

Morrison County: steady progress but recent grant might help

Morrison County ranks 49 (down one place) for broadband access out of 87 counties.

Morrison County has seen steady but incremental improvement since we started tracking. They been actively engaged in seeking better broadband for several years, including as part of the Resilient Region as a Blandin Broadband Community and in 2022, Officials from Morrison County and the city of Little Falls met to talk about broadband options.

They have $5 million in MN State Grants from 2024 awards that should help them continue, or even better, accelerate their movement closer to goal but until that begins to happen, they retain their yellow rank.

• Over the years, Morrison County (or cities within) has not invested in matches for any successful MN Broadband grants.
• Morrison County will benefit from two 2024 MN Broadband grants:
  $1.3 million to serve 241 locations and
  $3.7 million.
• Morrison County will benefit from 11 line extension awards (Rounds 1 and 2), which extend broadband to individual locations.
• Last years’ estimates indicated that it would cost $24.1 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, Morrison ranked 80 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.

2024 Grants

• County: Morrison
  Benton Cooperative Telephone Company Buckman Township
  Grant: $1,248,430
  Local Match: $2,318,518
  Total Budget: $3,566,948
  The Benton Cooperative Telephone Company project will provide high-speed Broadband services to Buckman Township in Morrison County. Benton Cooperative Telephone Company currently provides high-speed Broadband to 5,850 customers of which 5,414 are served by fiber allowing them to have speeds of a minimum of 100/100 and a maximum of 1Gig/1Gig. This project will serve a total of 241 locations, including 190 unserved and 51 underserved locations.
• County: Morrison
  Upsala Coop Tel Assoc dba Sytek
  Sytek Swanville North Moose Lake
  Grant: $3,689,967
  Local Match: $1,229,989
  Total Budget: $4,919,956

Past Grants:

• 2022: Morrison County will benefit from a ReConnect grant through Upsala Cooperative.

• 2017 – Benton Cooperative Telephone Company – Rice Ramey – GRANT $765,015
• 2016 – BENTON COOPERATIVE TELEPHONE COMPANY BUCKMAN – GRANT: $276,230
• 2014 – Consolidated Telephone Cooperative, Region 5 Virtual Highway Project – Amount $2 million
• 2019: CTC (Consolidated Telephone Company) – Fort Ripley/Executive Acres Project – GRANT $830,587
• 2019: Benton Cooperative Telephone Company – Ramey Phase I – GRANT $936,759

• MN State Grants awarded in 2021: Benton Cooperative Telephone Company – Ramey Phase 2 Project – GRANT $338,011 This last mile project will serve 119 unserved locations in the Ramey telephone exchange located in portions of Lakin and Mount Morris townships in Morrison County and a small portion of Dailey and Page townships located in Mille Lacs County.

• Sytek Communications – Morrison/Todd/Stearns County FTTP Project – GRANT $1,048,668 This last mile project will bring service to 130 locations in Southwest Morrison, Southeastern Todd and Northeastern Stearns counties.

Find more articles on broadband in Morrison County (http://tinyurl.com/hxkk5ur)

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)