Rank: 44
Code:  Yellow
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

Mower County incremental improvement

Mower County ranks 44 (up two places) for broadband access out of 87 counties.

Mower County has had steady, incremental growth for a few years. They ran into a road block when LTD Broadband was awarded federal funding and then funding was revoked. They lost the funding but also lost time when they were unable to apply for grants because of LTD Broadband’s award.

Mower County has demonstrated an interest in engaging and investing in broadband so they maintain their yellow code. Also they have more than $3 million in grant funds coming in from MN broadband grants to help them get to green next year.

• Over the years, Mower County (or cities within) has not invested in matches for any successful MN Broadband grants. (But they recently (Nov 2024) approved an investment of $100,00 Spectrum’s broadband deployment in Austin.)
• Mower County will benefit from two 2024 MN Broadband grant award:
  $3.1 million that will serve 225locations and
  $414,699 that will serve 148 locations.
• Mower County will not benefit from a line extension award.
• Last years’ estimates indicated that it would cost $22.8 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, Mower ranked 51 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.

Broadband Access:

2024 Grants

• County: Mower
  Arvig
  Arvig – Mower Cty
  Grant: $3,129,412
  Local Match: $1,043,137
  Total Budget: $4,172,549
  Arvig has been providing competitive broadband services to Minnesota communities since 1998. This Border-to-Border project would improve services in portions of Rose Creek, Elkton, and Adams in rural Mower County. The project would bring broadband to 225 structures via an all fiber-to-the-home network. 164 of those structures are residential locations that are unserved. All these locations would be able to receive up to 10 Gbps download speeds and 1 Gbps upload. The total project cost would bring fiber-to-the-premises to all 225 structures. Mower County is contributing $584,156.92 towards the project.
• County: Mower
  Spectrum Mid-America, LLC
  Spectrum-Mower County
  Grant: $414,699
  Local Match: $614,698
  Total Budget: $1,029,397
  Charter will construct a last-mile fiber-to-the-premises (“FTTP”) network to provide service to unserved and underserved households in Mower County, primarily Austin Township. The project will serve an estimated 148 unserved and underserved locations, including seven (7) businesses, 19 farms, a town hall, a nature center, and a senior living facility. Mower County is contributing $100,000 to the project.

Past Grants:

• MN State Grant awarded in 2021: KMTelecom – Rock Dell Southwest Fiber Build – GRANT $404,709 This last mile project will serve approximately 96 unserved households, 70 farms and five unserved businesses in rural Vernon Township in Dodge County and Sargeant Township in Mower County.

Find more articles on broadband in Mower County (http://tinyurl.com/j9sr5gf)

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)