Rank: 65
Code: Yellow
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

St Louis County: Gearing up for a big push?

St Louis County ranks 65 (up 3 places) for broadband access out of 87 counties. Connectivity has been stagnant but they will benefit from $7 million in MN State grants in the near future. That will help get them closer to ubiquitous broadband. Maybe after that they will rank green, for 2024, they are still yellow. Maybe t

• Over the years, St Louis County (or cities within) has invested $4,573,980 (total) for matches for 9 successful MN Broadband grants. This is an indicator of local government that is engaged and (literally) invested in better, local broadband.
• St Louis County will benefit from five 2024 MN Broadband grants:
  $3.9 million to serve 420 locations,
  $232,000 to serve 196 locations,
  $145,000 to serve 196 locations,
  $2.3 million to serve 303 locations and
  $961,000 to serve 294 locations
• St Louis County will benefit from 69 line extension awards (Rounds 1 and 2), which extend broadband to individual locations.
• Last years’ estimates indicated that it would cost $227 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, St Louis ranked 84^th using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.

2024 Grants

• County: St. Louis
  Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative NW St. Louis County GigaZone Expansion
  Grant: $3,924,157
  Local Match: $2,099,108
  Total Budget: $6,023,265
  This Low Density Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative NW St. Louis County will begin construction on the Northwest St. Louis County GigaZone Project, which will serve rural portions of northwest St. Louis County. This project will serve a total of 420 locations, including 355 unserved and 65 underserved homes, businesses, farms, and community anchor institutions. Funding partners include; St. Louis County Broadband Infrastructure- $400,000, IRRRB Broadband Infrastructure-$400,000, Alango Township-$41,200, Field Township-$17,800, Sturgeon Township-$40,000.
• County: St. Louis
  Representative Liz Olson, Senator Jen McEwen
  Mediacom LLC Lakewood South
  Grant: $232,800
  Local Match: $543,200
  Total Budget: $775,999
  The Mediacom LLC Lakewood South project will provide a Fiber to the Home (FTTH) broadband solution to unserved and underserved homes, businesses, and community anchors the southern portion of Lakewood Township in St. Louis County. This project will provide speeds of 2,000 Mbps download and 1,000 Mbps upload to 196 underserved addresses.
• County: St. Louis
  Representative Liz Olson, Senator Jen McEwen
  Mediacom LLC Lakewood Normanna
  Grant: $145,000
  Local Match: $526,325
  Total Budget: $671,325
  The Mediacom LLC Lakewood Normanna project will provide a Fiber to the Home (FTTH) broadband solution to unserved and underserved homes, businesses, and community anchors in Normanna Township in St. Louis County. This project will provide speeds of 2,000 Mbps download and 1,000 Mbps upload to 60 underserved addresses. Funding Partners and their matches are; St. Louis County with $400,000 and Normanna Township with $5,000.
• County: St. Louis
  Consolidated Telephone Company
  CTC – RD9 Clinton Twp
  Grant: $2,292,790
  Local Match: $2,292,790
  Total Budget: $4,585,580
  Consolidated Telephone Company’s (CTC) project brings fiber to portions of rural St. Louis, Crow Wing, and Morrison Counties in Minnesota. This fiber-to-the-premise project includes 303 passings. The project includes contributions from St. Louis County of $400,000 and the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) of $1,312,093.00. CTC has successfully been awarded broadband implementation grant funding from state and federal agencies and currently owns and operates approximately 4,500 miles of fiber optics while serving over 17,000 members in central and northeastern Minnesota.
• County: St. Louis
  Mediacom LLC
  Mediacom – Esquagama Lake
  Grant: $961,102
  Local Match: $961,102
  Total Budget: $1,922,204
  This broadband grant project is focused on the area of Esquagama Lake located in St. Louis County, which will provide Fiber to the Home (FTTH) broadband service with speeds up to 2,000 Mbps download and 1,000 Mbps upload to a total of 294 locations. The closest state university, University of Minnesota Duluth, is 58 miles away. This level of broadband service would allow students to complete a full degree program remotely as offered by the university. Healthcare is another major area of life that is impacted by the expansion of service in this grant project. 287 households, 3 businesses, and 4 farms will have access to high speed broadband when the project is complete.

Past Grants:

• 2023: Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Coop – Paul Bunyan Communications Rural GigaZone Fiber – GRANT $5,569,281
• 2022: Mediacom Minnesota LLC, $7,363,624.53
• 2022: Mediacom Minnesota LLC – Esko – GRANT $4,400,732
• 2022: Mediacom Minnesota LLC – Project 19 – Hibbing – GRANT $2,141,135
• 2022: Paul Bunyan Communications – Northern Minnesota GigaZone Fiber – GRANT $3,052,120
• 2022: Savage Communications Inc., $562,098.00
• 2022: Consolidated Telephone Company, $4,857,030.00 (serving St Louis and Cass)
• 2022: Mediacom Minnesota LLC – Esquagama Lake – GRANT $821,758

• 2017 – CenturyLink – Fredenberg Township FTTH Project – GRANT $1,809,312
  2017 – Paul Bunyan Communications – North Central Fiber – GRANT $802,620
• 2017 – MEDIACOM FAYAL TOWNSHIP – GRANT: $263,345
• 2014 – Mediacom, Pintar Road – Award: $137,848. Total project cost: $275,697.
• 2014 – Northeast Service Cooperative – Frontier Communications Corp., Border to Border Phase I – Award: $1.96 million.
• 2019: Paul Bunyan Communications – North Central Minnesota Fiber Project– GRANT $2,562,916

• MN State Grants awarded in 2021: Charter Communications (Spectrum) – Getchell Road – GRANT $11,400 This middle and last mile project will provide broadband service to eight unserved households in northern Duluth in St. Louis County.

• Mediacom Minnesota LLC – Field of Dreams Hermantown Project – GRANT $624,751 This last mile project will serve approximately 267 underserved households, six underserved businesses, and one underserved community anchor institution in Hermantown in St. Louis County.
• Paul Bunyan Communications – City of Cook GigaZone Fiber – GRANT $311,254 This last mile project will improve high-speed broadband for 57 unserved and 254 underserved locations in the community of Cook in St. Louis County.

Find more articles on broadband in St Louis County (http://tinyurl.com/jnm9jah)

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)