You could do worse than Minnesota for internet speeds — although not much worse.
In an annual report released last week, our state ranked a disappointing seventh-slowest in the nation. Ouch. Average download speeds here of 164.68 Mbps fall far short of the U.S. average of 214. Delaware leads the way with an admirable clip of nearly 247 Mbps.
They mention policy in DC…
“We should be able to bring high-speed internet to every family in Minnesota — regardless of their zip code,” Minnesota’s U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, among those working to address broadband in our state, said in a statement the same day as the report was released.
Klobuchar was alerting the press not about the report but about the latest piece of legislation to address the problem: the Senate’s passage of the bipartisan Rural Broadband Protection Act. If signed into law, it would require the Federal Communications Commission to do a better job of vetting internet providers to ensure they can deliver reliable broadband to underserved and rural communities. In accordance with the act, stepped-up vetting would kick in when providers apply for federal funding. Klobuchar and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, are the drivers behind the act.
And MN policy…
Closer to home in St. Paul, Minnesota lawmakers this past legislative session addressed broadband on a number of fronts. They passed the Equal Access to Broadband Act , which allows cities to franchise broadband providers, making the deployment of broadband more equitable statewide, especially in rural and underserved areas. They poured $100 million into the state’s Border-to-Border Broadband Program and Lower Population Density Program , both of which help push high-speed internet deeper into rural Minnesota. And lawmakers addressed affordability by requiring internet service providers to offer plans specifically for low-income residents.
At a hearing in February 2024 of the Minnesota Senate’s Agriculture, Broadband, and Rural Development Committee, Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, lamented how “rural communities are constantly told to wait — wait for funding, wait your turn, you don’t have the density, or you don’t have the property tax base. Whatever it is, you don’t get what the urban centers get, and you don’t get what the suburbs get.”
There’s no question he, Klobuchar, and others elected to represent the Northland are working to change that. But the time it’s taking can’t be allowed match Minnesota’s turtle-like internet speeds.