Rank: 18
Code: Green
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

county	25/3	253 rank	100/20	10020 rank	Gig	gig rank	Providers
Anoka	98.81	18	97.82	18	27.76	74	15

 Anoka County Inching closer

Anoka County has the advantage of being part of the 7-county metro area which doesn’t mean the county doesn’t have rural areas but proximity to urban areas helps build a market case to deployment.

At the time of writing, the MN BEAD final proposal has not been approved, but the current proposal would mean coverage for 1,437 locations in Anoka County. However, the majority of locations will get a satellite or fixed wireless connection, which does not qualify as served in the MN statute.

There is still Line Extension funding yet to be distributed, which helps connect handfuls of  houses just beyond existing infrastructure. (Anoka has benefitted from earlier Line Extension awards. So that seems hopeful for them as well.) There have been changes with local and national broadband providers, which also leads to uncertainty.

Anoka gets a green ranking because they are so close to goal. The population is fairly large, they just need to make sure that some locations don’t fall through the crack.

Broadband Access:

Anoka	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
100/20 (2026 goal)	97.82	97.34	98.93	96.64	97.41	97.14	97.45	97.86	96.1
25/3 (2022 goal)	98.81	98.35	99.22	97.72	98.72	98.57	98.8	98.87	97.56

Possible BEAD support

The Minnesota BEAD Final Proposal has not yet been approved so the information below is subject to change; it includes the number of locations by county specifying provider and broadband type. (Learn more.)

Locations in Anoka: 1,437
The locations include a majority of satellite and fixed wireless connections.

County	Ace Telephone Association	Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services LLC	IBT Group USA, LLC	Midco	Midco	Space Exploration Technologies Corp.	Locations         Grand Total	County
Technology Type	Fiber	Low Earth Orbit Satellite	Fixed Wireless	Cable Coax	Fiber	Low Earth Orbit Satellite
Anoka		496	717	10	194	20	1,437	Anoka

Local Government Match for State Broadband Grants:

Over the years, many local governments (County, Municipal, Tribal) have invested in broadband deployment. This year, I have tracked how much local investment has been used to match MN State Grants. Local governments invest in other ways too, but this was one number I could realistically find and quantify investment by county, which means investment in that county, whether by county, cities or other local government entity.

In Aitkin $164,795 was invested in 1 project over the years.

New Posts from 2025:

• Anoka County providers received $246,223 in the first three rounds of Line Extension awards

Highlights from Past Reports

• Anoka County received  2024 $800,000 MN Broadband grant (Round 10) award that will serve 237 locations (between Anoka and Chisago Counties.
• In Oct 2024, the County board approved up to $1.6 million in ARPA funds for the broadband.
• 2023’ estimates indicated that it would cost $43 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, Anoka County worked with Blandin Foundation as an IRBC (Iron Range Broadband Community) and they were cohorts in Blandin’s inaugural Accelerate! program.
• In the past, a roadblock for Anoka was that the county is widely served by a national provider that had not been upgrading the connections in their area.
• In 2022, Anoka ranked 14 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.
• Anoka received an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) grant in 2013, which has helped serve government facilities.

Previous Grants:

• 2024: County: Anoka, Chisago: Midco: Midco North Central
  Grant: $801,700, Local Match: $801,700, Total Budget: $1,603,400

• 2023: Comcast-Xfinity – Comcast/City of Nowthen – GRANT $2,549,413
• 2022: Tekstar Communications Inc, dba Arvig, $219,727

• 2013: The County received federal (ARRA) funding in 2013. In partnership with Zayo, the County was able to build a 287-mile broadband network for government facilities.

Find more articles on broadband in Anoka County.(http://tinyurl.com/zuvt4x7)

The maps below come from the

• Office of Broadband Development interactive map, reflecting data updated on December 16, 2025 – tracking wireline access.
• The FCC National Broadband Maps, reflecting data updated November 28, 2025 – tracking fixed wireless access.

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)