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

county	25/3	253 rank	100/20	10020 rank	Gig	gig rank	Providers
Becker	91.61	44	84.4	57	33.18	65	10

Becker County: starting to stall?

It looks like Becker’s map corrected in the last year, after a slight drop in 2024, which may have been due to mapping changes or irregularities.

At the time of writing, the MN BEAD final proposal has not been approved, but the current proposal would mean coverage for 1,443 locations in Becker County. The strong majority of locations will get fiber from Midco; although a few will get a satellite, 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. (Becker has benefited 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.

Assuming that BEAD funding will be disbursed in 2026, I’m going to upgrade Becker to Green status based on the 1000+ locations that should be getting connected to fiber based on BEAD funding.

	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
100/20 (2026 goal)	84.4	82.62	84.75	78.45	73.42	73.41	6.22	12.95	6.58
25/3 (2022 goal)	91.61	89.92	93.96	92	92.53	78.99	91.36	88.94	69.41

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 Becker: 1,443
The locations include a majority fiber!

County	Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services LLC	Midco	Space Exploration Technologies Corp.	Tekstar Communications, Inc. (Arvig)	Locations         Grand Total	County
Technology Type	Low Earth Orbit Satellite	Fiber	Low Earth Orbit Satellite	Fiber
Becker	188	1,043	5	107	1,343	Becker

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.

Becker has not invested local government funds in the past.

New Posts from 2025:

• Becker County providers received $ 2,850,601.5 in the first three rounds of Line Extension awards
• Becker County community leaders testify at the MN Legislature on the value of data centers in their community.
• More on Becker County experience recruiting data centers.

Highlights from Past Reports

• Becker County benefitted from 89 line extension awards (Rounds 1 and 2), which extend broadband to individual locations. This is a high number of awards. (Arvig was awarded 69 of the awards.)
• 2023 estimates indicated that it would cost $27.5 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, Becker ranked 38 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.

Past Grants

• 2016 – PAUL BUNYAN COMMUNICATIONS HUBBARD, BECKER & ITASCA COUNTIES – GRANT: $1,742,232
• Arvig (Loretel Systems, Inc.) – Cormorant Lakes Area Project – GRANT $430,780

Find more articles on broadband in Becker County. (http://tinyurl.com/jkah37b)

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)