Rank: 8
Code: Green
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

county	25/3	253 rank	100/20	10020 rank	Gig	gig rank	Providers
Beltrami	99.64	8	99.6	7	99.6	4	9

 Beltrami County well served thanks to Paul Bunyan

Beltrami County ranks 7 for broadband access; up two places from last year. There are 9 broadband providers in Beltrami County. However Beltrami is hometown to Paul Bunyan Communications.

They have hovered around 99 percent access to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up since 2019. They got a little closer in the last year. They maintain their green status.

At the time of writing, the MN BEAD final proposal has not been approved, but the current proposal would mean coverage for 0 locations in Beltrami County.

There is still Line Extension funding yet to be distributed, which helps connect handfuls of  houses just beyond existing infrastructure. (Beltrami has not benefitted from earlier Line Extension awards. So that seems like a strategy worth considering to reach the last households.)

	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
100/20 (2026 goal)	99.6	98.73	98.75	98.86	99.25	99.25	98.79	96.3	96.35
25/3 (2022 goal)	99.64	99.06	98.93	98.92	99.49	99.49	99.41	99.4	99.36

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.)

Beltrami is not listed as a beneficiary of BEAD funding.

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.

Beltrami has not invested in MN State Grant matching over the years.

No New Posts from 2025:

Highlights from Past Reports

• Over the years, Beltrami County (or cities within) has not invested for matches any successful MN Broadband grants.
• Beltrami County will not benefit from a recent MN Broadband grant.
• Beltrami County will not benefit from any line extension awards.
• 2023 estimates indicated that it would cost $230,000 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, Beltrami ranked 40 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.

Past Grants:

• 2020: Paul Bunyan received a MN Border to Border grant to bring fiber to the Leach Lake Indian Reservation and the southeast Beltrami.

Find more articles on broadband in Beltrami County. (http://tinyurl.com/z5yvec6)

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)