Rank: 59
Code: Yellow
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

county	25/3	253 rank	100/20	10020 rank	Gig	gig rank	Providers
Brown	84.78	68	84.13	59	72.45	27	16

 Brown County: maybe some deployment will spur more

Brown County has not seen movement since last year. They did get grant funding in the area last year, perhaps that impact will be apparent soon. But not yet.

At the time of writing, the MN BEAD final proposal has not been approved, but the current proposal would mean coverage for 943 locations in Brown County. However, the majority of locations will go to fiber, which will help quite a bit.

There is still Line Extension funding yet to be distributed, which helps connect handfuls of  houses just beyond existing infrastructure. (Although, Brown has not benefited from Line Extension awards in the past.) There have been changes with local and national broadband providers, which also leads to uncertainty.

I am boosting Brown County’s status to Yellow, based on the expectation that the BEAD funding will be disbursed in the next year.

	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
100/20 (2026 goal)	84.13	84.12	78.4	79.96	75.99	74.6	74.5	73.76	72.89
25/3 (2022 goal)	84.78	87.5	83.31	84.88	84.66	83.67	83.66	96.31	95.92

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 Brown: 945
The locations include a majority of fiber connections.

County	Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services LLC	AMG Technology Investment Group, LLC d/b/a Nextlink Internet	Federated Rural Electric Association	Nuvera	Locations         Grand Total	County
Technology Type	Low Earth Orbit Satellite	Fixed Wireless	Fiber	Fiber
Brown	1	26	2	914	943	Brown

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.

Brown has not invested over the years.

New Posts from 2025:

• Mediacom Communications today announces multi-gig broadband in Blue Earth, Brown, McLeod, Meeker, Nicollet, Redwood, Renville, Rice, Scott, Waseca, Watonwan Counties and Lower Sioux Reservation

Highlights from Past Reports

• 2023 estimates indicated that it would cost $21 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, Brown ranked 34 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.

Past Grants:

• County: Brown, Cottonwood – Hanson Communications – Hanson – Comfrey FTTP
  Grant: $395,138, Local Match: $592,711, Total Budget: $987,849

• 2107 – New Ulm Telecom, Inc.– Hanska A&D FTTP – GRANT $324,894
• 2016 – New Ulm Telecom, Inc. – Hanska – GRANT: $ 200,397
• 2019: Nuvera Communications, Inc. – New Ulm SW Project – GRANT $385,600
• Minnesota Valley Telephone Company (MVTC) – Rural Franklin Fiber Project – GRANT $226,800. This middle and last mile project will serve approximately 45 unserved locations in the City of Franklin and the townships of Sherman, Eden, Camp and Birch Cooley in Redwood, Renville and Brown counties.

Find more articles on broadband in Brown County. (http://tinyurl.com/z2wwkye)

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)