Rank: 84
Code:  Red
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

county	25/3	253 rank	100/20	10020 rank	Gig	gig rank	Providers
Cass	89.67	48	70.59	84	43.51	59	15

Cass County: back to bottom 10 ranking

After some increase in coverage last year, Cass County stays stagnant in 2025.

At the time of writing, the MN BEAD final proposal has not been approved, but the current proposal would mean coverage for 91 locations in Cass County. Some locations will get fiber and some locations will get a satellite or fixed wireless connection, which does not qualify as served in the MN statute. But the notable fact is that they will only get help for 91 locations.

There is still Line Extension funding yet to be distributed, which helps connect handfuls of  houses just beyond existing infrastructure. (Cass has benefitted from earlier Line Extension awards. So that seems hopeful except that Line Extension is meant for last mile and Cass doesn’t have a lot of infrastructure to extend..) There have been changes with local and national broadband providers, which also leads to uncertainty.

Unfortunately, Cass if going to retain their Red status. I just don’t see anything in their current or proposed future that would indicate the needed increase in broadband to meet state goals.

	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
100/20 (2026 goal)	70.59	69.15	56.15	56.37	64.02	63.21	51.61	35.92	34.07
25/3 (2022 goal)	89.67	89.15	91.79	96.44	94.02	84.53	88.02	77.58	66.92

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 Cass: 91
The locations include a majority of satellite and fixed wireless connections. But what’s really telling is that only 91 locations have bids in an area that’s so unserved.

County	Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services LLC	CTC	Space Exploration Technologies Corp.	Locations         Grand Total	County
Technology Type	Low Earth Orbit Satellite	Fiber	Low Earth Orbit Satellite
Cass	46	42	3	91	Cass

 

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 $125,000 was invested on one project over the years.

New Posts from 2025:

• Cass County providers received $97,994 in the first three rounds of Line Extension awards
• New partnership, Tri-Co, focused on deploying broadband to Cass and Crown Wing Counties

Highlights from Past Reports

• 2023 estimates indicated that it would cost $95 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, Cass ranked 68 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.

• One concern over the years is that they have had decent access to 25/3 for many years, which may make some people feel complacent with the access they have and then broadband dips in community priority.

Past Grants:

• 2-22: Consolidated Telephone Company (CTC) was one of the grant recipients, receiving $4,857,030 in funding (to cover St. Louis, Carlton, and Cass counties)

• 2016 – TDS TELECOM CASS & CROW WING COUNTIES — GRANT: $3,000,000
• 2014 – Consolidated Telephone Cooperative, Region 5 Virtual Highway Project – Award $2 million
• 2020: CTC received CARES Act funding from both Crow Wing and Cass County.
• 2019: Paul Bunyan Communications – North Central Minnesota Fiber Project– GRANT $2,562,916
• 2019: WCTA (West Central Telephone Association) – Rural Staples Phase I Project – GRANT $555,355
• West Central Telephone Association – Rural Staples Phase 2 – GRANT $465,050 This last mile project will serve 56 unserved locations in extremely rural areas of Wadena and Cass counties.

Find more articles on broadband in Cass County. (http://tinyurl.com/hgtulgm)

The maps below on the left comes from the Office of Broadband Development interactive map, reflecting data updated on December 16, 2024. Red dots represent locations unserved locations. Above I have tracked wireline access because that is the Minnesota definition of broadband. The info below includes wired and wireless. BEAD includes fixed wireless connections as served locations. (I wrote more on the distinction between the two last year, which may be if interest in the numbers range greatly for your county.)

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)