Rank: 20
Code:  Green
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

county	25/3	253 rank	100/20	10020 rank	Gig	gig rank	Providers
Dakota	97.69	26	97.39	20	53.24	52	18

 Dakota County: always getting closer

Dakota County has been hovering around 97-98 percentage coverage for several years. While the Dakota County broadband board was dissolved in January 2024, staff continue to work on broadband use and deployment.

At the time of writing, the MN BEAD final proposal has not been approved, but the current proposal would mean coverage for 928 locations in Dakota County. While some locations will get fiber, 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. (Dakota has benefitted from earlier Line Extension awards. So that seems hopeful for them as well.) Statewide, there have been changes with local and national broadband providers, which also leads to uncertainty.

Dakota County has been close to getting to the MN state broadband goal for years but because they are so close, they retain their Green status.

	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
100/20 (2026 goal)	97.39	97.54	97.17	96.82	97.75	97.42	97.56	64.89	64.18
25/3 (2022 goal)	97.69	97.89	97.48	97.37	97.98	98.31	98.46	97.54	98.47

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 Dakota: 928
The locations include some fiber a majority of satellite and fixed wireless connections.

County	Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services LLC	IBT Group USA, LLC	Mediacom LLC	Space Exploration Technologies Corp.	Locations         Grand Total	County
Technology Type	Low Earth Orbit Satellite	Fixed Wireless	Fiber	Low Earth Orbit Satellite
Dakota	456	315	131	26	928	Dakota

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 Dakota County $106,538 was invested in two projects over the years.

New Posts from 2025:

• Dakota County providers received $283,639.80 in the first three rounds of Line Extension awards
• Getting creative in Dakota County’s iLABs
• OPPORTUNITY: Dakota County Fiber Optic Network RFQ due Feb 14, 2025
• How do Data Centers Impact Dakota County? a Forum held in Farmington MN on August 20, 2025
• Farmington residents have concerns about proposed data center (Dakota County)
• HBC Expands Flight Fiber Part of an $8M investment in Farmington (Dakota County)

Highlights from Past Reports

• Last years’ estimates indicated that it would cost $33.8 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, Dakota ranked 1 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.

Past Grants:

• 2022: JTN Communications, $113,076.00
• 2022: Spectrum Mid-America, LLC managed by Charter Communications Inc., $98,750.00

• 2020: Charter Communications – Rosemount North Project – GRANT $499,072
• 2020: Dakota County approved $800,000 in CARES Act funding for broadband.
• Nuvera Communications, Inc. – Webster Rural FTTP – GRANT $431,260 This last mile project will serve 103 unserved and 178 underserved locations in Wheatland and Webster townships in Rice County, Eureka and Greenvale townships in Dakota County, and New Market and Cedar Lake townships in Scott County.

Find more articles on broadband in Dakota County. (http://tinyurl.com/hxslue9)

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)