Rank: 73
Code: Yellow
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

county	25/3	253 rank	100/20	10020 rank	Gig	gig rank	Providers
Fillmore	82.76	72	78.93	73	53.24	53	15

Fillmore County: Moving forward at a pace

Fillmore County has seen steady progress in broadband expansion in the last couple years. The receive funding at the end of 2024, which may not have been completely realized by now.

At the time of writing, the MN BEAD final proposal has not been approved, but the current proposal would mean coverage for 765 locations in Fillmore County. Some locations will get fiber and some will get 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. (Fillmore has not benefitted from earlier Line Extension awards. So that may be a new route to consider.)

Statewide, there have been changes with local and national broadband providers, which also leads to uncertainty. But some of that change has increased provider engagement in Fillmore County, which is part of how they retain their Yellow status.

	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
100/20 (2026 goal)	78.93	73.52	74.18	64.95	56.36	53.47	50.3	44.19	44.11
25/3 (2022 goal)	82.76	78.19	79.54	79.18	92.42	61.52	57.89	45.02	59

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 Fillmore: 765
The locations include a mix of fiber as well as satellite and fixed wireless connections.

County	Ace Telephone Association	Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services LLC	IBT Group USA, LLC	MiEnergy	Space Exploration Technologies Corp.	Locations         Grand Total	County
Technology Type	Fiber	Low Earth Orbit Satellite	Fixed Wireless	Fiber	Low Earth Orbit Satellite
Fillmore	194	217	144	203	7	765	Fillmore

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 $168,000 was invested in two projects over the years.

New Posts from 2025:

• More info on MiEnergy’s ReConnect broadband funding in Fillmore and Winona counties
• MiBroadband building better broadband in Fillmore County with MN State Broadband grant
• Broadband expansion begins in Fillmore County with MiBroadband and MN Broadband grants

Highlights from Past Reports

• 2023 estimates indicated that it would cost $22.1 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, Fillmore ranked 59 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.

Past Grants:

• Ace Telephone Association Rural Canton
  Grant: $2,567,200, Local Match: $3,850,800, Total Budget: $6,418,000
• MiEnergy Cooperative South West Fremont
  Grant: $3,164,721, Local Match: $4,747,086, Total Budget: $7,911,807
• Mediacom LLC – Mediacom – Oakhill/Spring Valley
  Grant: $33,863, Local Match: $79,015, Total Budget: $112,878

• 2023: Harmony Telephone Company – North Fountain Fiber-To-The-Premises GRANT – $2,991,038
• 2023: Harmony Telephone Company – Rural Preston Fiber-To-The-Premises GRANT – $1,044,436
• 2022: Harmony Telephone Company, $1,129,740.00

• 2017 – Rushford Village/Rural Rushford Fiber Build – Grant $2,011,628
• 2017 – Mediacom Minnesota LLC – Fountain 2018 Broadband Build – GRANT $202,125
• 2016 – ACENTEK RURAL LANESBORO FIBER BUILD – GRANT: $1,777,936
• (2020), Harmony Telephone received a USDA ReConnect award to better serve Fillmore County. They received a $2.7 million ReConnect Program loan and a $2.7 million ReConnect Program grant.
• AcenTek – Rural Peterson Exchange FTTH – GRANT $1,492,096 This last mile project will serve 214 unserved households, 18 unserved businesses, 88 unserved farms, and two unserved community anchor institutions as well as 47 underserved households and five underserved businesses in areas of Fillmore and Winona counties. In a funding partnership with the State of Minnesota and Fillmore County EDA, AcenTek will improve these 374 locations’ broadband levels up to 1 Gbps download and 100 Mbps upload.
• MiBroadband, LLC – Rural Preston FTTP – GRANT $1,173,330 The Rural Preston fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) project will serve 231 unserved and 26 underserved locations in the rural portions of southern Fillmore County.

Find more articles on broadband in Fillmore County. (http://tinyurl.com/hxe6jal)

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)