Rank: 69
Code: Red
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

county	25/3	253 rank	100/20	10020 rank	Gig	gig rank	Providers
Lake	80.11	76	80.02	69	74.71	24	10

Lake County: Seems to be going backwards

Lake County seems to be losing ground. I’m sure this is part of a map correction but it’s disheartening. It is the reason they retain their Red status.

At the time of writing, the MN BEAD final proposal has not been approved, but the current proposal would mean coverage for 1,360 locations in Lake County. However, the majority of locations will get a satellite, 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. (Lake has not benefitted from earlier Line Extension awards. So perhaps that’s a strategy worth considering.)

Statewide, there have been changes with local and national broadband providers, which also leads to uncertainty.

Broadband Access:

	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
100/20 (2026 goal)	80.02	82.54	88.56	84.15	93.32	93.39	93.4	94.3	94.32
25/3 (2022 goal)	80.11	82.61	88.59	84.2	93.34	93.85	93.86	94.3	94.32

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 Lake: 1,360
The locations include 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
Lake	1,124	204	26	6	1,360	Lake

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 0 was invested over the years. (But they did invest in a large federal grant years ago.)

New Posts from 2025:

• Fall Lake township learns about broadband needs in the area (Lake County)

Highlights from Past Reports

• Over the years, Lake County (or cities within) has not invested matches for any successful MN Broadband grants. But they received an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) award in 2010 to build Fiber to the Home (FTTH).
• 2023 estimates indicated that it would cost $7.6 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, Lake ranked 37 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.

Past Grants:

• In 2010, Lake County received an ARRA award of $66.3 million to improve broadband access in their area; about $10 million of the award was an outright grant; the rest was a low-interest loan. There were bumps along the road to getting fiber to the community but now they are well served.

Find more articles on broadband in Lake County (http://tinyurl.com/j7pu3le)

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)