Rank: 9
Code: Green
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

county	25/3	253 rank	100/20	10020 rank	Gig	gig rank	Providers
Lincoln	99.48	12	99.48	9	99.41	5	11

Lincoln County – doing well

Lincoln County rank has fluctuated over the years, which likely has to do with the difference in mapping, not a change in the county. But the percentage of access is more than 99 percent.

At the time of writing, the MN BEAD final proposal has not been approved, but the current proposal would mean coverage for 1 location in Linson County and that’s for 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. (Lincoln has not benefitted from earlier Line Extension awards. So that that might be a new strategy worth considering.)

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

	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
100/20 (2026 goal)	99.48	98.08	100	99.99	99.03	40.42	39.21	39.21	40
25/3 (2022 goal)	99.48	98.08	100	99.99	99.33	60.91	59.7	53.44	54.27

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 Lincoln: 2
The location will get satellite.

County	Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services LLC	Locations         Grand Total	County
Technology Type	Low Earth Orbit Satellite
Lincoln	2	2	Lincoln

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 Lincoln 0 was invested over the years.

New Posts from 2025:

• Becker County providers received $ 2,850,601.5 in the first three rounds of Line Extension awards
• Becker County community leaders testify at the MN Legislature on the value of data centers in their community.
• More on Becker County experience recruiting data centers.

Highlights from Past Reports

• 2023 estimates indicated that it would cost nothing 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.)

• In 2022, Lincoln ranked 65 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.
• In 2021, ITC announced a fiber-optic expansion to the City of Ivanhoe in Lincoln County. Along with ITC’s investment in the fiber-optic expansion, this project is funded by the City of Ivanhoe and Lincoln County.

Past Grants:

• 2015 – MVTV Wireless Middle Mile – Grant award: $808,080
• 2014 – Interstate Telecommunications Cooperative (ITC), Hendricks Town FTTP – Award: $700,000.

Find more articles on broadband in Lincoln County (http://tinyurl.com/jxqwlab)

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)