Rank: 60
Code: Yellow
(See Blandin Foundation interactive map)

county	25/3	253 rank	100/20	10020 rank	Gig	gig rank	Providers
Mille Lacs	87.45	57	84.06	60	45.06	58	14

Mille Lacs County: More progress made

Mille Lacs County has seen good broadband expansion in the last year, they have the opportunity to get more fiber in the area with BEAD funding and continue to engage with local coop East Central Energy (ECE), subsequently they get bumped from Red to Yellow status.

At the time of writing, the MN BEAD final proposal has not been approved, but the current proposal would mean coverage for 453 locations in Mille Lacs County. The majority of locations will get fiber but the rest will received a mix of 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. (Mille Lacs has not benefitted from earlier Line Extension awards. So that may be a strategy worth considering.)

Statewide, there have been changes with local and national broadband providers, which also leads to uncertainty. In Mille Lacs, that uncertainty is mitigating with the arrival of ECE.

	2025	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017
100/20 (2026 goal)	84.06	75.76	68.72	66.71	60.1	58.9	52.77	54.42	47.07
25/3 (2022 goal)	87.45	82.23	75.01	75.42	74.46	87.15	83.86	62	47.86

 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 Anoka: 453
The locations include a majority of fiber with some satellite and fixed wireless connections.

County	Amazon Kuiper Commercial Services LLC	East Central Energy Fiber	IBT Group USA, LLC	Midco	Mille Lacs Energy Cooperative	Space Exploration Technologies Corp.	Locations         Grand Total	County
Technology Type	Low Earth Orbit Satellite	Fiber	Fixed Wireless	Fiber	Fiber	Low Earth Orbit Satellite
Mille Lacs	47	346	3	33	19	5	453	Mille Lacs

 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 Mille Laces $242,200 was invested in two programs over the years.

No New Posts from 2025

Highlights from Past Reports

• 2023 estimates indicated that it would cost $34 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, Mille Lacs ranked 81 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.
• Mille Lacs County was part of the Blandin Broadband Communities (BBC) initiative from 2012-2014.

Past Grants

• County: Mille Lacs – East Central Energy Mille Lacs North
  Grant: $3,604,567, Local Match: $5,637,915, Total Budget: $9,242,482
• County: Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs – East Central Energy Mille Lacs Central
  Grant: $3,267,902, Local Match: $5,111,333, Total Budget: $8,379,235
• County: Isanti, Mille Lacs – East Central Energy – ECE Mille Lacs South
  Grant: $4,885,809, Local Match: $8,319,081, Total Budget: $13,204,890

• 2022: Savage Communications Inc. (SCI) – Northern Mille Lacs County 2022: Broadband Expansion – GRANT $476,108
• Benton Cooperative Telephone Company – Borgholm Township Project – GRANT $1,118,289 (Learn more)

• 2016 – BENTON COOPERATIVE TELEPHONE COMPANY BOCK – GRANT: $510,000
• 2019: Benton Cooperative Telephone Company – Ramey Phase I – GRANT $936,759

• MN State Grants awarded in 2021: Savage Communications Inc. (SCI) – Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe (Onamia) Broadband Expansion – GRANT $70,261 This last mile fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) project will serve 102 unserved households within the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Reservation in Mille Lacs County.

• Benton Cooperative Telephone Company – Ramey Phase 2 Project – GRANT $338,011 This last mile project will serve 119 unserved locations in the Ramey telephone exchange located in portions of Lakin and Mount Morris townships in Morrison County and a small portion of Dailey and Page townships located in Mille Lacs County.

Find more articles on broadband in Mille Lacs County (http://tinyurl.com/h7wcdjj)

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)