Freeborn County was well served in 2014 (95 percent coverage) and they are well served today with 99 percent access to speeds of 25/3 (Mbps down/up) and 94 percent access to 100/20. Freeborn has also been very lucky/good at getting … Continue reading
For the upcoming weeks I’m working on a County-by-County look at the State of Broadband in MN. My hope is to feature a county a day (in alphabetical order). In November, Connect Minnesota released their final report on broadband availability. … Continue reading
Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on what’s happening in Albert Lea and Freeborn County. According to the Albert Lea Tribune… The Albert Lea City Council on Monday approved another step toward sharing information technology services with Freeborn … Continue reading
The FCC just released a list of counties they have deemed competitive and not- competitive. Because it’s shorter I’ll start with MN counties deemed non-competitive: 27001 MN Aitkin County 27013 MN Blue Earth County 27043 MN Faribault County 27085 MN … Continue reading
For the past few weeks I have been posting broadband profiles of each county – all 87 of them! I used data from the Office of Broadband Development, based on surveys from July 2016, tracking each counties access to broadband … Continue reading
In 2014, 38 percent of Faribault County had access to broadband. Today 81 percent of the county has access to speeds of 25/3 (Mbps down/up) but only 49 percent have access to broadband speeds of 100/20, which are the 2026 … Continue reading
A recap of news from December… Broadband Day on the Hill – March 15, 2017 Members of Minnesota Broadband Coalition are organizing Broadband Day on the Hill on March 15 to bring legislators the rural perspectives on the critical role … Continue reading
The big news is out… Lt. Governor Tina Smith, Department of Employment and Economic Development Announce $34 Million for 42 Broadband Projects Across Greater Minnesota New round of grants will expand high-speed internet access to 16,627 households, 2,240 businesses, and … Continue reading
The Office of Broadband Development received applications for funds for broadband projects. (They also received two that were seemingly just sent to the wrong address.) The projects specified their target speed goals. Here’s how that broke out: 1Gig down and … Continue reading
The Office of Broadband Development recently posted numbers on county access to broadband – based on information gathered in July 2016. They tracked access to speeds of 25 Mbps down and 3 up, which is the state goal for 2022 … Continue reading
Yesterday I attended a broadband meetings hosted by Senator Schmit in Pine Island. It was a conversation about how local communities might take advantage of the current round of Border to Border broadband grants. Presenters included Bernadine Joselyn from Blandin … Continue reading
The Albert Lea Tribune supports greater funding for broadband in Minnesota… Last year, the Legislature and governor passed $10.84 million in funding for one year. Gov. Mark Dayton and House Democrats this year have proposed $100 million for border-to-border broadband … Continue reading
Official word… Minnesota Awards $11 Million for Broadband Projects ~Lt. Governor Smith, DEED announce funding for 15 projects in Greater Minnesota~ ST. PAUL – Lt. Governor Tina Smith and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) today announced … Continue reading
Connect America Funds (CAF) Phase 2 is going to be a game changer for the broadband landscape in rural America. The quick explanation is that larger providers were offered the opportunity to accept funding to help subsidize broadband expansion to … Continue reading
As I mentioned yesterday, the newest Minnesota broadband maps are out. There are some big changes – many of the changes can be attributed to the change in definitions. Minnesota defined broadband as 10M down and 5 M up. The … Continue reading
