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. Here is how Pennington County stacked up:

• Household Density: 9.4
• Number of Households: 5,836
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 91.64%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 91.64%

Pennington is doing pretty well. And we have a unique look at the situation in Pennington because it was used as an example in the last Minnesota Task Force report to demonstrate the inequity in cost to a provider to connect to the Internet backbone based on location…

A provider in metropolitan Hennepin County currently pays about $.50 per Megabit to connect to the Internet backbone; the average cost of three providers in rural Pennington County is $15.33 per Megabit to connect to the Internet backbone.

Making the situation more challenging for all providers, there is a great discrepancy in the number of potential customers in Hennepin County versus Pennington County; population density in Hennepin County is 2,081.7/sq. mi and in Pennington County it is 22.6/sq. mi. Median income (2009-2013) also differs: in Hennepin County it is $64,403 and in Pennington County it’s $45,633. For these reasons and more, the business case for offering broadband in Pennington County Falls is far more challenging than in Hennepin County.

Using Pennington as the example also demonstrates that while it’s tougher to make a business case, clearly someone has. Pennington is better served that many other counties.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

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. Here is how Pine County stacked up:

• Household Density: 7.9
• Number of Households: 11,393
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 24.63%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 24.63%

Pine County is sitting at less than a quarter coverage. But they are working on better coverage. Pine County is actively working to pursue better broadband as a partner in the East Central Broadband Initiative. They were part of the East Central Broadband conference in April 2014; the conference is planned primary by community leaders and attended by community leaders, member and providers. One topic that came up was talking about broadband as a utility.

In January, MidContinent announced good news for Pine County, if they’re patient…

At the Dec. 17 city council meeting, MidContinent Communications announced that it plans to bring “gigabit internet” to the Pine City area by the end of 2017. The new service is 35 times faster than the national average and five times faster than MidContinent’s current top speeds.

Continue reading →

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. Here is how Olmsted County stacked up:

• Household Density: 87
• Number of Households: 57,080
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 57.69%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 98.10%

Clearly Olmsted County is one of those rare places where wireless access makes a big difference – a 40 percent difference! And that wireless boost is fairly new. Back in 2013, Olmsted and Winona Counties were some of the least served in the area – with less than 20 percent coverage.

Also in 2013, CenturyLink reported that they would be getting CAF funding to better serve at least portions of Olmsted County. And they have been working with Dakota County on better infrastructure. So movement is being made, they just need more of it.

And once/when they have it, Olmsted County knows what to do with technology. Despite less than stellar connectivity, Olmsted was named third top digital county (for smaller county in the US) by the Center for Digital Government’s Digital Counties and the National Association of Counties.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

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. Here is how Norman County stacked up:

• Household Density: 3.3
• Number of Households: 2,863
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 59.15%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 61.92%

Norman is a county of haves and have-nots. In 2010, the FCC listed Norman County as one of the least served counties in Minnesota. Thanks to an ARRA-funded project awarded in 2011, part of the county is now well served. So they are no longer one of the least served, but at 61 percent they are still in need.

That being said, one of my favorite stories of business use of broadband comes from Norman County: Weave Got Maile…

But then, broadband service revolutionized the way we did business. We went from hoping for $40,000 in sales to having $1 million within reach by the end of 2015, and from one part-time employee to 12 full-time employees with the intention of hiring eight more. We do business in 56 countries and are planning to build a new $500,000 facility to accommodate our growth.

Over the years, we’ve had to painfully decline business partnerships because of Ada’s broadband limitations. I was on an island in the digital world, which limited my company’s ability to keep growing.

Last year, my husband and I were heavily courted by North Dakota to relocate our business to where high-speed broadband service was guaranteed. We wanted to stay in our town, but also knew that without high-speed internet service, our company would not survive.

Not long after, our community received the attention of a local phone company recognized the need to move forward installing fiber so that our businesses and residents can prosper here.

If we had not received the commitment for higher broadband speed, we would not have achieved our dream goals.

So they clearly understand the need and they clearly have local providers who are willing to support the local economy – at least in parts of the county.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

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. Here is how Murray County stacked up:

• Household Density: 5.2
• Number of Households: 3,717
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 43.53%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 43.53%

Murray County clearly has work to do. Back in 2010, Economic Developer John Shepard made the case for supporting broadband in Murray County. (John was involved with the Southwest Regional Development Commission and their Blandin-supported MIRC Project.) His argument stands today – maybe even more so…

As agricultural producers, this project may not directly affect broadband access at your farm. However, it is intended to benefit you in two direct ways.

1. First, providing opportunities to create new jobs may help your kids, or even yourselves, stay in Rural Minnesota. More and more farm families have to have off-farm employment to survive, not to mention providing options for spouses. 2. Second, creating additional demand for broadband will help providers offer the latest and greatest telecommunications services that you do directly need—from video cattle auctions to simple social media.

When we help each other out in rural Minnesota, everybody wins.

Some efforts have been made. In 2013, Mediacom made upgrades in the area and CenturyLink signed on for CAF funding for the area. But clearly more needs to happen.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

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. Here is how Mower County stacked up:

• Household Density: 22.2
• Number of Households: 10,166
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 90.22%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 90.87

Mower County is one of those counties that looks like it’s in good shape; and it is unless you are one of the 9 percent. Austin, the county seat, is a community that been focused on broadband for a while. They made a serious bid to become a Google Fiber community back in 2010. Before that they were looking at municipal wireless hotspots.

More recently they stay focused on fiber. Last summer they released their community vision based on a fiber feasibility study they commissioned…

Vision 2020 released the results of a feasibility study Friday which showed Austin could support a fiber Internet service. According to the study, the high-speed broadband Internet service could be built for about $35 million and could be run by all kinds of organizations, from public utilities to a private co-op.

Under the Gig Austin plan, all of the Austin Public Schools district could access fiber Internet. Laura Helle, director of vision creation at Vision 2020, said the committee believed rural properties near the city that were still part of the district would need access as some providers don’t cover those areas.

They just need to find a way to broaden their view to include the whole county.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

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. Here is how Mahnomen County stacked up:

• Household Density: 3.5
• Number of Households: 2,019
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 55.4%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 55.4%

Mahnomen County is clearly at a disadvantage. They were at less that 40 percent coverage in 2011; in fact the FCC listed Mahnomen as one of the 10 least served counties at that same time. So there’s been some improvement. But not much.

CenturyLink (in 2013) expressed interest in Connect American Fund (CAF) funding in Mahnomen. CenturyLink has also supported the local schools. (It was part of a settlement of sorts.) There’s room for more attention and it will require more attention to get them to a better place with broadband coverage.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

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. Here is how McLeod County stacked up:

• Household Density: 28.9
• Number of Households: 14,639
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 98.36%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 98.66%

McLeod County is well covered for broadband. I don’t hear a lot about it. I know the Eagle Cam in Hutchinson is a big hit online. And actually Hutchinson has been pretty active with broadband from the Little Crow Telemedia Network, they were part of a recent computer donation tour from PCs for People and the local paper has been featuring broadband for years.

Whatever they’re doing, it’s working. I think their location and local providers such as NU-Telecom and MVTV Wireless help.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

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. Here is how Lyon County stacked up:

• Household Density: 14.2
• Number of Households: 10,227
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 4.14%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 4.14%

Lyon County is clearly in bad shape when it comes to broadband. Or there’s something very strange about how the numbers were collected.

When I look up addresses in the area it looks like there are a few providers: Arvig, Charter, Frontier MVTV Wireless but none of them must be serving the whole area. I know MVTV is always looking to expand; maybe that offers possibility for the community. We have seen counties with lower population density encourage providers to come into the area. But at this point I haven’t seen or heard of much development (adoption or deployment) happening in the area. Although I’d be delighted to hear that I’m wrong and there are efforts in motion.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

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. Here is how Lincoln County stacked up:

• Household Density: 4.7
• Number of Households: 2,574
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 40.90%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 40.90%

Lincoln County could use some help. The good news is that they are getting some. I wrote about the project and will just borrow from what I said then…

With 40 percent broadband coverage, Lincoln County can certainly use the support and Connect Minnesota maps indicate that Lincoln has been hovering around that mark since 2011; the definition of broadband used for the maps in 2011 was slower – but percentage-wise the county remains drastically underserved. Yet I know there has been interest in improvements. A year ago, MVTV voiced an interest in serving Lincoln County with wireless services. (I’m not sure if the plan was to include Hendricks.)Mediacom upgraded services in three communities (Ivanhoe, Lake Benton and Tyler) in Lincoln in 2013; Hendricks did not make that shortlist. It would be nice to see the OBD funded project spur expansion from Mediacom and MVTV wireless too.

And here is a description of the funded project…

Interstate Telecommunications Cooperative (ITC), Hendricks Town FTTP. Awarded $700,000 to bring the town of Hendricks in Lincoln County service that surpasses state speed goals. Underserved customers that would benefit include 377 households and farms, 57 businesses, three home-based businesses and eight community anchor institutions. The full project cost is $1.87 million; the remaining $1.17 million (63 percent) match will be provided by a private investment made by ITC.

Community and Economic Development Impact: The Hendricks Town FTTP Project will promote rural economic development by providing access to state-of-the-art broadband services to 100 percent of the households and businesses in the funded service area. It will expand the educational, economic and health care opportunities for the community. It will also address public safety concerns in the area by delivering highly desirable broadband services to community anchor institutions and wireless towers in the area. The proposed network has the ability to provide broadband data speeds of 1 Gbps or more in the future. ITC and city leaders believe that sustainable broadband adoption will transform this underserved, low- income area into a highly productive community.

Now it looks like 377 households will get service, which doesn’t entirely close the gap but with a population of 2,574 it gets them closer.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

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. Here is how Le Sueur County stacked up:

• Household Density: 22.7
• Number of Households: 10,758
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 87.86%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 98.47%

Le Sueur County is one of those where mobile access makes a difference. With mobile, they are closer to making the state goal; without it they’re more at a B grade. (Their neighbors in Blue Earth County are in a similar position.)

Local folks are aware of the situation. Last year the St Peter Herald painted a picture of rural Le Sueur…

But in places like rural Le Sueur County, high-speed Internet is still not an option for many residents.

More than 80 households located along Hwy. 169 between St. Peter and Le Sueur do not have access to broadband, data from Connect Minnesota, which is based on recent Census data, shows.

Residents between Le Sueur and Le Center and outside the limits of both cities generally lack access, as well as residents living outside Cleveland near Saviadge Lake, Goldsmith Lake and North Goldsmith Lake.

Like many other counties, the access in the county is uneven. Mankato is well served, Cleveland is not. Mankato was active in pursuing broadband a few years ago – and broadband has been noted as a tool that has supported a “rural revival” in the area. The just need to extend the revival to town outskirts.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

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. Here is how Lake County stacked up:

• Household Density: 1
• Number of Households: 1,784
• Percentage serviced (without mobile): 47.08%
• Percentage serviced (with mobile): 47.08%

Lake of the Woods sits with less than half the population served with broadband. The low population density makes it a tough business case – but the remoteness makes the broadband even more valuable to businesses and residents as opportunities for telehealth, online learning and ecommerce become available with better broadband.

Lake of the Woods has been a Blandin Broadband community; they worked on getting seniors getting, training businesses to use technology and public Wi-Fi spots.

So they’re building demand but what they really need is increased access.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →