Chisago County

Chisago County: Resilience With a Plan

Chisago County ranks 60 for broadband access out of 87 counties. Chisago County has 76.81 percent coverage of broadband of 100 Mbps down. They have 4878 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $45.3 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.

Like several other counties, Chisago County has areas where there is one national provider (or another). Often national providers are not as engaged in rural areas as providers with roots in the community. Chicago has found creative ways to get around that in several towns in the county.

Few counties are as engaged as Chisago is with promoting better broadband; last year a report from the Institute for Local Self Reliance pointed out, they have a plan to apply for State funding one community at a time until they’re covered. With a plan like that, they get a green code, despite their numbers!

In December 2022, Qwest got almost $500,000 to deploy the fiber to 119 unserved and 66 underserved locations in Harris Minnesota.

Chisago County is getting a yellow ranking because they have been stagnant but I suspect their years of engagement will help prepare them to take advantage of incoming federal (BEAD) funding.