Hennepin County

Table of goal data by year

Year	Rank	100/20 Mbps
2024	#8 of 87	99.4%
2023	#9 of 87	99.11%
2022	#10 of 87	98.69%
2021	#8 of 87	98.98%
2020	#6 of 87	98.97%
2019	#4 of 87	98.94%
2018	#3 of 87	98.97%
2017	#4 of 87	98.57%

Red dots represent unserved locations.

Wired (wireline) and wireless (fixed, non-mobile) served location percentage at various speeds.

Hennepin County: Population Density Helps Attract Broadband

Hennepin County ranks 8 (up one) for broadband access out of 87 counties. Hennepin County is in the top 10 ranking and nearly at 100 percent coverage and therefore they have earned an easy green ranking.

Hennepin County benefits from being an urban/suburban county. It is easy to make a business case for serving broadband in most of Hennepin County, in fact Gateway Fiber deployed fiber in Plymouth MN  in July 2024; while Comcast expanded better broadband to Corcoran and Rogers in February 2-24.

• Over the years, Hennepin County (or cities within) has invested $296,846 (total) for matches for 2 successful MN Broadband grants. This is an indicator of local government that is engaged and (literally) invested in better, local broadband.
• Hennepin County will not benefit from a 2024 MN Broadband grant.
• Hennepin County will benefit from 23 line extension awards (Rounds 1 and 2), which extend broadband to individual locations.
• Last years’ estimates indicated that it would cost $27.7 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, Hennepin ranked 7 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.
• In December 2022, Comcast Cable got a Border to Border grant for almost $2 million. In 2023, Midco received $1.5 in funding to serve 423 households, businesses, farms and community anchor institutions in rural Independence and Greenfield.