Isanti County

Isanti County: May Be Gaining Momentum

Isanti County ranks 84 (down two) for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 54.09 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up since 2017. They have 7169 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $66.6 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.

Isanti County have been hovering at about 50 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up since 2017. They saw some increase in the last year.

Isanti County is served by one large national provider. That may be a bottleneck to better access in those areas, because a lack of competition can impact the drive for improvement.

In December 2022, Midcontinent received $1.6 million in a Border to Border grant to serve 545 unserved and underserved households and 17 unserved and underserved businesses, farms and community anchor institutions in portions of Isanti County and East Central Energy received $5 million to serve approximately 1,988 unserved and underserved households and 142 unserved and underserved businesses, 353 Unserved and underserved farms, and 3 unserved and underserved community anchor institutions in the Isanti and Kanabec Counties.

In 2023, East Central received another Border to Border grant of almost $5 million to serve 1,990 locations in Isanti County.

With two grants going to East Central Energy and more coming through Midcontinent, a momentum seems to be building for Isanti County, which wins them an upgrade to yellow ranking.