Lake County
| Year | Rank | 100/20 Mbps |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | #29 of 87 | 88.56% |
| 2022 | #36 of 87 | 84.15% |
| 2021 | #19 of 87 | 93.32% |
| 2020 | #15 of 87 | 93.39% |
| 2019 | #14 of 87 | 93.4% |
| 2018 | #11 of 87 | 94.3% |
| 2017 | #13 of 87 | 94.32% |
Lake County: ARRA Award May Have Been Bumpy, But They Are Well Served
Lake County ranks 29 (up 7 points) for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 88.5 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and They have 819 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $7.6 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.
Lake County received an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) award in 2010 to build Fiber to the Home (FTTH). That grant came with a lot of bumps in the road, but got them to 90 percent of the very remote county has access to 100/20 Mbps broadband. It started as a public network; it’s now privately owned but many people are well served. They are one of five counties that has not yet received border to border funding.
Lake had hovered around 93 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up from 2017-2021 but it dipped to 84 percent in 2022. The dip is likely the result of increased granularity of reporting. They have bumped up a little since then.
They seem to be gaining traction; that’s a good thing but not enough proof in the traction to bump them from yellow to green ranking.
Household Density
3.1
Number of Providers
15
As of 2023 · Source: MN DEED
Households with Device Access
statewide
statewide
statewide
statewide
statewide
Has Worked with Blandin Foundation
Yes
See Blandin Foundation’s matrix of community broadband adoption projects:
https://blandinfoundation.org/content/uploads/vy/BBC_2015-16_Project_Matrix.pdf
Has Received MN Grant(s)
Yes
In 2010, Lake County received an ARRA award of $66.3 million to improve broadband access in their area; about $10 million of the award was an outright grant; the rest was a low-interest loan. There were bumps along the road to getting fiber to the community but now they are well served.