Pope County

Table of goal data by year

Year	Rank	100/20 Mbps
2024	#3 of 87	99.75%
2023	#43 of 87	84.65%
2022	#46 of 87	79.15%
2021	#54 of 87	74.48%
2020	#52 of 87	73%
2019	#54 of 87	68.92%
2018	#78 of 87	23.67%
2017	#70 of 87	24.33%

Red dots represent unserved locations.

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

Pope County: Latest Grant Project Will Make a Difference

Pope County ranks 3 (up 40 points) for broadband access out of 87 counties. Last year they had 911 households without access to 100/20 broadband. But in December 2022, Hanson Communications received $4.3 million in Border to Border money to serve 504 underserved locations and 553 unserved locations. It seems like that deployment is going well.

Pope earns a green ranking.

• Over the years, Pope County (or cities within) has invested $1,067,199 (total) for matches for 1 successful MN Broadband grants. This is an indicator of local government that is engaged and (literally) invested in better, local broadband.
• Pope County will not benefit from a 2024 MN Broadband grant.
• Pope County will not benefit from any line extension awards
• Last years’ estimates indicated that it would cost $19.5 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, Pope ranked 46 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.