Rice County

Table of goal data by year

Year	Rank	100/20 Mbps
2022	#32 of 87	85.23%
2021	#33 of 87	85.58%
2020	#31 of 87	82.95%
2019	#28 of 87	82.47%
2018	#74 of 87	32.63%
2017	#45 of 87	48.85%

Coverage Map

Rank: 32 (out of 87) for access to 100/20 megabits per second (Mbps)

Rice County ranks 32 for broadband access and 12 for digital equity out of 87 counties. They have bee hovering between 82-83 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up since 2019. They have 3695 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $34.4 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.

Rice County had a great leap of broadband in 2019; they have been stagnant since. However, they were awarded two grants in 2021 and we haven’t seen the impact of those deployments yet, so there’s hope but not enough to pump them from yellow to green code.

Rice County will benefit from a few

Projected allocation of American Recovery Project ARP funds in Rice is $12,988,807; broadband is one possible use.

Rice County has the opportunity to invest in broadband with federal funding. That would help them reach ubiquitous broadband. They have engaged providers who might be happy to make good use of the funds. They are code yellow.

Digital Equity:

Rice County ranks 12 out of 87 for digital equity. (See full Digital Equity Profile)

Rice County ranks 5 out of 87 for computer ownership. 97.3 percent of homes have a computer of device as compared to statewide ownership of 95.5 percent.