Scott County

Table of goal data by year

Year	Rank	100/20 Mbps
2024	#25 of 87	94.61%
2023	#21 of 87	93.67%
2022	#21 of 87	92.04%
2021	#22 of 87	91.02%
2020	#19 of 87	89.43%
2019	#19 of 87	89.15%
2018	#14 of 87	88.61%
2017	#15 of 87	88.38%

Red dots represent unserved locations.

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

Scott County: Recent Grant Should Help Edge Them Closer

Scott County ranks 25 (down 4 places) for broadband access out of 87 counties. As part of the 7-county metro area, Scott County is a fairly metro county, so they have the advantage of proximity to the Twin Cities and some higher population density areas. They have had slow, incremental improvement since we have been tracking progress.

In Aug 2024, they surveyed their residents about broadband to maximize access to BEAD funding. They retain their green ranking because they are so close and continue to improve.

They retain their green ranking.

• Over the years, Scott County (or cities within) has invested $50,000 (total) for matches for 6 successful MN Broadband grants. This is an indicator of local government that is engaged and (literally) invested in better, local broadband.
• Scott County will not benefit from a 2024 MN Broadband grant.
• Scott will benefit from 5 line extension awards (Rounds 1 and 2), which extend broadband to individual locations.
• Last years’ estimates indicated that it would cost $26.8 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, Scott ranked 3using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.