Waseca County

Table of goal data by year

Year	Rank	100/20 Mbps
2021	#51 of 87	75.02%
2020	#46 of 87	75.34%
2019	#43 of 87	75.2%
2018	#25 of 87	75.06%
2017	#3 of 87	98.75%

Coverage Map

Rank: 52 (out of 87) for access to 100/20 megabits per second (Mbps)

Waseca County has been stalled at 75 percent access for several years. The good news is that Midco has extended gig access to parts of Le Sueur, Steele, Blue Earth, Freeborn, Waseca and Dodge Counties. The difficult news is that Waseca County is centered in an area that is in line for federal funding but whose potential recipient has stirred controversy.

LTD Broadband was awarded the opportunity to submit a long form to get federal funding (RDOF) to deploy FTTH throughout much of Minnesota, including parts of Waseca County. So they are in a sticky situation where they don’t know if LTD will get the funding, they don’t know if LTD will succeed if they do and they don’t know if they will qualify for federal or start funding because of the potential RDOF award.

Waseca County will benefit from a few MN State Grants awarded in 2021:

BEVCOMM (Cannon Valley Telecom, Inc.) – Rural Morristown Fiber Expansion Project – GRANT $210,692 This last mile project will serve approximately 14 unserved and 94 underserved locations in portions of Rice, Waseca, and Steele counties.

Projected allocation of American Recovery Project ARP funds in Waseca is $3,609,683; broadband is one possible use.

Waseca County has the opportunity to invest in broadband with federal funding. That would help them reach ubiquitous broadband. They may have providers that might help make that happen. They are a yellow code community.

Past grant:

None

Find more articles on broadband in Waseca County (http://tinyurl.com/z845jwy)