Watonwan County

Watonwan County: Hovering Around 70 Percent

Watonwan County ranks 73 for broadband access and out of 87 counties. They have 70.03 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 1336 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $12.4 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.

Watonwan County has been hovering around 70 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up since we began tracking. I don’t see any grants in the hopper or yet to be spent that could help them. They retain their red ranking.

Also they may also concerned about being in a potentially precarious position because looking at access in the County using the FCC National Map there is a big discrepancy between wireline access (68.15 percent coverage) and wireline with fixed wireless (99.74 percent). Minnesota doesn’t currently take fixed wireless into consideration when defining areas eligible for grants; the federal government does include access to fixed wireless. That could make a big difference to who is eligible for BEAD funding.