Winona County

Table of goal data by year

Year	25/3 Mbps	100/20 Mbps
2020	#32 of 87 88.09%	#24 of 87 87.47%
2019	#41 of 87 86.58%	#24 of 87 86.43%
2018	#37 of 87 86.48%	#15 of 87 86.31%
2017	#25 of 87 92.13%	#17 of 87 81.17%

Coverage Map

Rank: 24 (out of 87) for access to 100/20 megabits per second (Mbps)

Winona County has been focused on broadband for years; they were part of the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) starting in 2010, a Blandin-led and federal (ARRA) funded broadband adoption project.

The have benefited from past grant funded projects and will benefit from a project that received MN Border to Border funding in the last round. Hopefully that will help spur an interest in greater expansion of 100/20 Mbps broadband.

What we learned in the past:

Winona County was part of the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC) starting in 2010, a Blandin-led and federal (ARRA) funded digital inclusion project. So there has been a focus on broadband for a decade.

Winona has benefited from several broadband grants:

• 2016 – WINONA COUNTY PICKWICK AREA – GRANT: $416,640
• 2015 – Hiawatha Broadband Communications – Winona County Whitewater Area – Grant Award: $247,000
• 2015 – Winona County Hiawatha Broadband Communications – Cedar Valley Area – Grant award: $314,450

Update from 2020:

Winona County is looking at options, such as wireless for broadband deployment. They have also been working on adoption; Winona Engage created a Facebook page to help the community stay connected during the COVID shut down. Within 48 hours, they have 3,000 members.

Winona County will benefit from a MN Border to Border grant project funding in the last round.

• 2019: AcenTek – Rural Houston Exchange FTTH – GRANT $2,895,318
  This last mile project will upgrade approximately 485 unserved and 424 underserved locations in areas of Houston and Winona Counties. In a funding partnership with the State of Minnesota and Houston County, AcenTek will improve broadband service levels up to 1 Gbps download and 1 Gbps upload, exceeding the 2022 and 2026 state speed goals. These investments will bring the benefits of high speed broadband to the many farms in the project area, enable employees in healthcare to work remotely, and allow students to be more successful.
• Total eligible project cost is $9,651,059
• Local match is $6,755,741

Find more articles on broadband in Winona County.