Minnesota broadband grows, but big gaps remain

Connect Minnesota, a non-profit that partners with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, said last week that over the past six months, household broadband access in the state grew from 69 percent of residents to 74.5 percent.

Or, more precisely:

“74.5% of Minnesota households can access fixed and mobile broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps download/6 Mbps upload – the minimum speed threshold for Minnesota’s goal of ubiquitous broadband availability.”

Among the remaining Minnesotans, 96% of Minnesotans have fixed broadband available at speeds of 3 Mbps download/768 Kbps upload. But these speeds don’t allow for many of the video-based features that high-speed broadband permits.

Moreover, the FCC’s Eighth Broadband Progress Report in 2012 said that some 28 percent of rural residents, and eight percent overall, lacked any sort of fixed broadband.

Speed Matters applauds Connect Minnesota’s efforts to bring broadband to all the state’s residents. But especially for rural Minnesotans, there is still a considerable distance to go.

Connect Minnesota Releases New Broadband Availability Data: Research shows progress being made toward achieving state speed goal (Connect Minnesota news release, Nov. 20, 2013)

Eighth Broadband Progress Report (FCC document, Aug. 21, 2012)