Connect Minnesota Releases Latest Broadband Availability Figures

New research unveiled by Connect Minnesota shows that the broadband availability gap in Minnesota is diminishing, with 86.81% of Minnesota residents now having access to fixed broadband speeds of 6 Mbps download/1.5 Mbps upload, compared to 85.09% last April. In addition, 61.57% of Minnesota households can access 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 findings of the new broadband availability research are:

• 86.81% of Minnesota households can access fixed broadband at advertised speeds of 6 Mbps download/1.5 Mbps upload, meaning that 275,000 households are in areas that may be eligible for Connect America Fund broadband deployment subsidies (excludes mobile and satellite services)
• 61.57% of Minnesota households can access fixed broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps download/6 Mbps upload – the minimum speed threshold for Minnesota’s goal of ubiquitous broadband availability* (mobile and satellite services do not meet the speed criteria)
• 81.97% of Minnesota households can access broadband at speeds of at least 10 Mbps download/3 Mbps upload, indicating that upload speeds are significantly reducing the availability percentage toward the minimum speed threshold for Minnesota’s goal of ubiquitous broadband availability* (excludes mobile and satellite services)
• 95.34% of rural households in Minnesota have access to broadband at 768 Kbps download/200 Kbps upload (excludes mobile and satellite services)
• Broadband at the basic 768 Kbps download/200 Kbps upload tier is available to 97.99% of Minnesota households, up from 97.77% last May (excludes mobile and satellite services)
• 89.31% of Minnesota households have the ability to choose broadband service from two or more broadband providers (excludes mobile and satellite services)