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Cass County

Table of goal data by year
Year Rank 100/20 Mbps
2023 #80 of 87 56.15%
2022 #79 of 87 56.37%
2021 #71 of 87 64.02%
2020 #67 of 87 63.21%
2019 #68 of 87 51.61%
2018 #70 of 87 35.92%
2017 #61 of 87 34.07%

Cass County: A Long Way to Go

Cass County ranks 80, down one, for broadband access out of 87 counties. Their coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 is 56.15 percent. They have 10179 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $95 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.

Cass County’s rank and percentage of cover has slipped slightly this year. This is the second year that coverage for 100/20 has dipped. One concern is that they have had wide access to 25/3 for many years, which may make some people feel complacent with the access they have and then broadband dips in community priority.

In December 2022, CTC was awarded $4.9 million in a Border to Border grant to extend broadband to parts of St. Louis, Carlton, and Cass counties. So that should help. In February, Cass County voted to invest ARPA funds on a broadband grant submitted by Arvig, which didn’t get funding but still shows an interest.

Unfortunately, Cass County will retain their red ranking because they are still at the bottom of the rankings.

Household Density

9.6

Number of Providers

18

As of 2023 · Source: MN DEED

Households with Device Access

A Device 85.6% 95.5%
statewide
Desktop or Laptop 73.3% 83.2%
statewide
Smartphone 67.6% 90.1%
statewide
Tablet 50.1% 65.8%
statewide
Other 3.0% 2.3%
statewide

Has Worked with Blandin Foundation

Yes

See examples of community broadband adoption projects from Cass County and other communities participating in this 2015-2016 Blandin Broadband Communities cohort https://blandin-staging.bicycletheory.net/content/uploads/vy/BBC_2015-16_Project_Matrix.pdf

Has Received MN Grant(s)

Yes

2016 – TDS TELECOM CASS & CROW WING COUNTIES — GRANT: $3,000,000

2014 – Consolidated Telephone Cooperative, Region 5 Virtual Highway Project – Award $2 million

2019 – Paul Bunyan Communications – North Central Minnesota Fiber Project– GRANT $2,562,916

2019 – WCTA (West Central Telephone Association) – Rural Staples Phase I Project – GRANT $555,355

2020 – CTC received CARES Act funding from both Crow Wing and Cass County.

West Central Telephone Association – Rural Staples Phase 2 – GRANT $465,050 This last mile project will serve 56 unserved locations in extremely rural areas of Wadena and Cass counties.

2022 – Consolidated Telephone Company (CTC) was one of the grant recipients, receiving $4,857,030 in funding (to cover St. Louis, Carlton, and Cass counties)

Government Districts

U.S. Congress: CD 8

MN Senate: 02, 05, 06

MN House: 02B, 05A, 05B, 06A

Find Your Representatives

Overlapping MN Reservations

Leech Lake Reservation

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