Pipestone County

Pipestone County: Stagnant at 80 Percent

Pipestone County ranks 35 (up 7 points) for broadband access out of 87 counties. They have 86.35 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up. They have 490 households without access to broadband at that speed. Estimates indicate that it will cost $4.5 million to get to ubiquitous broadband in the county.

Pipestone has hovered at 80 percent coverage to broadband of 100 Mbps down and 20 up since 2018. They have seen a small increase this year. Pipestone County is working with Hometown Fiber on better broadband plan.

Woodstock Telephone has applied for Border to Border funding in the latest (and open) round and should hear in early 2024 if they were successful. The Pipestone County Commission has supported the application with a match of $268,822.

They are 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 (78.99 percent coverage) and wireline with fixed wireless (98.5 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.

Pipestone seems to be building momentum, at a good time with federal (BEAD) funding coming in. But they retain their yellow ranking.