Sibley County

Table of goal data by year

Year	Rank	100/20 Mbps
2024	#80 of 87	63.23%
2023	#77 of 87	63.51%
2022	#74 of 87	65.63%
2021	#70 of 87	65.29%
2020	#68 of 87	62.86%
2019	#61 of 87	62.87%
2018	#42 of 87	62.84%
2017	#41 of 87	51.01%

Red dots represent unserved locations.

Wired (wireline) and wireless (fixed, non-mobile) served location percentage at various speeds.

Sibley County: Still Stuck at 65 Percent Coverage

Sibley County ranks 80 (down 3 points) for broadband access out of 87 counties. Sibley County has been working on better broadband for more than 10 years. They were a Blandin Broadband Community. But their connectivity has been stagnant since 2018. There hasn’t been a demonstration of recent engagement with broadband, which is why their code has gone from yellow to red.

Next Century Cities posted a snapshot of Sibley County:
Sibley County
Population: 14,955
Households without a computer: 9.8%
Households without Internet: 17.6%
Persons in Poverty: 8%

• Over the years, Sibley County (or cities within) has invested $50,000 (total) for matches for 6 successful MN Broadband grants. This is an indicator of local government that is engaged and (literally) invested in better, local broadband.
• Sibley County will not benefit from a 2024 MN Broadband grant.
• Sibley County will not benefit from any line extension awards
• Last years’ estimates indicated that it would cost $20.4 million to get ubiquitous broadband in the county. (I haven’t updated the number because recent report offers scenarios of costs based on BEAD funding rules that make current estimates less predictable than in the past. Yet, I think the number is still helpful.)
• In 2022, Sibley ranked 53 using Microsoft’s Digital Equity Tool, which looks at various factors of a community.