Swift County has gone from 30 percent access to 100/20 in 2017 to 99 percent in 2019. They are poised to meet the speed goals for both 2022 and 2026.

Green=served Purple=underesrved Red=unserved

Swift County has benefited from two broadband grants:

• 2015 – Federated Telephone Cooperative – Swift County FTTP 2015
  Grant award: $4,950,000
  Serving 600 households, 425 businesses, and 75 community institutions in Swift County with Gig access.
• 2015 – MVTV Wireless Middle Mile
  Grant award: $808,080
  This project is a Middle Mile broadband infrastructure buildout to upgrade backhaul capacity between site locations within 20 southwestern Minnesota counties: Blue Earth, Chippewa, Cottonwood, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Lac Qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Meeker, Murray, Nicollet, Nobles, Pipestone, Rock, Redwood, Renville, Sibley Swift, Watonwan, and Yellow Medicine.

Swift County’s partnership with Federated Telephone has provided nearly ubiquitous coverage. Along with access, Swift County has been working on creating a culture of use by participating in the current  Blandin Broadband Community (BBC) cohort

Swift County could benefit from future grants. In 2019, MidState Telephone applied to upgrade service in Swift. (That doesn’t mean they will get the grant; they have only applied.)

Checklist:

• 100/20 ranking: 3 (up from 41)
• 25/3 ranking: 5
• Has worked with Blandin: yes
• Has received a MN Broadband grant: yes
• Household density: 5.6
• Number of providers: 10

Details:

• Find more articles on broadband in Swift County (http://tinyurl.com/zfptnnz)
• Districts: CD 7
  Senate: 17
  House: 17A
• Find your reps

I am doing the annual look at broadband in each county – based on maps from the Office of Broadband Development and news gathered from the last year. I’m looking at progress toward the 2022 (25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up) and 2026 (100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up) and will code each:

• Red (yikes)
• Yellow (warning)
• Green (good shape)