Minnesota awards nearly $100M in grants to extend broadband in state - Star Tribune

Minnesota connected Thursday announced astir $100 cardinal successful broadband grants, the largest concern successful broadband successful authorities history.

The wealth volition money 61 projects and is expected to widen high-speed net connections to much than 33,000 Minnesota homes and businesses successful 48 counties.

Under stay-at-home orders during the pandemic, radical successful Minnesota relied heavy connected high-speed net to proceed work, tally their business, amended students and person telehealth services, arsenic good arsenic devour contented and link virtually with loved ones.

While nine is gradually returning to much in-person experiences, thousands of households and businesses remained challenged with inadequate entree to the internet.

Despite 92% of the authorities covered successful wireline access, authorities officials estimation betwixt 240,000 and 291,000 households successful Minnesota presently deficiency entree to high-speed broadband internet.

"For each percent we get person to afloat coverage, it gets a small spot harder due to the fact that it is pugnacious to get broadband net entree to immoderate of the much agrarian parts of our state," Steve Grove, commissioner of the state's Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), said Thursday. "There are geographical concerns, determination are commercialized concerns, the marketplace has to guarantee companies tin marque this worthy it, and that's wherever our broadband programme comes in."

Blue Earth telecommunications company, Bevcomm, for instance, received 2 grants totaling astir $2.4 million. The funds volition beryllium utilized to physique net entree for astir 600 homes successful agrarian Minnesota, Chief Executive Bill Eckles said, to assistance those residents enactment successful integer wellness services and farmers to instrumentality vantage of automation and internet-based machinery.

The grants stem from the Board-to-Boarder Program, administered by DEED's bureau of broadband development. Created successful 2014, the programme has present distributed adjacent to $230 cardinal successful grants, with $130 cardinal spent earlier Thursday's announcement.

The bulk of the state's concern — $70 cardinal — is national backing from the American Rescue Plan. Each assistance grant is capped astatine $5 cardinal per project, and whitethorn beryllium utilized to reimburse up to fractional the grantee's eligible costs.

Walz wants Minnesota to beryllium 1 of the apical 5 states successful the federation for broadband velocity for residents and businesses, and by nary aboriginal than 2026, proviso Minnesota businesses and homes with entree to astatine slightest 1 supplier of broadband with download speeds of astatine slightest 100 megabits per 2nd and upload speeds of astatine slightest 20 megabits per second.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, precocious download speeds for the mean household is thing implicit 25 megabits per second.

Stronger net is invaluable for children to turn and larn successful today's economy, and besides invaluable successful keeping Minnesota economically competitive, Grove said.

"You can't commencement a institution successful today's satellite without broadband net access, and that should beryllium imaginable successful each and each country of our state," Grove said.

The adjacent circular of backing from the assistance programme volition grant $67.6 cardinal successful assistance backing to broadband enlargement projects, officials said.