The Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation reports their budget for 2027; it includes funding for infrastructure, which includes broadband.
Fiscal Year 2027 Budget
The FY27 IRRR budget was approved. The $77 million investment strategy exemplifies IRRR’s unwavering commitment to fostering a more prosperous living and working environment in the Taconite Assistance Area. Strategic priorities and funding include:
Improve conditions for economic growth with $31 million of resources in community and workforce development. Funds include a $6 million program to promote the preservation, rehabilitation and investment in regional housing stock and neighborhoods with a focus on construction of new homes and/or apartment buildings.
Support public works infrastructure, broadband and business and industry with spending of $19 million. Infrastructure funding assists communities in modernizing, redeveloping and replacing foundational assets in order to attract business investments and expansion.
Invest funds in natural and recreational assets, Giants Ridge and regional trails to generate diversification and economic impact while contributing to the quality of life in the region.
Produce a fiscally sound spending plan that includes reserve funds for unforeseen future needs.
As reported by Telecompetitor, Bolton said, there are now over 1,500 active fiber providers operating nationally, with 42 new market entrants and 715 providers that doubled their footprints in just the past six months.
Meanwhile, he said, independent ISPs, electric cooperatives, and municipal networks together accounted for about 40 percent of all fiber deployment in 2025 – “a sign that the buildout is increasingly being driven by community-rooted operators, not just national giants.”
But the conference’s panel sessions made it clear that translating increased fiber demand into deploying networks is getting harder and more expensive, with one panelist describing it like going “from a sprint into a marathon.”
During a Broadband Breakfast Live event at the conference, Josh Summit, director of outside plant engineering and construction at Glo Fiber/Shentel, said that there has been a roughly 300 percent increase in pole make-ready costs over the past five years and that rural fiber deployments that once cost between $20,000 and $25,000 per mile are as expensive as $100,000 per mile, which he attributed to stricter pole loading requirements and “preexisting noncompliance being charged to new attachers.”
The conference also highlighted the mounting opposition and tensions related to the construction of AI hyperscale data centers, which panelists said are increasingly following cheap rural electricity away from traditional hubs like Loudoun County, Virginia while running into local opposition in communities across the country, as some states consider data center moratoriums.
Still, despite the challenges, there was an air of optimism from conference organizers, as the FBA said it is seeing record membership growth – up 16 percent year-over-year, with more than 8,000 broadband professionals now represented.
Applications are being accepted from May 13, 2026, until June 29, 2026, at 11:59 a.m. EST.
What does this program do?
The Community Connect Program provides financial assistance to eligible applicants that will provide broadband service in rural, economically-challenged communities where service does not exist.
Who may apply?
Eligible applicants include:
Incorporated organizations
Federally-recognized Tribes
State and local units of government
Any other legal entity, including cooperatives, private corporations, or limited liability companies organized on a for-profit or not-for-profit basis
Rural areas that lack any existing broadband speed of at least 10Mbps downstream and 1Mbps upstream are eligible.
The Application Guide provides guidance on rural areas currently eligible for Community Connect Grants.
The Rural Utilities Service publishes all Community Connect Proposed Funded Service Areas (PFSAs) through its Public Notice Filing (PNF) process. Incumbent service providers may challenge the eligibility of a PFSA by filing a Public Notice Response (PNR). More information on the PNF/PNR process can be found by visiting the Rural Development Public Notice Filings Portal User Guide. For a demonstration on how to search for PNFs, submit a PNR, subscribe to PNF notifications, and more, watch the PNF Demonstration of the Public Filing Tool video. Those interested in receiving email notifications whenever a new application has been submitted and the PNF has been published can do so by signing up for our Public Notice Filing Subscription Service.
How may the funds be used?
The construction, acquisition, or leasing of facilities, spectrum, land or buildings used to deploy broadband service for:
All residential and business customers located within the Proposed Funded Service Area (PFSA)
All participating critical community facilities (such as public schools, fire stations, and public libraries)
The cost of providing broadband service free of charge to the critical community facilities for 2 years.
Less than 10% of the grant amount or up to $150,000 may be used for the improvement, expansion, construction or acquisition of a community center that provides online access to the public.
Are there other grant requirements?
Buildings constructed with grant funds must be located on property owned by the awardee
Leasing expenses will only be covered through the advance of funds period included in the award documents
Grantees must have legal authority to provide, construct, operate and maintain the proposed facilities or services
Partnerships with other federal, state, local, private and non-profit entities are encouraged
Matching funds of at least 15% from non-federal sources are required and can be used for operating costs
The Community Connect program helps rural communities extend access where broadband service is least likely to be commercially available, but where it can make a tremendous difference in the quality of life for people and businesses. The projects funded by these grants help rural residents tap into the enormous potential of the Internet for jobs, education, healthcare, public safety, and community development.
Broadband deployment is accelerating across the country, but progress isn’t uniform, and the real impact is just beginning to take shape. This session brings together companies tracking, mapping, and analyzing network buildout to examine where networks are being built, where gaps remain, and how deployment patterns are evolving as funding flows into the market. What can we learn from the latest deployment trends? And what do early outcomes suggest about the next phase of broadband expansion?
Panelists
Bryan Darr, Vice President, Government Affairs, Ookla
Paroma Sanyal, Principal, Brattle Group
Karen White, Vice President, National Broadband Practice Michael Baker International
Alexei Monsarrat, Director of Broadband Projects, Vermont Community Broadband Board
Brian Allenby, Director of State Solutions, CostQuest Associates
Drew Clark (moderator), CEO and Publisher, Broadband Breakfast
Paul Bunyan Communications started on its broadband expansion across Central Aitkin County in late April and the project is progressing as planned so far. The project area includes the cities of McGregor, Palisade, and Tamarack, as well as portions of Clark, Haugen, Jevne, Libby, Logan, McGregor, Shamrock, and Workman Townships. Once completed over 2,400 homes & businesses will have access to the all-fiber optic network and the services it provides.
Currently crews are working in the city of Palisade, areas east of Palisade/north of McGregor, and construction recently started within the city of McGregor. JCSinc, a business member of our cooperative out of Shevlin, MN is the contractor doing the construction. Their vehicles are marked and there will also be magnets on some with the Paul Bunyan Communications logo to help identify the project.
The first stage of the construction process is installing the main fiber network which is followed by installing the connections up to individual homes and businesses that have signed up to be connected. Once those two stages are completed, our clean up/restoration crews will come through, and our team will work to splice the fiber network. Once it is operational in a project area, customers who signed up for service will be contacted to schedule service installations. A video on how the construction process works is located on the Paul Bunyan Communications YouTube channel at:
For those unfamiliar with Paul Bunyan Communications, we are a member-owned broadband cooperative that has served northern Minnesota since 1952. There are no membership fees or annual dues, membership is gained when a resident or business subscribes to local phone service or GigaZone® Broadband Internet service. The cooperative headquarters is in Bemidji with a Customer Service & Technology Center located in Grand Rapids.
Sign Up Now to Ensure Fiber Optic Connection Residents and businesses in these expansion areas are encouraged to sign up for service now, before construction crews move on to ensure the fiber optic connection is brought up to the location. That can be done quickly and easily online at paulbunyan.net or in person at one of our office locations.
Services Available Upon Completion Once the network is live, customers will have access to Paul Bunyan’s GigaZone® services, including high-speed fiber-optic Internet with speeds up to 10 Gig and dependable, low-cost unlimited local and long-distance GigaZone® voice services.
Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) introduced legislation to increase access to high-speed internet on federal land. The CLOSE THE GAP Act will streamline the permitting process for broadband and telecommunications infrastructure on federal land to expand access to high-speed internet in rural areas. The bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.).
More information…
Background:
In order to streamline the permitting process for broadband infrastructure, the CLOSE THE GAP Act requires federal land management agencies to issue new regulations that would streamline the process for broadband applications on federal land. The bill also promotes online application tracking for broadband infrastructure projects through the existing Permitting Dashboard established under the FAST Act.
The bill also accelerates broadband deployment by expanding categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and limiting additional environmental and historic preservation reviews for certain broadband projects on federal land. The exclusion criteria would apply to:
Projects involving existing public safety communications facilities on federal land
Projects located on previously analyzed federal land
Federal land with existing authorized utilities, powerline facilities, or roads
The bill would establish online portals for submission of Standard Form-299 applications. It would also establish a special account at Treasury for each land management agency to deposit cost recovery fees for their own use related specifically to broadband deployment. Lastly, the bill would establish a working group between each federal land management agency to periodically meet to coordinate and expedite the review of applications.
Everyone in business these days seems to be searching for a tale from history to meaningfully describe the growing importance of AI. I personally think it will transform the way people work with their digital devices and information. But we’re at a very confusing time in its development.
So the tale in history I’m going to invoke comes from the late 1990s and early 2000s: the time when the internet was in its hockey-stick period of fast adoption.
The buildout of the commercial internet had enormous effects on company valuations, but also on the nation’s physical environment, just as AI now does. Many people have forgotten how much the nation was ripped up to build what was initially called an “information superhighway” but eventually became known as the broadband network.
In July 2001, the longtime tech writer of the Star Tribune, Steve Alexander, wrote, “The information superhighway is getting wider in the Twin Cities.” He then described plans to lay fiber-optic lines along Interstate 94 and Interstate 35E in St. Paul — at a cost of around $10 million.
How quaint that seems when set against the multibillion-dollar expense of a single data center in 2026.
And talks about what he sees today…
Today, I’m very reluctant to say AI is being overhyped or overbuilt. And I wouldn’t even try to predict the effect AI will have on jobs and the environment.
AI may very well turn out to be overinvested in, however. The entire case for massive data centers may be overturned by an advance in software programming or by the decentralization of processing power as chip technology advances. AI companies’ debt loads may become too much to bear, even if the companies turn fabulously profitable. I remember stories about broadband buildouts appeared not long before a big crash in internet-related stocks.
The commercial internet did justify its investment, despite the bursting of an initial bubble that wiped out billions in shareholder value.
At the moment, however, the numbers on AI investments are jaw-dropping, even if you’ve got the mouth of a hippo.
Regular readers will recognize the story that the Minnesota Star Tribune tells of grant funds lost because of light scrutiny on applicants for federal funding. Broadband advocates are hoping that a new law will help protect loss in the future…
So some locals were optimistic when, in 2020, LTD Broadband, a company with Minnesota ties, received more than a billion dollars in federal funding to provide broadband to rural areas like Le Sueur County. Because of the provisional grant, the county found itself shut out of state funding for its own programs because of possible overlap with LTD territories — even though officials in Le Sueur worried the company’s efforts would fail.
LTD’s plans fell apart in 2022 after state and federal regulators revoked key licenses and canceled grants after determining the company couldn’t fulfill its promises.
The result has been missed opportunities for the county, said Barbara Droher Kline, a financial planner and rural broadband consultant for Le Sueur County. She and other broadband advocates said they hope a new federal law will force the U.S. government to do a better job vetting broadband internet providers and their promises.
The Rural Broadband Protection Act, introduced by U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, directs the Federal Communications Commission to provide more thorough scrutiny.
“The new FCC vetting process will confirm that providers have the ability — financially, technically and operationally — to follow through with their commitments,” Klobuchar said in a statement to the Minnesota Star Tribune. “This will prevent situations where companies that win federal funding to deploy rural broadband cannot actually deliver service.”
Advocates say the impetus for the law came from the fallout with LTD. The company, which rebranded in 2023 and is now known as GigFire, did not respond to requests for comment.
Today, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (NC-04) introduced the State and Local Public Sector Innovation Act, which would establish a federal grant program through the U.S. Department of Commerce to modernize the technology infrastructure utilized by state and local governments to improve security and efficacy of public services.
“Modernizing public institutions and utilizing technology to improve the administration of public services is a necessity in today’s growing digital age. While technology continues to advance at a rapid rate, state and local governments are too often left behind without the proper infrastructure and training to keep up,” said Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (NC-04). “Many jurisdictions hoping to make these improvements simply lack the funding required to properly implement technological advances that will help improve public services. I’m proud to introduce the State and Local Public Sector Innovation Act to ensure our federal government is providing proper support to state and local governments seeking to modernize their technology infrastructure.”
“These proposed investments would protect critical infrastructure and individual privacy, optimize state resources, and ensure local governments can provide a meaningful digital experience,” said N.C. Department of Information Technology Secretary and State Chief Information Officer Nate Denny.
Specifically, the State and Local Public Sector Innovation Act would:
Establish a grant program which would provide state and local government’s technology departments to modernize technology utilized by government entities.
Grant funds can be utilized to purchase or upgrade existing technology and related infrastructure to upgrade cybersecurity systems, hire staff, update permitting processes to facilitate further modernization, and train staff to support technology modernization.
70% of grant funds provided to a state are required to be dispersed to local governments under the state jurisdictions.
The Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce will allocate a portion of funding for regulatory enforcement.
The State and Local Public Sector Innovation Act is endorsed by the National Association of Counties.
The full bill text of the State and Local Public Sector Innovation Act is available here.
Arvig has announced the promotion of Ben Wiechman to Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Wiechman, who previously served as the Director of Network Strategy and Engineering, will now provide overall leadership for Arvig’s technology strategy—ensuring that its broadband network, systems, and technology investments are secure, reliable, and scalable for the future.
Prior to his appointment as CTO, Wiechman led Arvig’s network engineering and service delivery teams.
I used to write a lot more about “seniors getting seniors online” and other tools to maximize use of broadband. So when I saw this project happening near my neighborhood in St Paul I had to share. I can see the application in every neighborhood or small town as a way to bring seniors (or in this case, sophomores) and seniors together and maybe create a unique tourism tool.
“Do you know you can go on your phone and there’s this game where you can see the old Rondo and the new Rondo?”
It’s called the “Rondo-verse” – a video game aiming to give a sense not only of historic Rondo, but also its present-day vibrancy.
As co-creator Benny Roberts said, “It’s important for me that the community that I come from and was raised in isn’t defined by the thing that happened to it.”
The project is a collaboration between Jolie Davis, a sophomore biology major at Macalester College and Roberts, the executive director of Rondo’s Hallie Q. Brown Community Center.
Using funding from the center’s historical archive program, Roberts was able to hire Davis for 10 weeks and figure out how to showcase Rondo in a unique way.
Davis suggested using Roblox – a platform where users can create their own video games and experiences. Roberts initially pitched The Sims, but acknowledged that Roblox was the right call given its wild popularity with kids and teenagers.
“The Sims feels like my generation,” he said, laughing.
To help create a vision of Rondo’s history, they worked with a group of about 15 community elders – people who knew what it was like to live, work and grow up in Rondo first hand.
The MN Broadband Task Force heard from Godfrey Enjady (President, National Tribal Telecommunications Association) on the Connect New Mexico Broadband Tribal Working Group and overview of leadership on the National Tribal Telecommunications Association 2026 NTTA Broadband Midwest Regional Summit and from Anis Khemakhem (Chief Commercial Officer, Clearfield Inc.) on workforce development and BABA compliance and its practical implications on broadband deployment.
Data centers (including micro-scale data centers) and AI were hot topics in both presentations.
Here’s the agenda with questions and high level notes:
10:00 a.m. – 10:05 a.m. Welcome from Teddy Bekele, Chair, Minnesota Governor’s Task Force on Broadband and approval of minutes from February and April Task Force meetings.
10:05 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. Open the floor for Task Force member share-out from the April 29 in-person meeting: did any topics come up in discussion that should be considered for the annual report; are there any speakers that would be helpful to hear from at future Task Force meetings?
People like line extension
10:15 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Presentation from Godfrey Enjady (President, National Tribal Telecommunications Association) on the Connect New Mexico Broadband Tribal Working Group and overview of leadership on the National Tribal Telecommunications Association 2026 NTTA Broadband Midwest Regional Summit.
Looking at AI for language preservation
Q: There’s a New Mexico Task Force – is there also an Office of Broadband Development?
Yes, there are two. OBAE and another
You are working on microdata centers. Can you tell us more?
The hyper-scalers are getting all of the attention and not good attention. So we’re working on how we can provide services to the tribes. We’re looking at private networks.
DEED person says – nice hear to hear about using spiritual ways to answer community questions.
We like to use stories.
10:45 a.m. – 11:15 a.m. Presentation from Anis Khemakhem (Chief Commercial Officer, Clearfield Inc.) on workforce development and BABA compliance and its practical implications on broadband deployment.
Nice training initiative. We work on recommendations to the Governor. How can we help you?
Encourage folks to share the information.
11:25 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Office of Broadband Development (OBD) overview and updates from Bree Maki (Executive Director, OBD).
Thanks to everyone came to the big conference – it was sold out
BEAD – continuing to work on finalizing the contract and contracts with providers and environmental planning. There have been some minor location changes.
No new info on non-deployment dollars. Had to look at all technologies equally. There is $300 million in unspent.
There are supply line issues with BEAD. OBD had a call with local providers and NTIA.
Providers should put in BEAD waivers now – for BABA and other.
Also working on definition of onerous AI. MN Legislation wrapped but nothing deemed onerous by OBD. (One related to age verification could be an issue.)
There are a couple of providers who are eager to get going. Others are watching carefully.
There are three providers who have left BEAD. Working on finding a provider for those locations. Working on tribal consent.
Closed 39 old grant projects; added 28 new ones. Lots of site monitoring.
Annual reports will be coming out June 30
Line Extension: closing Line Extension 4 at 1pm on May 22. This is from money that was shifted from other areas and MDE.
Treasury put out some project guidance that talked about extension of capital funds – depending on project. Deadline is July 31.
11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Open the floor to other business, next meeting Thursday June 18 (virtual), and meeting wrap-up.
Today, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Media, and U.S. Representative Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) introduced the bicameral Digital Opportunity Foundation Act of 2026. This legislation would establish a nonprofit foundation that would leverage public and private investments to expand digital opportunity nationwide, ensuring that people can access, adopt, and effectively use modern digital tools, broadband, and other emerging technologies. The bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.).
The Foundation for Digital Opportunity will supplement the work of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to award grants, support research, provide training and education, engage with stakeholders, collect data, and promote policies that improve digital opportunities. The Foundation will be governed by a Board of experts specializing in digital opportunity, technology, and telecommunications, representing diverse communities across the United States.
NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth isn’t playing “Wisconsin Nice” with that state’s broadband leadership, including retiring Gov. Tony Evers (D). NTIA is pushing back on Wisconsin’s recent claim that tens of thousands of homes will remain unserved as the state launches a new $60 million, state-funded Internet grant round designed to plug holes in its broadband map. In a press release on May 19, Evers said the spending was needed because of NTIA’s decision, engineered by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in June 2025, to abandon the Biden administration’s expensive fiber preference in favor of technological neutrality in the $42.45 billion BEAD program.
US Telecom is an association for broadband providers. They do an annual look at Broadband Pricing Index. Here are the highlights from the 2026 Index…
A bright spot in household budgets. In 2025, internet service continued to stand apart from other household costs, with prices declining for a service that runs faster than ever. Prices decline while speeds accelerate. USTelecom’s annual Broadband Pricing Index (BPI)1 finds that year over year, real prices for the most popular internet services (100–940 Mbps) fell 6.0%, while gigabit plans declined 4.9%.2 Over the longer term, prices for the internet services most households buy today have fallen 43.6% since
2014,3 even as other mainstay consumer goods and services have risen 36%. Average download speeds, meanwhile, have surged 21.9% year over year and 145% since 2014. The deepest savings are reaching the most price-sensitive households. For the first time, this year’s report breaks out pricing across three speed bands within the 100–940 Mbps range. Prices fell in every tier, with entry-level plans (100–249 Mbps) posting the steepest one-year decline—down 17.2% in real terms—while mid range plans (250–499 Mbps) fell 8.3% and higher-speed plans (500 940 Mbps) declined 12.6% when adjusted for inflation. The trend of consumers choosing faster plans at lower cost likely masks steeper price declines. This report’s findings are conservative given that many households are taking advantage of declining prices to upgrade to faster internet plans. According to the latest FCC data, gigabit subscriptions have grown nearly fivefold since 2020.4 The BPI’s methodology does not account for consumers choosing to upgrade to faster service. As a result, the true pricing gains to consumers are likely greater than this index alone captures.. Competition and private investment are powering these gains. Fierce competition among diverse internet service providers—backed by tens of billions of dollars in private capital flowing into broadband networks each year—sustains the favorable consumer trend of declining prices and accelerating speeds. Consumers confirm the value proposition. In a recent national poll, just 2% of likely voters selected home internet service among their top two household cost concerns. In fact, internet price concerns ranked
the lowest of any category surveyed, behind groceries (39%), health insurance (31%), housing (30%), and gas prices (25%).6 Declining prices and rising performance are showing up not just in the data, but in how Americans experience their internet service. A healthy internet market in practice. Heated competition, strong private investment and declining prices boost household purchasing power, spur broader adoption of high-speed internet, and support a strong digital foundation for what comes next
From Broadband Breakfast
Paul Bunyan Communications announces
