Slowly but surely, I’m trying to feature the Minnesota ARRA awards. I wanted to look into the recent Eventis award today – but the description in most of the ARRA announcements were not very specific…

Enventis Telecom – This approximately $16.8 million award, with more than $7.2 million in matching contributions, will allow Enventis Telecom to offer affordable middle-mile broadband service in Minnesota. The project plans to directly connect 70 community institutions to broadband. As many as 350,400 people stand to benefit as do 28,000 businesses. Enventis estimates that the project will create more than 250 job

Well to start, Enventis is a subsidiary of Hickory Tech. The will be serving 23 counties in Minnesota. According to a recent article in Rochester Post Bulletin…

The project is expected to create more than 250 jobs and benefit as many as 350,400 people and 28,000 businesses.

The Post Bulletin also provide a picture of at least part of the network…

The project will connect Rochester’s Mayo Clinic campus with 12 rural health care facilities throughout southern Minnesota. The high-speed broadband will enable the clinic to provide distance health care training, education and remote telemedicine services to patients in rural areas.

Minnesota 2020 offered some perspective on the project and how – at least for the Mankato area – the project bring policy to the street…

The Rural Broadband Act will shortly, in Mankato, look suddenly less like a policy idea and more like work crews trenching 428 new miles of fiber-optic cable. Repeated across Minnesota and the nation, this investment expands marketplace infrastructure. It’s a progressive idea that worked a hundred years ago and is working now.