I had a great conversation with Chris Swanson from Lake County yesterday. I got to know Chris while he was on the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force. (Chris Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self Reliance also did a nice follow up on Lake and Cook County perspective on recent the announcements.)

Here’s the quick take on the winning project:

Lake County
$66,369,064
This approximately $66.3 million award, matched by $3.5 million in private contribution, will allow Lake County to offer FTTP advanced voice, video and data services to every home and business in Lake and eastern Saint Louis Counties. Approximately 37,000 people stand to benefit, as do roughly 1,000 businesses and 98 community institutions. In addition to the 510 jobs Lake County estimates this project will create upfront, it will provide a foundation for economic growth and job creation for decades to come.

Lake County got their letter of acceptance on Monday and I think Chris said they’ve already signed, sealed and delivered it back. While this is called the Lake County project is also includes eastern St Louis County. The service area covers all of Lake County and eastern Saint Louis County, including Ely, Babbitt, Aurora, Hoyt Lakes, Morse Township, Duluth Township, Embarrass Township, White Township, Waasa Township and Bassett Township. If that list sounds familiar, you may be remembering the old Iron Range FiberNet communities. As you may recall the FiberNet included about a dozen communities that were determined to get fiber a few years ago but as some of the larger towns opted out of the project, the opportunities for smaller towns decreased. I think it’s an example of seeds having been planted with germination timeframe all their own. A good reminder that seeds do sprout!

Lake County is excited. They will own the network and it will be managed by National Public Broadband. They plan to offer voice, video and data (triple play). It will be an Open Access model, so other providers will be welcome to come into the area to provide services over the fiber network.

The project is going to be a game changer for the area. For example, Lake County went to a 4-day school week this year. Apparently educators in the area are already talking about how they can use the newfound amazing broadband to keep kids engaged on their days off.

But as Chris pointed out, his company PureDriven has had some experience getting folks excited about fiber in the area. They are also working in Duluth with the prospect of Duluth becoming a Google Gig Town.

Already folks in the areas are calling to find out when they can sign up for service – even if signing up for service puts them on a long waiting list. So that’s exciting to hear.