I don’t hear as much about the Wikstrom Telephone Company ARRA-funded fiber project in Kittson County, so I was excited to get an update from The Examiner…

Wiring remote rural Minnesota is made possible thanks to the $862 billion federal stimulus package passed by Congress in 2009. That fiber optic cable is being installed here almost three after passage of the stimulus is testament to the many delays, roadblocks and pitfalls that have sometimes hampered stimulus projects – but people in northern Minnesota are just happy this day has finally come.

The coming of high speed Internet to rural areas has been compared to the electrification of the countryside made possible by the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, a Great Depression Era stimulus project which transformed rural America.

Work in Kittson County is being conducted under the auspices of Wikstrom Telephone Company, or Wiktel.