Aaron Brown is a longtime advocate of broadband on the Iron Range. In December (2015), he shared the good news that the IRRB had approved $1.25 matching grant for Paul Bunyan to expand broadband into Itasca County.

This week Aaron shares good news (via Hibbing Daily Tribune) of deployment…

You can see the little flags all over the Itasca County countryside. The markers show where Paul Bunyan Communication’s new Central Itasca Fiber Project will connect to my home, which is also where my wife and I work at least half the time.

These lines will allow me to take on bigger media projects. These lines will allow me to grade presentations faster for my online college students. Moreover, these lines will allow our family to co-exist in peace as our three boys grow old enough to do online gaming and, we hope at some point, homework.

But that’s hardly the main reason to be excited. This project will connect the up to 1,200 households, 3,500 people and 100 small businesses to reliable, high capacity, high speed internet for the first time.

He gives a nod to local broadband provider Paul Bunyan and the State of Minnesota for their support via grants and seems to see a light at the end of a slow downloading tunnel…

One thing is certain. After years of delay and a decade of misunderstanding about the importance of broadband in the future of a region like ours, we see great progress.