The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports…

Paul Bunyan Communications recently completed an expansion of high-speed broadband to nearly 600 homes, businesses and community institutions in rural areas of northeastern Minnesota.

The majority of the locations receiving new service are in St. Louis County, Minnesota’s largest county by area and the county with the most households in need of broadband access.

The $3.2 million project, which included nearly $600,000 in broadband infrastructure grants from the Minnesota Department of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation as well as funds from the state’s Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program, will bring broadband with speeds up to 10 gigabytes per second to rural areas near Ash River, Black Duck Lake and Elephant Lake as well as Kabetogama and Morcom townships.

“This is a huge service improvement for everyone in the project area and is a game changer for the residents and businesses,” Steve Howard, Paul Bunyan Communications’ IT and development manager, said in a statement.