The Free Press Mankato reports on local thoughts on the recently announced broadband funds…

Minnesota will get an eye-popping amount of federal funding — $652 million — to expand broadband in mostly rural areas and small towns.

“This will do a lot. It won’t get the entire problem fixed — there is more than $652 million in work to be done — but it will certainly move the needle,” said Bill Eckles, CEO of Blue Earth-based Bevcomm.

Barbara Droher Kline, a broadband consultant for Le Sueur County, said they’re waiting to learn the details of how the $45 billion, part of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package passed by Congress in 2021, will be doled out by Minnesota and other states.

“We’re hopeful, but we’re nervous because we don’t know what the regulatory requirements are going to be. There will be a lot of regulatory requirements from the feds. They won’t just hand it to the state and say, ‘Spend it.'”

The state has a goal of universal access to internet download speeds of at least 100 megabits per second and upload speeds of 20 megabits per second by 2026. The state is approaching 90% of the population having that level of broadband.

An update on Bricelyn and Elmore…

Eckles said Bevcomm is in the midst of construction on expanding high-speed internet in rural areas including around Bricelyn and Elmore, using funds the company was awarded by the previous round of Border-to-Border funding.

“That’s all going to farms. The total project is about $3.6 million with state funding covering about 40% of that,” Eckles said. Most of the rest of the investment came from Bevcomm with Faribault County kicking in $5,000.

He said they hope to begin serving those customers with internet service by this fall.

Eckles said the windfall of federal funding that’s coming will create one wrinkle.

“The interesting thing will be once the money is allocated how easy will it be to find the labor. Spending $650 million over a five-year period, that’s a lot of construction.”