Winona Post reportsThe Minnesota Office of Broadband Development under the Department of Employment and Economic Development is administering the Line Extension Program: mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/extension. A household or business can apply, at no cost, to the Line Extension Connection program if it does not have wireline internet service of at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. Grant funding is available to encourage internet providers to extend coverage to eligible applicants.
Residents and businesses who believe they are unserved can learn more and apply online at mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/extension or by calling 651-259-7610 or emailing DEED.broadband@state.mn.us. To date, nearly 2,500 homes and businesses have registered for the program across the state.
This seemed like a good time to remind folks that the Line Extension has an open application process but the applications are complied every six months. Here is the timing according to the Office of Broadband Development website…
How quickly will line extensions be installed under this program?
This program has a number of steps built into the process. An approximate timeline would be as follows:
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Address is registered in portal (November 2022)
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Every six months OBD sends list of addresses to broadband providers in Minnesota (May 2023)
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Broadband providers notify OBD if they can already serve any of the addresses (May 2023)
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Reverse auction begins (May 2023)
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Broadband service providers have 60 days to submit bids (July 2023)
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OBD selects winning bids (September 2023)
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OBD enters contracts with all winning bidders (October 2023)
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Winning bidders have one year to build the line extension (October 2024)
So it’s never a bad time to submit an application but it looks like the next time they will send the list of addresses to providers will be November 2023. Also interesting to see that the winning bids will be announced this month.
Also from the OBD website is the map of applicant locations at right.