From the Office of Broadband Development…

 Governor’s Task Force on Broadband, June meeting recap

Task Force members and OBD staff attend virtually and in-person, July 18thThe Governor’s Task Force met at Southwest Initiative Foundation in Hutchinson, MN the morning of June 18th. The Task Force heard from Briana Mumme, Economic Development Manage at Southwest Initiative Foundation; updates on BEAD, the Office of Broadband Development, and Digital Opportunity; and a presentation on connectivity and digital navigation in Minnesota from Scott D. Cole, CEO/Founder of Collectivity.That you to Southwest Initiative Foundation for hosting! Materials from this and previous Task Force meetings are available on the Broadband Task Force webpage.

Save the dates! BEAD Challenge informational sessions happening next week

OBD will hosting informational sessions before the BEAD Challenge window opens to share resources with eligible entities interested in participating in the BEAD Challenge process, as well as those who would like to learn more about the process and eligibility for BEAD funding. In-person events happening around the state include:

• Wednesday July 10th, 3:30-5:30pm Rochester, at the Wood Lake Meeting Center, 210 Wood Lake Drive SE, Rochester MN, 55904
• Thursday July 11th, 1:30-3:30pm New Ulm, in room 203 at the New Ulm Civic Center, 1212 N Franklin St, New Ulm, MN 56073
• Friday July 12th, 10am-12pm, Lower Sioux Indian Community,Tribal members only
• Monday July 15th, VIRTUAL WEBINAR, 10am, registration for this event is required and available here

OBD will also be hosting a weekly office hours Thursdays at 2pm through September 19th, during the BEAD Challenge process, to provide updates on the Challenge and Rebuttal processes. Initial sessions will also include walkthroughs by AppGeo of the Challenge Portal. Eligible challengers and community members with questions are encouraged to join. The frequency of the office hours will be revisited as we wrap up the challenge and rebuttal process, and evaluate participation and feedback. Register for the first week, Thursday July 18th here. We are committed to providing equal access to these sessions for all participants. If you need alternative formats or other reasonable accommodations, please contact anna.norcutt.preuss@state.mn.us for events by 3pm Wednesday July 3rd.More information on the BEAD program, including NTIA’s Approved BEAD Volume 1 can be found on the OBD BEAD webpage here. 

Preparing for BEAD: Getting CostQuest licenses for Fabric IDs

The NTIA Tier D & E licenses support a broader range of purposes, including administration of the BEAD program, participation in the BEAD eligible entity Challenge processes, and reporting requirements associated with the Broadband Funding Map and the BEAD program. There is a no-cost license option available to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to access the Fabric IDs.The Tier D and E licenses are intended for: qualified or presumptively qualified prospective direct recipients or indirect subrecipients; awarded direct recipients or indirect subrecipients; and challengers to participate in Federal Broadband Granting Agency’s (FBGA) broadband grant programs through either a challenge process, by applying for an award of available funds, or by reporting on an awarded grant/loan (including reporting related to the Broadband Funding Map authorized by IIJA § 60105).The Tier D license is available upon request. CostQuest will coordinate the approval of Tier E licenses with individual State Broadband Offices and NTIA. This coordination is to ensure that the delivery of the Licensed Materials coincides with the state challenge process.For more information visit NTIA’s webpage on CostQuest Licensing.You can make a license request using these websites:

• Tier D: https://apps.costquest.com/NTIArequest/
• Tier E: https://apps.costquest.com/ntiatiererequest/

If you have any questions, CostQuest can be reached directly by emailing IFAsupport@costquest.com.

Digital Opportunity Update: Capacity vs. Competitive Grants

On Wednesday, June 26, NTIA announced a future grant opportunity through the Digital Equity Act (DEA) Competitive Grant Program. To be clear, this program is different from the DEA Capacity Grant Program that NTIA has charged OBD with administering. .OBD will share more information about specific Capacity grant opportunities as they become available. For further information about either program, please review NTIA’s Capacity Grant Factsheet and NTIA’s Competitive Grant One-Pager, or contact Hannah Buckland at hannah.buckland@state.mn.us.

OBD, Out of office!

OBD Executive Director Bree Maki (center), with (left to right) Melissa Wolf (Minnesota Cable Communications Association), Brent Christensen (MTA), Senator Putnam, Andrew Schriner (Lumen), Representative Vang, and Mark Muller (TelCom Construction) attend a Minnesota Telecom Alliance (MTA) hosted event at the Telecom Training Facility in Clearwater, MN.
OBD staff participated in the 2024 Summer Economic Development Association of Minnesota (EDAM) conference, hosted in St. Cloud, to do outreach related to the federal BEAD Challenge. During the conference attendees representing cities and counties throughout Minnesota, and local non-profits, had the opportunity to learn about what the BEAD challenge is and who can participate.Information on the BEAD Challenge process is available on the OBD webpage here.OBD staff continue this summer with visits to sites with Border to Border funding, and attending groundbreaking ceremonies! This included site visits to Perham to see Arvig’s Otter Tail County project and Meeker Cooperative’s Big Swan project, as well as a Groundbreaking Ceremony for AcenTek’s fiber project in Dakota, Minnesota.