The Minnesota 2024 Broadband Task Force report is available on the Office of Broadband Development site. From the letter from the chair…

While Minnesota has made significant progress toward expanding broadband access, challenges persist. More than 162,000 households lack access to basic broadband speeds of 25/3 Mbps, and an additional 229,000 remain underserved without access to 100/20 Mbps speeds. With the discontinuation of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), nearly 245,000 low-income households risk losing essential access to high-speed internet, further exacerbating the digital divide. Workforce shortages, permitting delays, and policy gaps, including the lack of sales tax exemptions for broadband materials, are compounding these challenges, particularly in rural areas where deployment costs are highest.

The recommendations in this report outline a clear path forward to ensure equitable broadband access across Minnesota. Key actions include reinstating a program similar to the ACP, supporting local workforce training initiatives, streamlining permitting processes, and addressing funding gaps to meet the state’s broadband goals by 2026. Sustaining and expanding programs like the Line Extension Connection Program will ensure that no community is left behind in this critical effort.

From the executive summary…

To address these critical challenges, the Task Force urges the Governor and Legislature to act on the following priorities:

Affordability and Digital Equity

• Reinstate a Program Similar to ACP: Develop a statewide program or advocate for federal solutions to provide affordable broadband access, targeting low-income households.
• Modernize Federal Lifeline Benefits: Support reform to increase the Lifeline subsidy to match ACP levels—$30 for most households and $75 for those on Tribal lands.
• Support Digital Literacy: Standardize digital literacy definitions across agencies and fund Digital Navigators for anchor institutions to teach digital skills and connect residents to resources. Create a searchable digital literacy resource directory available in multiple languages and accessible formats. Provide greater opportunities for partner organizations to build capacity, and work to strengthen existing relationships.

Economic Opportunity and Workforce Development

• Build Local Training Pipelines: Invest in programs through DEED to train broadband technicians, splicers, and engineers, focusing on local talent development.
• Incentivize Best Practices: Encourage grant recipients to implement workforce best practices outlined in Minnesota Statutes 2022, section 116J.395, ensuring jobs created are family-supporting with fair wages and benefits.
• Promote K-12 and Higher Education Collaboration: Develop Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs with Minnesota schools and colleges to address broadband labor shortages.

Mapping, Policy, and Funding

• Support Statewide Mapping: Fund ongoing mapping initiatives to ensure accuracy in identifying unserved and underserved areas. Conduct a post-BEAD evaluation to measure program success and remaining gaps.

• Address Sales Tax Barriers: Enact legislation clarifying that broadband materials (fiber and conduit) qualify for sales tax exemption, reducing costs for high-speed deployment.

• Sustain the Line Extension Program: Provide continued funding in 2025 to connect smaller groups or individual homes, avoiding project delays as BEAD funding rolls out.

• Expand Local Capacity: Establish a fund for local governments and nonprofits to hire digital prosperity experts. These experts would assist with broadband planning, grant applications, and outreach in underserved communities.

They did a cost analysis of a few broadband development scenarios…

CTC Technology and Energy, a consulting firm who has performed similar analysis for other states, was selected to complete the cost-gap analysis. CTC used CostQuest data, NTIA data, and data from OBD’s past state Border to-Border and Line Extension Connection Program grant rounds to perform a set of cost modeling exercises. CTC’s findings were:  1) to cover every location in Minnesota with fiber would require $2.08 Billion in funding;  2) to reach all BEAD-eligible locations with the state’s allocated funding of $628 Million, the optimal technology mix is 90.8% fiber, 0.7% fixed wireless, and 8.5% satellite.7 Further, CTC found that an “incumbent expansion” model scenario results in less required funding than new entrants, largely due to incumbent cost benefits around existing network infrastructure, pole attachments, existing conduit, etc. CTC’s analysis also determined that there are small numbers of extremely remote and high cost areas that may require up-to $64,000 in funding per location.

They look at a Blandin report from 2017 that  looked at impact of public investment in broadband on the local economy and more.