The Institute of Local Self Reliance profiles Carver County…

Officials in Carver County Minnesota continue to make great progress expanding affordable fiber access to the county of 111,000 residents, thanks largely to their publicly-owned open access fiber network CarverLink and their partnership with Metronet.

Since its inception in 2013, Carver County has leveraged public and private collaborations and funding with the goal of making symmetrical gigabit (1 Gbps) fiber available to all locations county wide. With the looming completion of its most recent $10.5 million expansion, CarverLink Fiber Manager Randy Lehs told ISLR they’re getting very close to their ultimate goal.

The county currently has ownership and use of nearly 1,200 miles of fiber throughout Carver County and southern Minnesota connecting more than 280 last mile public and community support locations. Many of these markets have no connectivity; many others are stuck on dated, sluggish, patchy connectivity from regional monopolies.

And an update…

CarverLink began construction in fall 2024 in Victoria and Chanhassen and is looking for substantial construction throughout 2025 with a completion deadline of June 2026.

“As of February 2025, CarverLink is 90 percent complete with this aspect of the CUCE project and is on task to complete by our deadline of June 2025,” Lehs said.

That leaves Chaska, Minnesota, population 29,000, as the last Carver County city without identified public or private projects – or existing service provider plans to connect to all the city’s remaining un/underserved locations to affordable fiber. Lehs says CarverLink has been having discussions with both Metronet about potential expansion there.

But they’re also pressuring Comcast to upgrade the 10,000 locations in Chaska that Xfinity provides non symmetrical fiber service of 1Gbps so the city can complete its goal of county wide gigabit fiber access.