Arvig reports…

 More than 400 structures in rural Minnesota will soon have high-speed internet access as Arvig plans to invest recently awarded grants from the state’s Broadband Line Extension Connection Program in a last-mile fiber-to-the-home project.

Arvig was awarded grants totaling $3,303,607 from the Line Extension program after submitting successful lowest-cost bids to serve 406 locations.

The locations and number of structures served will be:

• Rose Lake, Dodo Lake and Lake Elora, near Cotton: 139 structures
• Buffalo Lake, north of Detroit Lakes: 96 structures
• West of Rock Lake, north of Detroit Lakes: 43 structures
• North of Lake Osakis: 32 structures
• North of Long Prairie: 22 structures
• South of Detroit Lakes: 14 structures
• North of Browerville: 8 structures
• Johnson Lake Lane, south of Detroit Lakes: 8 structures
• North of Henning: 7 structures
• West of Wood Lake: 6 structures
• Hubble Pond, near Rochert: 6 structures
• Northeast of Redwood Falls: 5 structures
• Northwest of Detroit Lakes: East Oak Lake Drive: 5 structures
• Klein Road, north of Detroit Lakes: 4 structures
• South of Grand Meadow: 3 structures
• East of Long Prairie: 2 structures
• North of Sauk Centre: 2 structures
• Park Rapids: 1 structure
• Clements: 1 structure
• Callaway: 1 structure
• Rochert: 1 structure

Arvig will invest $394,000 to cover additional project costs, bringing the total project cost to $3,697,907. About 70 miles of fiber will be constructed, with all 21 locations combined. Work on the line extensions is set to begin in spring 2025, with construction targeted for completion by November 2025.

The program requires locations to be served with internet speeds of at least 100 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload. Arvig expects to exceed that requirement, with plans to provide locations access to speeds of up to 1 Gig download and 100Mbps upload.

A location is considered unserved if it lacks access to a wired service with at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speed.