KTTC out of Rochester takes a look at the history of federal and state broadband funding in Minnesota…
Between billions of dollars of defaulted rural broadband expansion projects and highly-regulated legislation that bogs down developers, the federal government has not had the most success when it comes to connecting our rural communities with high-speed fiber internet.
To recap what’s currently happening with national broadband assistance: in 2019, the Federal Communications Commission ran the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) which awarded $20 billion in federal assistance to internet service providers (ISPs), roughly $3 billion of which was defaulted on that the government is still trying to get back.
In 2021, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) created its own solution for connecting rural communities to the internet through the Broadband, Equity Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program which contained substantially more restrictions and requirements and even conflicted with existing RDOF policies. BEAD was also intended to be run through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) rather than the FCC.
In the aftermath of the billions that have gone into default from the failed RDOF initiative, the FCC has attempted to reclaim some of the misappropriated funds. All in all, roughly $6.4 billion of RDOF funds have actually been used, with the remaining $14 billion up in the air.
The article looks at BEAD…
Also in June, the Trump administration issued a Policy Notice through the NTIA that reforms parts of BEAD’s initial requirements and regulations, removing several sections that dictated multiple aspects of the expansion efforts.
And outlines the more straightforward Minnesota investment…
The federal government aside, since 2014, Minnesota has invested more than $
805$400 million [correction made hours after posting – sorry for the error] across 294 projects, or nearly 113,000 locations, according to a report from the Midwest Economic Policy Institute and are already seeing benefits for farmers and businesses.