Monthly Archives: September 2025

Office of Broadband Development Update Sep 24, 2025: BEAD mapping and Line Extension

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From the Office of Broadband Development…

Broadband Matters: Office of Broadband Development Updates

  • Mapping + data updates for providers
  • BEAD updates
  • Line Extension Connection Program update
  • OBD in the field
  • Broadband Task Force, September meeting recap

Mapping + data updates for providers

Reminder for internet service providers!

The Office of Broadband Development, in partnership with our mapping vendor, Connected Nation, does perform a Fall update to the broadband coverage in Minnesota that is published on the interactive map at the end of the year. Because a busy construction season is wrapping up and we are planning to offer a fifth grant round of Line Extension at the new year, OBD wants to remind all providers that this data collection is the major mapping update for the Minnesota Broadband map. If you have completed construction of a broadband project since your last mapping data submission to Connected Nation in Fall 2024, please take this opportunity to have that updated coverage information included in this annual mapping update.

The deadline for submitting coverage information for this effort is Thursday October 2, 2025.

If you have questions about submitting coverage data, or didn’t receive outreach from Connected Nation, feel free to contact the Office of Broadband Development by email at deed.broadband@state.mn.us or by phone at (651)-259-7610.

BEAD updates

As required by the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program, the Minnesota OBD submitted its Final Draft Proposal to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), including the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, on September 4, 2025. NTIA has committed to review and approve plans in 90 days.

OBD will continue to revise and update the documents as required by NTIA and necessary to ensure all BEAD eligible locations are served as defined by the policy notice.

On September 22, NTIA released for the first time in writing the following cost thresholds for the BEAD program. The percentile is based off of the cost estimate that NTIA has determined. Every state has different numbers based on NTIA’s decisions and Minnesota’s federally determined cost thresholds are as follows:

  • 65-85th percentile, $10,000 to $20,000 per BSL – provider needs additional explanation for cost
  • 85th to 85th plus 15%, $20,000 to $23,000 – possibility for extraordinary circumstances to be explained by provider and try to get price under $20,000
  • Over 85th plus 15% percentile, $23,000 – providers have 72 hours to renegotiate price

Updated and additional information will be posted to the OBD BEAD webpage.

Line Extension Connection Program update

After the location addresses were posted for review on September 15 and challenges are submitted by September 24, the Round 4 Line Extension bidding window will open September 26, 2025.

OBD expects the round to have $3.5M in Capital Projects Fund (CPF) dollars available to grant. Information and resources on Line Extension are posted to the OBD Line Extension Connection Program webpage. OBD also expects to run a fifth round of Line Extension with state project funds.

Questions on Line Extension can be sent to deed.broadband@state.mn.us or (651)-259-7610.

OBD in the field

Commissioner Ida Rukavina of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) and OBD Executive Director Bree Maki at the State of the Range event.

OBD has been busy attending events statewide like the Broadband Public Alliance meeting, Association of Minnesota Counties annual meeting, State of the Range (pictured above), and Minnesota Cable Association reception to provide updates on state broadband programs and BEAD in Minnesota.

Since August, OBD staff have gone on over 15 site visits for Mediacom, Savage Communications, Inc (SCI), Gardonville, Consolidated Telephone Company (CTC), Arvig, Acentek, Harmony/MiEnergy/MiBroadband, Mille Lacs Energy Cooperative (MLEC), East Central Energy (ECE), Johnson Telephone Company, Frontier, Benton Communications, Meeker, and Lismore projects.

Pictured below: Trucks hauling and installing main line fiber conduit at a Round 10 site visit for an Acentek project in Canton Township. 

Broadband Task Force, September meeting recap

The Broadband Task Force met on Monday September 22. The Task Force heard presentations from Communication Service for the Deaf on their programs and work for individuals in the deaf and hard of hearing community, and state speed goal updates from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Thank you to presenters for sharing their time and expertise!

More information on this and past meetings can be found on the Broadband Task Force webpage.

Major telecom threat thwarted as leaders gathered at UN headquarters in New York

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AP News reports…

While close to 150 world leaders prepared to descend on Manhattan for the U.N. General Assembly, the U.S. Secret Service was quietly dismantling a massive hidden telecom network across the New York area — a system investigators say could have crippled cell towers, jammed 911 calls and flooded networks with chaos at the very moment the city was most vulnerable.

The cache, made up of more than 300 SIM servers packed with over 100,000 SIM cards and clustered within 35 miles of the United Nations, represents one of the most sweeping communications threats uncovered on U.S. soil. Investigators warn the system could have blacked out cellular service in a city that relies on it not only for daily life but for emergency response and counterterrorism.

Coming as foreign leaders filled midtown hotels and motorcades clogged Manhattan, officials say the takedown highlights a new frontier of risk: plots aimed at the invisible infrastructure that keeps a modern city connected.

The network was uncovered as part of a broader Secret Service investigation into telecommunications threats targeting senior government officials, according to investigators. Spread across multiple sites, the servers functioned like banks of mock cellphones, able to generate mass calls and texts, overwhelm local networks and mask encrypted communications criminals, officials said.

Arvig Named to Prairie Business 50 Best Places to Work List for 2025

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Congrats to Arvig! Globe Newswire reports…

Arvig has once again been named one of the upper Midwest’s 50 best places to work by Prairie Business magazine.

Arvig makes the 2025 list for the fourth consecutive year, and eighth overall. The award recognizes some of the region’s best companies and organizations nominated by their peers.

“Earning a spot on this list for the fourth straight year speaks volumes about the impact of our culture,” said David Arvig, Vice President and COO. “Being recognized as one of the best places to work is a direct reflection of our employee-owners’ hard work and passion, and it’s what drives our success as a company.”

Office of Broadband Development Office hours Sep 24: BEAD updates and federal permitting

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Almost 50 people attended the Office of Broadband Development Office hours this week to get updates on BEAD. Also, Megan Messerol, the Land Use Permitting Expert at OBD spoke about rules for federal funding related to land and permits. People had good questions and OBD made clear that they are happy to have open conversations with all partners. NTIA has the final say, so OBD may not always have an immediate answer but tonight we can find it.

I livestreamed the session – but it looks like only 6 minutes have been archived.

Questions & Chat notes

  • What happens to the remaining money that doesn’t get doled out?
    We don’t know but we have created a plan to use it all. We remain hopeful
  • What happened to the locations that didn’t get bids from providers?
    OBD did direct negotiations with 20,000 locations to because no one bid on those areas in the competitive round
  • Note: Project data reflected on the map is subject to change until NTIA approves MN’s Final Proposal and grant contracts are executed with subgrantees.
  • Welcome Megan. So happy to have you on the team! Will OBD or NTIA make the Categorical exclusion (CatX) determinations? High level idea of what that will look like?
    OBD will help with exclusion determinations – working with ISPs to gather most of the info. Then OBD will work through the process. NTIA will make the final determination.
  • ISPs will not interface with the ESP, but rather OBD?
    Correct
  • Link to the OBD BEAD webpage: https://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/bead/
  • NTIA is having a webinar on Tuesday Sep 30 https://broadbandusa.ntia.gov/events/latest-events/permitting-broadband-infrastructure-projects
  • You are saying don’t start your project until final approval – we see 47 week in delays in getting fiber. We haven’t even looked at equipment. Can procurement start before final approval? Do we need waivers if prices are growing? Will they be reimbursable?
    There is some guidance in our draft – but it is still a draft/ There is language about what you can purchase in advance. It is up to the NTIA.
  • will you please put this deck on the webpage
    Yes – it will be posted shortly!
  • any other dates to mention besides Sept. 30 permitting?
    Not at this time

Connected Nation finds 30 percent of rural households are internet insecure

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Connected Nation has a new report on Internet Insecurity in Rural America. I like the distinction between access and secure access. The best analogy I can think it the difference between having a reliable car or a junker. Most of us know the difference, many of us from experience. A reliable car gets you to work on time. Gets your kids to school. Is what you are happy to take a 3am when contractions start coming. A junker is a car that may cost you a lot of money in repairs or gas mileage. It is always a car you aren’t sure is going to get you where you are going and honestly you don’t want your kids to drive it at night.

Connected Nation recognizes…

Connected Nation (CN) believes in the importance of sustained, reliable internet connectivity for every household. In this report, CN looks at “internet insecure” households whose internet adoption has been in flux. What we found underscores a need to address the issue of internet insecurity: not only do Americans need to get connected, but to benefit from broadband, they must STAY connected.

They surveyed 2,600 rural households in Michigan and Colorado to learn about the impact of Internet insecurity. If they had been in Minnesota, I’d dig deeper into the specifics, although I imagine they are similar, but here I’ll keep it high level…

KEY FINDINGS:

  • Roughly one-third (30.6%) of the surveyed population is internet insecure.

  • Households with children are more likely to experience intermittent internet connectivity, with one-third (34.2%) of households with children under 18 living at home being internet insecure.

  • People with disabilities are more likely to experience internet insecurity than people without disabilities.

  • Nearly 9 out of 10 (87.1%) internet insecure respondents say they rely on locations outside of their home to access the internet.

  • Despite irregular access to the internet, most of the internet insecure population (93.3%) still uses telehealth services.

TC Business looks at Minnesota’s investment in broadband

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Twin Cities Business posted a nice article on the history of broadband funding in Minnesota right up to today. It provides enough background to give context to a topic that ever-changing due to the nature of technology and funding…

For more than a decade, the state of Minnesota has been actively pursuing expansion of high-speed broadband access throughout greater Minnesota as well as in the Twin Cities metro. And there have been some significant success stories. But as Sjostrom’s experience demonstrates, there are still plenty of areas where internet speeds are still sluggish.

On Aug. 28, the state’s Office of Broadband Development announced that it would be making plans to disburse an estimated $392 million to parts of the state needing faster internet connections. That funding will certainly help bring greater Minnesota up to speed. With their general lack of urban density, rural areas still face the challenge of making broadband investments financially viable.

The recognize that both urban and rural communities have challenges…

Broadband access and the urban-rural digital divide have been widely discussed topics throughout this century. The pandemic intensified reliance on the internet to conduct business, work from home, and make purchases. Consequently, it made high-speed internet access an even more urgent need.

And recognize the work being done to increase access and adoption…

The state of Minnesota began addressing the need for higher-speed internet in 2013, when it established the Office of Broadband Development within the Department of Employment and Economic Development. The office was tasked with helping fund “border-to-border” high-speed internet access for all state residents and businesses. The following year, it launched a grant program through the state’s general fund to support communities’ efforts to attract broadband development.

Since 2014, the general fund money, along with some broadband-dedicated capital project funds, has totaled more than $400 million. There have been 10 rounds of border-to-border state grants to internet service providers (ISPs) to expand broadband in “unserved and underserved” locations. Those terms are defined by connection speed as measured in megabits per second (Mbps). “Underserved” connectivity has upload speed of lower than 100 Mbps and download speed of lower than 20 Mbps. “Unserved” is lower than 25 up and lower than 3 down. To earn a state broadband grant, a project must have speeds of at least 100/25 with the capability to scale up over time to 100/100.

Each border-to-border grant has covered up to 50% of an expansion project’s costs. There also have been three grant rounds from a smaller funding bucket called the Low-Population Density Program, which covers 75% of costs. According to Bree Maki, the Office of Broadband Development’s executive director, that program “recognizes the most expensive and difficult places to serve,” with the goal of “making the business case” to ISPs to expand in those areas. These grants “come with a lot of local match [dollars],” she adds.

Both ISPs and communities have contributed to buildout projects. Since 2014, nearly 120,000 locations have received state grant dollars. There are currently four grant rounds in progress, all of which will close by year’s end.

They may have also quoted me…

Based on her December 2024 profiles, Treacy says that “there are a number of counties that are doing well, and some of those counties are in rural areas.” Beltrami County, for instance, has enjoyed high-speed broadband thanks to fiber installed by Bemidji-based Paul Bunyan Communications.

“While some rural areas are well served, that puts the ones that aren’t well served further and further behind,” Treacy says. “Schools, businesses, health care organizations all assume a certain level of technology now. And if you don’t have it, you’re sunk.”

 

 

OPPORTUNITY: Apply for the Seven Star Communities 2025 recognition

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From the NDIA (National Digital Inclusion Alliance…

Our application is now open for the next month to apply for the Seven Star Communities 2025 recognition! This is a digital inclusion recognition, hosted by the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, in partnership with AMERIND.

Last year, we launched the Seven Star Communities recognition, which identified eight outstanding communities working towards bridging the digital divide for their people, nation, and future. We want to build that momentum this year by personally inviting your Tribal community to apply for this recognition.

If you’re unsure how well you think you’ll score, we have provided a Scoring Worksheet to help understand the seven indicators and what is needed to achieve Seven Star Community Status. Here are the indicators:

1. Community Champion

2. Planning Process

3. Tribal Government Support

4. Tribal Resources Available to Support Work

5. Place-based Digital Equity Programs

6. Being a Steward for a Digital Equity Ecosystem

7. Our Stories

Here is the link to this year’s 2025 application form. Applications are due October 20, 2025! This year’s Seven Star Communities recipients will be celebrated at Net Inclusion 2026 in Chicago, IL!

MN Broadband Task Force September 2025: Funding Update on BEAD, Deaf Community Comments and Pew Research

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The MN Broadband Task Force met today. They heard from Communication Service for the Deaf and The Pew Charitable Trusts and got a view from the frontlines and researchers.

The big news with BEAD is that they have announced their “threshold” bid. That’s the bid that makes them look closer at a bid per location, or ask the bidder to make changes or it might even pragmatically indicate that a project will not get funded – depending on how over the threshold it is. Locations that are not able to lower the bid to meet the BEAD threshold may go to satellite.

1:00 p.m. – 1:10 p.m.   Welcome Teddy Bekele, Chair, Minnesota Governor’s Task Force on Broadband

1:10 p.m. – 1:15 p.m.   Approval of minutes from June and August Task Force meetings

1:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.  Communication Service for the Deaf (CSD) with Cameron Papazis, Business Development Manager and Irisa MacAulay, Business Development Associate

  • 11 million deaf people in the US – 1.1 million in MN
  • There’s a broadband range of supportive needs and solutions. (Signing, lip reading, deaf/blind folks)

Questions: Continue reading →

EVENTS: Paul Bunyan Communications Launches PBC Academy: Free Technology Training for Members

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From Paul Bunyan Communications…

Paul Bunyan Communications is excited to announce the launch of the PBC Academy, a new outreach program offering FREE training sessions designed to help cooperative members gain confidence and skills with today’s technology. These hands-on sessions, taught by local cooperative staff, make learning simple, approachable, and fun.
PBC Academy classes will be offered free of charge at Paul Bunyan Communications offices in Bemidji and Grand Rapids. The first topic will be on streaming technology helping members understand the basics and will feature streaming DIRECTV. Future topics will be added based on member interest and feedback.
Streaming Technology featuring DIRECTV
• Grand Rapids
o Sept. 30 – 10:30 a.m.
o Oct. 7 – 1:30 p.m.
• Bemidji Classes
o Oct. 2 – 10:30 a.m.
o Oct. 9 – 1:30 p.m.
Class sizes are limited to 10 participants and advanced online registration is required. Each session will last about an hour with additional time afterward for one-on-one learning.
In addition to the scheduled classes, PBC Academy is available for groups, organizations, or clubs interested in hosting a training session.
“For many of our cooperative members technology can feel overwhelming at times,” said Leo Anderson, Chief Technology Officer at Paul Bunyan Communications. “PBC Academy will help make it less intimidating and easier to understand.”
For more information or to reserve a spot in an upcoming class, visit https://paulbunyan.net/academy/ or contact academy@paulbunyan.net

Benton looks at Achieving Affordability: State Strategies for Getting Everyone Online

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The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society has a new publication that looks at Achieving Affordability: State Strategies for Getting Everyone Online…

In the absence of federal leadership, state governments are working to ensure that every household can afford to get and stay connected

They looked at…

Some state governments have long prioritized broadband affordability, while others are only now stepping in to fill the vacuum left by Washington. Across their strategic plans, all states cite affordability as one of the chief barriers to achieving universal connectivity. This report examines how states are working to make high-speed internet more affordable for their residents, offering a menu of policy
options explored by states around the country. These approaches fall into six broad categories:
1. LOW-COST PLANS: New York’s Affordable Broadband Act caps the cost of internet plans for low-income households at $20 per month or less. Connecticut will soon require low-cost plans for qualifying low-income residents.
2. STATE LIFELINE REFORM: State Lifeline programs collect mandatory fees from telecommunications companies, which are generally passed on to consumer bills, to fund discounts on eligible low-income residents’ phone and internet bills. State programs supplement a similar Lifeline program at the federal level, which provides a $9.25-per-month discount. Oregon recently passed legislation to expand its Lifeline subsidy and offer discounts on devices to low-income residents.
3. ONE-TIME SUBSIDIES: States, including Maryland and South Carolina, have used or plan to use federal funding for short-term affordability programs. These efforts are inherently time-limited and rely on one-off funding streams.

4. LOW-INCOME HOUSING INCENTIVES: States like Pennsylvania and Indiana are using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) to encourage developers to offer free or subsidized internet in affordable housing units.
5. CONSUMER PROTECTIONS and TRANSPARENCY MEASURES: States such as Arkansas, Virginia, and Tennessee have passed laws to improve pricing transparency and billing practices. These policies aim to empower consumers
to better understand the costs of internet service and avoid excess charges.
This approach may lower costs indirectly.
6. ENHANCED COMPETITION and CONSUMER CHOICE: Some states are fostering competition and affordability by permitting the market participation of municipal broadband providers and cooperatives, as well as investing in open-access, middle-mile infrastructure. Others offer deployment subsidies or regulatory relief to lower provider costs and encourage new entrants

They found…

States pursuing broadband affordability must consider key factors:
• Available state resources, such as fiscal and institutional capacity
• Local market landscape, including providers and their offerings
• The time horizon of affordability needs
• Positions of key political, industry, and consumer groups
• Implementation strategies for enrolling households and managing program
outreach

Amazon: Project Kuiper ready to provide satellite service in six months

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Broadband Breakfast reports on Amazon Kuiper satellite, which has applied for more than $11 million in BEAD funding in Minnesota…

Starlink’s one and only rival said it is ready to begin connecting Internet customers.

Amazon’s Project Kuiper said this week it plans to begin broadband service in six months, even though only a little more than a hundred satellites are currently in orbit.

At the World Space Business Week conference in Paris, Ricky Freeman, president of Amazon Kuiper Government Solutions, said the Amazon-owned company expects to provide service in five countries, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States by the end of the second quarter next year, according to various news outlets.

Why did US Internet decide to sell to T-Mobile?

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Travis Carter (of US Internet) talks about why they decided to sell to MetroNet (T-Mobile) on Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s show Connect This!, a show he has cohosted for a long time. Why did they sell? It turns out everyone deserves a retirement. It’s an interesting and honest conversation.

 

Recent conference panel: How are new data center deployments driving additional fiber deployment?

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Fierce Network reports…

Leaders from the data center and fiber industries came together in Austin, Texas this week as the Datacloud USA and Metro Connect conferences joined forces. And for good measure the conference organizers included the power generation companies, dubbing their 2025 show Datacloud Energy USA/Metro Connect Fall.

Fiber industry executives said they are getting plenty of requests from data center developers. But those developers are often pushing projects out of major metro areas in order to chase available power. So, they’re asking for fiber in places that don’t otherwise make economic sense for providers.

Sound familiar? Bringing fiber to remote areas is, of course, the goal of the government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, which continues to evolve and so far has not resulted in many new connections.

Could the data center industry step in to connect parts of rural America? That depends in part on whether fiber providers are willing to take the terms offered by data center builders, primarily hyperscalers.

But there is some push back from the providers…

“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” said David Kamphuis, VP carrier sales at fiber provider Segra, part of Cox Communications. “We have to do what is right, fiscally.”

Kamphuis was part of a panel at the Datacloud show entitled “How are new data center deployments driving additional fiber deployment?” moderated by Digital Bridge managing director Horace Zona. Some of the panel’s commentary sounded similar to the talking points fiber providers use when asked why government subsidies are needed to connect certain areas of the country.

“If it made sense on Day One to build it, it would have already been built. It hasn’t gotten built for a reason,” explained Dan Davis, CEO and co-founder of Arcadian Infracom.

So, what does it take to get fiber providers to commit to a data center build?  “You have to have a belief set not just in the one place, but all along these routes,” Davis said. He added that the cost of a fiber build is typically around $300 million, a fraction of the $2 billion to $3 billion a hyperscaler may be spending on the data center at the end of the route.

EVENT Sep 24: MN Office of Broadband Development BEAD update

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From the MN Office of Broadband Development…

Minnesota BEAD update, Wednesday September 24, at 1:00 p.m.

Join the OBD for an information session with updates on the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program in Minnesota, overview of next steps, and time for Q+A on Wednesday September 24, at 1:00 p.m.

This session will not be recorded but slides will be posted, alongside other BEAD resources, to the OBD BEAD webpage.

Broadband Breakfast reports on Gigi Sohn’s visit to Minnesota

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Broadband Breakfast reports on the MN Public Broadband Alliance meeting in Le Sueur County last week…

After years of broken promises from Washington, Gigi Sohn urged Minnesota leaders last week to take the state’s broadband future into their own hands.

“While Washington has failed you, Minnesota has the power – and the track record – to build its own broadband future,” she said. Sohn, executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband and a former Biden FCC nominee, delivered her remarks Sept. 10 in New Prague at What’s Next for Broadband in Minnesota, a forum hosted by the Minnesota Public Broadband Alliance.

Sohn pointed to the federal Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, launched in 2020, where providers defaulted on 80 percent of more than $400 million in Minnesota awards. “These numbers are nothing less than tragic,” she said.