Broadband Matters Matters Dec 17 2025: Year in Review

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From the Office of Broadband Development…

From the Office of Broadband Development:
Thank you for your continued engagement through 2025!
OBD’s work connecting all Minnesotans to fast, reliable, broadband is made possible by our ongoing collaboration with partners statewide.

Broadband Matters: Office of Broadband Development Updates

  • Minnesota Broadband, a year in review
  • Broadband Task Force 2026 meeting schedule
  • BEAD updates + resources
  • Line Extension Connection Program update

Minnesota Broadband, a year in review

The OBD has had a busy year managing grants from Border-to-Border (B2B) and Low Density Population, Line Extension Connection Program, and continuing the state’s mapping program.

Highlights at the beginning of December 2025 include:

  • Managed a total of 189 grants from B2B Rounds 7-10 (including Low Density) and Line Extension Rounds 1-3, and there are 78 active projects.
  • The OBD Grants team have closed a total of 72 projects this year, with 41 of those closed in the past 6 months and 39 projects currently pending closed.
  • Line Extension Round 2 saw all 13 projects built as of 6/30/2025 and for Round 3, all 16 projects will be built by 12/31/2025.
  • Between June—November, OBD Grant Staff completed over 50 site visits statewide across broadband projects and programs.
  • Connected Nation, Minnesota’s mapping vendor, completed field validation for over 70 State and Capital Projects Fund grant projects in 2025, and in the process verified construction completeness at more than 35,000 locations.
  • Fielded 180+ inquires on Line Extension over phone and email, resulting in nearly 60 registrations for the program, and over 35 registrations from applications submitted by mail.

Broadband Task Force 2026 meeting schedule

The Broadband Task Force will have a final scheduled meeting of 2025 on Thursday December 18 at 10 a.m. This meeting will be held virtually and is open to anyone from the public to attend, the Teams link to join is available on the meeting agenda.

During 2026, the Broadband Task Force will plan to meet:

  • Thursday, January 22
  • Wednesday, February 18
  • Wednesday, April 29
  • Thursday, May 21
  • Thursday, June 18
  • Thursday, August 13
  • Wednesday, September 16
  • Thursday, October 8
  • Thursday, November 12
  • Thursday, December 10

This schedule, along with other information on past and future meetings, will be posted on the Broadband Task Force webpage.

BEAD updates + resources

OBD continues with rounds of curing with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) on the submitted draft of the BEAD Final Proposal. Minnesota expects approval on the Final Proposal by the end of the year, and status of BEAD nationally can be followed on NTIA’s BEAD Progress Dashboard.

Additional updates resources on BEAD include:

Line Extension Connection Program update

The Round 4 Line Extension bidding window closed on November 25, 2025.

OBD is evaluating the bids submitted during Round 4 and expects to announce award decisions before year end. Updates will be posted to the OBD Line Extension Connection Program webpage.

While the window for residential and business sign-ups to be included in the bidding for Round 4 of the Line Extension Connection Program closed, registration will remain open for future rounds if and as funding is available on the Line Extension Connection Program webpage. OBD 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.

This is OBD’s last newsletter for the 2025 year, see you in 2026!

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