The press release from the Blandin Foundation on the conference earlier this month…
“This is a game changer,” said United States Senator Amy Klobuchar about the pending federal infrastructure bill which includes $65 billion in broadband funding. Klobuchar joined more than 100 rural Minnesota broadband champions at the Building on Broadband: Inspiring Progress conference held last week to discuss the state’s best opportunities to get fully connected.
“We have 144,000 Minnesotans in rural areas without access to high-speed Internet and the pandemic put a big, fat magnifying glass on all of it,” Klobuchar said. “It showed us the kids, sometimes ten to twenty percent of the kids in a community who had to have paper packets dropped off while the other kids were online. It was such a disparity. There are so many reasons, but at its core, if we want rural Minnesota to thrive, and we don’t want everyone living in the big population centers of the state, we’ve got to have broadband there.”
For years, rural leaders have been putting in the hard work of planning and partnering to be prepared for the broadband funding opportunities now lining up. If passed, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding for broadband will join with existing funding from the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) and the American Rescue Plan Act’s Capital Projects Fund to bring millions in broadband funding to Minnesota.
Organizing together to make the most of the coming federal and state funding was the central topic of the conference, hosted by Blandin Foundation with support from the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development, Growth & Justice, Collectivity and Lead for Minnesota. Coordination of the multiple funding streams and geographic project eligibility are among the top two questions of broadband champions right now.
“There is more public funding available for broadband now than ever,” said conference speaker and Pine County Economic Development Coordinator Lezlie Sauter. “All the funding is getting providers to talk to us much more easily than in the past and the pandemic has changed minds about the importance of broadband in the super rural parts of our communities. Now is the time to collaborate together for stronger applications.”
The statewide conference was the culmination of eight regional broadband meetings where more than 300 Minnesotans shared their thoughts on what the state needs to prepare for the coming broadband funding. Key themes from across the eight meetings included the need for more local broadband champions, frequent and digestible funding updates for community champions, cross-county coordination and adaptive funding mechanisms that incentivize broadband providers.
“Listening to the regional conferences, it became so clear how human of a challenge this is,” said Benya Kraus, executive director of Lead for Minnesota. “You think broadband is such a tech-oriented conversation…but the difference between a community that has figured it out and one that hasn’t isn’t whether or not you had a bunch of tech experts, but if you have the grit as a community, the collaboration and the sustained people power.”
While people power is essential for broadband work, not all communities have the capacity and resources to direct towards solving broadband connectivity issues. Yet broadband remains a critical key to a high quality of life in rural places, from access to online education to tele-mental health counseling, job searching to online elder care, broadband connectivity.
“After years of hard work, partnerships and planning, many rural leaders have laid the groundwork for these funding opportunities, and yet there’s still more work to do,” said Tuleah Palmer, president and CEO of Blandin Foundation. “Existing broadband funding and programs, including Blandin Foundation’s own work, have done a good job in communities where there’s readiness. Now we need to work together to reach deeper into the hard-to-reach communities to bring broadband to the last mile.”
As a resource for community broadband planning, the 2020 Minnesota County Broadband Profiles were released during the conference. These profiles can help rural leaders identify gaps in access and use, as well as learn from other more-connected counties. Find them at https://bit.ly/MNbroadbandprofiles
Now What? Regional Gatherings Report Out: Next steps for Minnesota’s regions
Dr. Christopher Ali is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia and Knight News Innovation Fellow with the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. His research and writing focus on broadband policy, planning, and deployment, particularly in rural communities. He is the author of the new book 
Adrianne B. Furniss is Executive Director and board member of the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. For 40 years, the Benton Institute has helped strengthen communities by advancing communications policy in the public interest while providing day-to-day support and resources to the community of people who care about “broadband for all.”
Joe Buttweiler, Director of Business Development, CTC
Mark Mrla, Director, Strategy Operations, Finley Engineering
Whitney Ridlon, Community Development Rep., MN Dept of Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation
Barbara Dröher Kline, Le Sueur County Broadband
Justin Forde, Senior Director of Government Relations, Midco
Kyle Moorhead, Founder, Hometown Fiber
Bill Coleman, Principal, Community Technology Advisors
Benjamin Winchester, Rural Sociology Educator, University of Minnesota Extension.
Ann Treacy, Treacy Information Services
Anne Hoyt Taff, Associate Vice President of Community Impact, Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation
Bernadine Joselyn has served as director of Blandin Foundation’s Public Policy and Engagement program since 2001. Here she leads efforts to facilitate the building of knowledge and catalyze community action around issues and opportunities that align with the Foundation’s mission of strengthening rural Minnesota communities, especially the Grand Rapids area.
Christopher Mitchell, Director, Community Broadband Networks initiative, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Diane Wells has over 34 years of experience working with telecommunications and broadband issues for the State of Minnesota. She joined the Office of Broadband Development at the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development at its inception in 2013. Prior to joining the Office, Ms. Wells managed the telecommunications division at the MN Department of Commerce for eight years and served on the telecommunications staff of the MN Public Utilities Commission for 17 years. Ms. Wells received her undergraduate degree from St. Cloud State University and her M.P.A. from the University of Texas in Austin.
Kendra Jo is no stranger to the Island Institute’s mission. She first came to Maine, by way of her home state of West Virginia, as an Island Fellow on Islesboro in 2013. During her fellowship, she worked to connect island families to readily available resources on the mainland and revive the Social Services Liaison at the Islesboro Town Office. In the years since her fellowship, Kendra Jo worked for the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association as the Community Programs and Operations Manager. She holds a BA in Human Development & Family Studies with a concentration in Rural Families from the University of Connecticut.
Edward Hilbrich, Manufactured Housing Project Coordinator, Libraries Without Borders
Joe Miller is Project Manager – Digital Equity and Strategy at Literacy Minnesota. He is at the forefront of research and development at the nonprofit when digital equity intersects with the literacy cause, which has included management of projects in partnership with the AmeriCorps Emergency Response Initiative and the Minnesota Department of Education. Prior to his current role, Joe taught English in North Minneapolis with Literacy Minnesota and North Sumatra, Indonesia with the Fulbright Program. His undergraduate degree is in economics and political science from St. Olaf College, and he has previous professional experience in operations at a nonprofit in the Brainerd Lakes Area, Minnesota Hockey Camps.
Kristian Braekkan joined Region Nine in February 2018. His work relates to resource development, economic development, and industrial projects. Kristian completed his Ph.D. at Virginia Tech in 2010. His research on industrial relations spans a wide variety of contexts, such as steel, coal, health care, manufacturing, and service industries. He has presented and published his research domestically and internationally.
Alejandra Bejarano joined Region Nine in August of 2021 as an economic recovery planner. As a previous Region Nine intern and Fellow for the 
Abraham (Abe) Levine is CEO of Brainware Partners, a high technology consulting firm specializing in executive and technical services for telecommunications, and software, in addition to companies in the trucking industry. He is also working with a major company in the streaming television industry and Chairman of the St. Louis Park, MN Community Technology Advisory Commission dealing with smart city applications.
Blandin on Broadband 