The MN Broadband Task Force met at Farmfest today. It was a short meeting, but they got to spend time with panelists who work in the ag business. It was interesting to hear from folks who have been (or still are) living on the slow end of the broadband divide. Also, there was an interesting push-pull conversation about precision agriculture and the growing need for data and the ability to process it with the energy it requires and the possible impact on local water.

2:30 p.m. – 2:35 p.m.   Welcome – Teddy Bekele, Chair, Minnesota Governor’s Task Force on Broadband

2:35 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.   Roll Call + Approval of minutes from June Task Force Meeting – Described the Task Force and had Task Force members introduce themselves.

2:40 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.  Relationship between agriculture in Minnesota, and fast, reliable broadband – Panel discussion between representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Farmer’s Union, and Farm Bureau on the relationship between agriculture in Minnesota, and fast, reliable broadband.  

Three panelists from rural/ag communities talk about their broadband needs.

Where is broadband needed?

• Cooperatives have been powerful in getting broadband to rural MN. We get broadband from our local coop. (It’s the year of the cooperative.)
• In most places, there’s one broadband provider. That’s fine when the provider is good but we need competitive in areas where that isn’t true.
• Farmers use data – especially uploading data.
• During COVID we really learned the importance of good broadband. Until we got better broadband, we have five ways to get online in our home.
• Broadband can mean a resurgence for rural towns and communities. When people can work from home, they can live anywhere.
• Broadband helps the largest and smallest farms.
• Coops are great.

What would a connected community look like to you?

• Just being connected would make a difference to keeping small towns alive.
• In Pine City, we are seeing people move to our community. Often farmers need a second job for income and insurance.
• Data gets bigger and bigger – we need broadband to manage it. Especially for precision ag.

What are the challenges to broadband?

What do you think of AI impacting ag?

• It’s going to harness actionable data – for crops and livestock
• We’re getting pitched on AI all of the time. We’re skeptical but we’re watching it. We’re not into it if is leads to more consolidation.
• AI will double our energy needs and MN has made a commitment to clean energy – this seems in conflict and we need to have a conversation about that.
• Our population is changing. We need greater diversity in farmers – so nice to have translation services.
• Data collected on water and nitrates is also positive.
• There do need to be checks and balances.

How are you holding federal and state agencies accountable for things like BEAD and USF changes?

• No audible answer

How important is latency to you?

• I don’t notice it with fiber – but I’m not on satellite or wifi.
• Fiber has been so reliable for us.
• This was an issue with teenage gamers at home but when we moved from Stalink to ECE we have fewer complaints. I also don’t hears as much from our neighbors. Farmers have to upload a lot and it had been an issue but as more fiber is available we see fewer issues.
• From dialup to fiber – it’s been great. With email, it does matter. With videoconferencing, we notice the difference. BUT autonomous operations cannot tolerate latency.
• We have seen lots of applications that need best broadband at Farmfest.

How can the TF help you?

• Speed is 25/3 – but we need more. We need 100/100 and eventually gig access – especially with fully autonomous applications.
• The efforts to get last mile are not working. We need a better plan.
• I hear from people who go from crappy to good service and its life-changing.

There’s no State funding in the budget because we thought federal funding would work. But if it doesn’t – what do you need legislators to do/think?

• The need will only continue to grow. 25/3 will not handle the growth for long.
• One size does not fit all. I live in an area without trees, so wireless works for us.
• If there’s limited funds, maybe we need to focus funding.
• The push for fiber may not be affordable for everyone, we need to go with cheapest choices.

Q: From precision ag: As data centers are moving closer to the home, do you have concerns or ideas?

• There’s concern about data centers on ag land – especially when it comes to water and water needs. Especially in southern and southeast MN.
• Ditto
• There used to be a concern – there’s a push and pull between water and energy needs. You want to use AI on the farm but it can’t be taken away because energy needs it. Making sure that tech companies work with communities is important.

Q: Economic development in SE MN: Is there any movement to get back RDOF funds?

• It would be great
• RDOF defaulted locations were at least re-added to the BEAD maps. But it is unlikely that we will recover the funding.

Q: Economic development in SE MN: Is there a push to get FTTH funding for communities that are “served” (according to the maps) by national providers but aren’t really served?

• Local communities who aren’t served need to work on their situation
• We need competition and we need to find a way to incentivize competition. We had a national provider who years, who never met our needs.
• I’m not a fan of municipal providers but maybe if the municipal providers went with a open access model. You need to put out an RFP.

Why are you so passionate about broadband?

• Three kids. The ability to learn and educate yourself. (Can’t be a YouTube mechanic on sate.)
• Geofencing looks exciting.
• Direct sales works better with broadband. Some farms have moved to entirely online sales.
• We are building out a weather station across the state to get real time climate information. It helps farmers save money and take climate in consideration.
• Technology is a way to get the next generation of farmers interested.
• Also next generation of ag careers is very technical. Broadband is critical to that.
• Broadband makes it possible to stay in rural MN.

3:30 p.m. – 3:45 p.m.  Office of Broadband Development Updates

Bree Maki, Executive Director, OBD

• MN State Grants
• Border to border grants provide funding to providers to reach expensive areas to serve
• Lower population grants does similar but for even higher cost areas
• Line Extension allows residents and businesses to request help
• OBD is visiting communities that received funding.
• We have 3 different grant rounds of MN funding happening now. (These are folks who got funding in the past.)
• Line Extension funds need to get spent by end of 2026.
• New hire on land use is doing a great job and helping folks with permitting.
• If you need better service, please take a look at our Line Extension program.
• We brough legislators to see a broadband provider and speed testing.
• We give lessons to decision makers on how to work with fiber
• BEAD
• In May we were told to start the grant process over due to federal changes.
• We just finished our first grant application round – it left 22,000 of the 76,000 eligible locations without a first-round bid
• Yesterday we got new grant guidance
• We need to do a public comment period for our final proposal – it will start on Aug 28 and hope to do a webinar to introduce that.
• We are soliciting letters of support from local organizations to include with our final proposal. We want to make sure that BEAD eligible locations are correct on the maps we are using.
• It seems like we may need State funding to meet State funding goals.                                                              

3:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. Other Business, September Meeting Plans, Annual Report Discussion, Wrap-up

• Future task force meetings will focus more on the upcoming report.