Category Archives: Community Networks

Pipestone County to invest almost $300,000 in match for potential MN Broadband grant

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The Pipestone County Star reports…

Pipestone County Commissioners during their Oct. 24 meeting voted to provide $268,822 for a fiber optic internet project Woodstock Communications is planning for the rural area around Hatfield. The funds are contingent upon 75 percent of the total project cost being paid for by a grant.

Woodstock Communications already provides fiber internet access to the northeast part of the county and the cities of Edgerton, Ruthton, Holland and Woodstock. The project in the Hatfield area would provide fiber internet access from state Highway 23 down to the Hatfield area for an estimated cost of $2,150,574. Woodstock Communications General Manager Terry Nelson said an added benefit to the company would be that the project would bring it closer to Pipestone.

“For us that’s a plus,” he said. “We can eventually go in and build out some of the areas around there.”

Nelson said he plans to seek a Minnesota Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant that could cover up to 75 percent of the cost, which would be $1,612,931. That would leave $537,644, which Nelson said is not feasible for the Ruthton-based company. He asked if the county would consider splitting that amount, which he said would make it feasible. …

The commissioners plan to take the funds from the family services fund that’s left over from when the county operated its own family services, which had $764,251.17 in it as of September.

Applications for Border-to-Border grants are due by Dec. 7 and awards are anticipated to be announced in the winter of 2024, according to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. Nelson said that if funds are awarded for the project, construction would probably begin in 2025. Projects need to be complete by June 30, 2026.

Bois Forte Band broadband project nearly to bidding process around Orr MN (St Louis County)

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The Timberjay reports…

After a delay in the state’s required historical review process, construction bids will soon be sought for the $19.8 million Bois Forte Band high-speed broadband project serving the south shore of Lake Vermilion and areas around Orr.
Bois Forte Information Technology Director Randy Long said on Tuesday that the detailed engineering for the project, which is being done in partnership with CTC Telecom, is “pretty much wrapped up.”
The band had originally hoped to break ground on the project this year, but a mandated review of plans by the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) has taken far longer than expected.

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Long noted last fall that the final scope of the deployment could be curtailed somewhat depending on the availability and cost of fiber optic cable and equipment, as well as unanticipated construction costs, which could be likely when dealing with Vermilion’s rocky south shore. The original plan was to start just west of Tower, and stretch fiber optic broadband all the way to the west end of Lake Vermilion, wrapping around the whole of Head of the Lakes Bay. The southern border for broadband deployment would be Hwy. 115 up to about Wakely Rd, where it would then taper to the northwest and Head of the Lakes Bay. The Orr portion of the development would include residential and resort areas along the northwest shore of Pelican Lake and west along Nett Lake Rd. to serve the major areas of residential and commercial properties along the south shore.
The new system will connect with another Band project serving the Vermilion and Nett Lake sectors and Indian Point on Pelican Lake. Sign-ups for those systems have been taking place, and Long said the systems will be coming online soon.
“We have our first customers being lit up on Oct. 30 – that’s for the Nett Lake, Palmquist, and Indian Point areas,” Long said. “And then Nov. 9 we’re doing sign ups for the Vermilion sector and will probably turn them on in mid-November.”
Long said the partnership with CTC has worked well.

Paul Bunyan Communications expanding broadband near Ash Lake (St Louis County)

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The Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) email newsletter, The Ranger, reports…

Paul Bunyan Communications (PBC) is currently extending one of the fastest rural all-fiber optic networks in the United States, the GigaZone™ to approximately 66 unserved households in an area around Ash Lake in rural northwestern St. Louis County (SLC). The locations will soon have access to fiber optic fast broadband with speeds up to 10 Gbps, along with voice telephone services. Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation supported the project with a $101,000 Broadband Infrastructure grant to PBC. SLC also provided funding. Total project investment is estimated at $270,000.
The project area is about 15 miles north of Orr and 25 miles south of Ray near US Highway 53. Because the entire project area was considered unserved, it likely would have never received basic broadband service without external assistance. The Ash Lake project has approximately four miles of mainline fiber optic cable and is scheduled to be completed in December.
The 66 locations that will receive new service only had access to internet speeds below 10 Mbps, if any. SLC is Minnesota’s largest county at over 6,200 square miles in size and has the highest number of unserved households in the state.
“This project will give the people and homes access to the fastest internet speeds available, both upload and download speeds up to 10 Gig,” said Steve Howard, Paul Bunyan Communications’ IT & Development Manager. “It will be a huge service improvement for everyone in the project area. In addition to the 66 locations passed, Paul Bunyan Communications was able to leverage the fiber installed to provide services to mobile phone towers. The expanded mobile phone coverage will greatly improve communications throughout the area.”
The GigaZone™ not only provides the capacity to handle current communication technologies quickly and efficiently, but it will also meet the increasing demands of the next generation of broadband innovations. For example, initially the network provided a maximum speed of 1 Gigabit per second, but the technology advanced by 2021 so that the cooperative can now offer speeds up to 10 Gigabits per second.
Paul Bunyan Communications started as a telephone cooperative in 1952 and has grown into the largest broadband cooperative in Minnesota serving over 6,000 square miles throughout most of Beltrami County and portions of Cass, Hubbard, Itasca, Koochiching, and St. Louis Counties. In addition to fiber optic fast Internet speeds up to 10 Gig powered by the GigaZone™, the cooperative offers television services, digital voice services, Residential and Business IT services, and is also the home of northern Minnesota’s certified Apple Service Centers in Bemidji and Grand Rapids.
Email Whitney Ridlon or call her at 218-735-3004 for Broadband Infrastructure grant information.

Willmar City Council approves Hometown Fiber contract to build open access network

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Willmar Radio reports…

The Willmar City Council this week approved a service contract with Home Town Fiber of Maple Grove. Willmar Operations Director Kyle Box says the company will be working on engineering plans for an open access fiber network that they want to begin installing in every home and business in Willmar for high-speed internet…

…Box says the project will be paid for by Home Town Fiber and customers who use the open access fiber network. If built, Willmar would be the first city in Minnesota with an open access fiber network…

…One the lines are laid, any internet service provider will be able to use the open access fiber network and charge customers for service. Hometown Fiber hopes to begin laying down the lines next spring.

Celebrating 10 years of Carver County’s CarverLink Fiber Network

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Time flies when you’ve got fiber! I remember the start of CarverLink and I’m thankful that they’d share their highlights. Like all overnight success stories, it takes more than a day. Carver County got ARRA funding, which helped greatly. Any community interested in BEAD funding might take a look at how Carver made it happen…

It is hard to believe but September 2023 is the 10 year “Go Live” anniversary of Carver County’s CarverLink Public Fiber Network.  Oh, how we have grown over the past decade.

The primary purpose for CarverLink is to provide quality and reliable fiber connectivity to support the County’s operations, from sheriff and public works activities to our libraries, parks and license centers.  The secondary purpose for CarverLink is threefold 1) Provide fiber connectivity to our 20+ public and community support partners; 2) Provide a fiber network that is available to private service providers (such as Metronet, Arvig and others) to make available high speed broadband to our businesses and residents; 3) Utilize CarverLink’s fiber resources to make available appropriate connectivity options to other regional public entities via fiber barters, sharing and collaborations that benefit the County and/or region.

All this growth is possible because of the strong “family” relationship we have built with our public and community support partners coupled with the County Board’s understanding of the value and long term commitment to devote resources to broadband.  This commitment and understanding is helping us towards reaching our goal of becoming the first county in the State to make available high speed broadband to all locations within the County that desire it.

And we absolutely need to call out the positive and mutually beneficial public-private relationship we have had and continue to have with our primary fiber partner Metronet (previously Jaguar Communications).  The noncompetitive, non-adversarial, shared vision and true desire for mutual success from both parties is what has made this public private collaboration a success and a relationship to be mirrored for other public private partnerships.

A little history on Carver County’s fiber efforts over the past 15 years

  • Between 2007-2010 Carver County identifies the need for fiber connectivity and dedicates resources to work on multiple design and associated funding options to construct a fiber network, which includes multiple submissions for broadband grant funding from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
  • Aug 2010 the County is notified it is an awardee of a $6 million grant for a $7.5 million fiber project from ARRA funding for a public private partnership project with Jaguar Communications to construct a 122 mile fiber network
  • Feb 2011 the County lights up its first ever fiber segment, which runs from the Carver County Govt Center in Chaska to the Scott County Govt Center in Shakopee underneath the MN River on Hwy 41
  • August 2011 the County begins construction on the partially ARRA funded CarverLink fiber network constructing a segment between Chaska and City of Carver
  • April 2013 based on an urgent request from Eastern Carver County Schools District 112 due to a major need for bandwidth currently unavailable from any existing private service providers, CarverLink connects to and begins providing internet service to the Chanhassen High School making them our first connected public entity partner
  • Sept 2013 Carver County’s newly renamed CarverLink fiber network officially goes live
  • July 2015 based on unprecedented public entity use, CarverLink hits its peak maximum bandwidth limit 3 years early
  • Sept 2016 CarverLink upgrades to a fully operational 10GB network, alleviating its bandwidth bottleneck
  • Dec 2016, Jaguar Communications, the County’s primary fiber partner, completes its first city fiber overlay in Carver County in the City of NYA, which means it made fiber connectivity available to all addresses located within city limits
  • Oct 2018 CarverLink executes its first fiber collaboration with another non Carver County entity, Hennepin County
  • July 2020 Metronet acquires Jaguar Communications, CarverLink’s primary fiber network partner
  • Sept 2022 CarverLink completes ¾ million dollar project that completely replaces all CarverLink’s legacy network electronics and upgrades the network from a 10GB to a 25GB mesh fabric network.
  • June 2022 the County Board approves the largest expansion in history to the CarverLink network allocating $6.5 million for a $10.5 million project called Connect Up Carver that will build over 350 miles of fiber to over 2200 rural locations, with the fiber construction bid won by Metronet
  • March 2023 Metronet activates service to the first two customers from the CarverLink Connect Up Carver project which are in rural Hamburg, MN
  • Sept 2023 CarverLink completes construction of roughly 200 miles of the 350 miles of Connect Up Carver fiber build
  • Sept 2023 the County Board unanimously approves moving forward with the preliminary 2024 recommended budget which includes $2.5 million that would be utilized to expand the current Connect Up Carver project with a Connect Up Carver 2.0 project. This project and funding would essentially provide the County what it needs to become the first County in the State of MN to make available high speed bandwidth to all locations within the County that want it.

If you are interested in finding out more about the County’s broadband activities, which includes our ongoing $10.5 million, 350 mile Connect Up Carver fiber expansion, and many other programs and initiatives, visit the County’s newly updated CarverLink website at https://carverlink.com/broadband-efforts/.

Could BEAD funding help with phone service in rural Minnesota?

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Fierce Telecom writes about how BEAD funding might help support better phone service in rural areas through VoIP. The idea is that states might ask/require funding recipients to offer phone service as well as broadband in applications for funds. There are two ways that broadband would help improve phone service. Through fiber, providers could offer VoIP (voice over IP) telephone service, which would feel to the end user like a landline. Also, increased local fiber could mean fiber to local towers, which would improve cell coverage (5G).

Increased cell phone coverage would be valuable. If you drive through rural areas, you’ll notice dropped or degraded calls in certain places. (That being said, you’ll notice the same walking around my neighborhood in St Paul!) VoIP for “landline” is compelling to me if it is affordable and will work when the power goes out. Maybe something like that is possible.

There is one sticky wicket when it comes to broadband and phone service in Minnesota. It is a barrier to municipalities looking to provide service. They can do it but only after voter approval – and it requires a super majority…

Minnesota requires municipalities to obtain a super-majority of 65% of the voters before providing local exchange services or facilities used to support communications services. (Minn. Stat. Ann. § 237.19). Also, the council of a municipality has the power improve, construct, extend, and maintain facilities for Internet access and other communications purposes, if the council finds that: (i) the facilities are necessary to make available Internet access or other communications services that are not and will not be available through other providers or the private market in the reasonably foreseeable future; and (ii) the service to be provided by the facilities will not compete with service provided by private entities. (Minn. Stat. Ann. § 429.021)

Broadband rally cry at the Le Sueur County Fair

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I love a county fair. It’s great way to see what folks are interested in, what’s their point of pain and who I might see in the competitions at the State Fair next week. Today I was visiting the Le Sueur County Broadband Initiative booth at the Broadband rally cry at the Le Sueur County Fair. They were showing off their new Blandin Foundation-supported community coffee-ice cream truck, offering folks free coffee (and even better when it’s nearly 90 degrees iced coffee), and asking folks about their internet connection. (Thanks to Barbara Droher-Kline for the tour and the invitation!)

Lots of folks sought out the broadband booth. Others were lured in by the coffee. Typical was the family with three kids under five, saying the broadband was OK but they were going to need better soon. Especially since the pandemic shutdown, I think parents are acutely aware of the importance of broadband and education.

The Le Sueur County Broadband Initiative representatives asked folks to take speed test at home and explained their community-led challenge process. They are working with residents to report cases when what a provider reports to the FCC as their top speeds does not match with what the household at the location can actually get. They are concerned that overreporting by providers has led to the county seeming better served than they are and therefore in a position to lose out on federal funding to close the gap.

They also had some providers and other broadband-interested folks at the booth to answer questions and just see how things were going.

Now is a good time to get community members involved. Everyone has been talking about the $652 million in broadband funding coming to Minnesota. We’re at a stage where that final budget was announced. and the states are working on their initial proposals for the funding. After that there will be a time for public comments. Le Sueur County will be prepared to respond if they don’t like what they see because they will have information on where the maps may be problematic, and they will have feedback from residents.

Nuvera – Prior Lake gig network is expanding

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From the City of Prior Lake…

Nuvera’s Gig Cities Fiber infrastructure project is beginning its second year of building and connecting customers in Prior Lake. Nuvera’s infrastructure investment in Prior Lake is estimated at around $14 million, and expects to reach 6,400 Prior Lake customers by the fall. The multi-year project will expand into more neighborhoods next year.

Crews are currently working across the community to install main fiber lines and then connect the network directly to customers homes in several areas including The Wilds and Willows neighborhoods, and also the Sand Point and Fairlawn areas. Nuvera’s new fiber network runs through the community and is buried underground, connecting directly to the customer’s home.

When Nuvera work reaches your neighborhood, you’ll notice the company has marked rights-of-way areas where work is occurring with flags or paint. This indicates where fiber lines will be placed. All flags and paint will be removed once work is complete.

Nuvera is communicating directly with its customers to connect the fiber network to their home. As part of the active construction process, once a customer’s yard is marked by Nuvera with rights-of-way flags or paint, the company requests the customer mark additional areas including underground sprinklers, invisible fencing, irrigation or private power. Once work to bury and connect fiber lines is complete, restoration of property is a key priority for Nuvera. Restoration is a two-step process:

  • Step one: Ensure the construction area is safe, by filling holes with sand. This allows time for settling before final restoration.
  • Step two: Work crews return and complete the site restoration after construction is complete. This will take up to one week. The final restoration includes filling the impacted areas with black dirt/topsoil and grass seed.

Nuvera is only connecting its network to existing customers homes. New customers interested in switching to Nuvera, need to sign-up for presale service to be included in the build plan and to secure the placement of fiber facilities at no charge. To sign up for new services, visit NuveraGigCities.com or contact Nuvera at 952-226-7000.

Willmar is working with Hometown Fiber on Open Access Fiber Model

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Willmar Radio reports…

The City of Willmar continues to work toward getting the first Open Access Fiber system in the state. Willmar Planning and Development Director Justice Walker says Hometown Fiber of Maple Grove wants to install fiber-optic cable throughout the city, and then lease it out to anyone who wants to become an Internet Service Provider.

The City is drafting a use agreement with Hometown Fiber. Once that’s drafted, they’ve move forward with the bonding process to fund the network. It will take about three months to determine whether it makes sense financially to move forward.

Wynne Ridge area in White Township gets better broadband with Mediacom (St Louis County)

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The Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation newsletter (The Ranger) reports…

Mediacom Communications Corporation constructed a new fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) network to the Wynne Ridge Rock N Pines residential area. The project involved 25 unserved households within White Township and a portion of Biwabik Township near Giants Ridge Recreation Area. Wynne Ridge residents can now connect to Mediacom’s Xtream internet service that delivers download speeds of up to 2Gig and upload speeds of up to 1Gig. The Wynne Ridge network was built using an advanced 10G broadband platform that delivers multi-gigabit speeds while supporting higher reliability, high security and low latency.
Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation supported the project with a $65,000 Broadband Infrastructure grant to White Township. The total project investment was $180,165.
“Our new 10G platform is future-ready,” said Jason Janesich, Mediacom’s director of area operations. “The fiber network deployed in the Wynne Ridge neighborhood has more than enough capacity for today’s data needs, and capacity for future needs as well.”
The project was initiated after White Township received a petition from a group of Wynne Ridge residents whose homes were unserved by broadband or high-speed internet service. There is high speed broadband infrastructure throughout the Giants Ridge Recreation Area, but there was a pocket within Wynne Ridge that was unserved and dependent upon slow and unreliable satellite internet service. The geographic gap and lack of service posed significant challenges to the residents who work remotely from home, area business owners, educators and students. In response to the petition, White Township partnered with St. Louis County and Mediacom to proceed with construction of FTTH.
“Our township is very grateful for not only the financial support provided by Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation, St. Louis County and Mediacom, but also for the leadership and collaboration of everyone involved,” said Jodi Knaus, White Township manager and clerk. “This project is a great example of what working together across different agencies regionally can accomplish. The Township Board of Supervisors will continue to collaborate with area leaders bringing broadband infrastructure projects to underserved areas in the township.”
Mediacom is a leading gigabit broadband provider to smaller markets primarily in the Midwest and Southeast. Mediacom has offered Gig-speed internet to Minnesota residents in all areas of its 48-county service area for more than six years. In addition to Wynne Ridge, Mediacom’s fiber-based network delivers Gigabit-speed broadband service throughout St. Louis County including the communities of Aurora, Biwabik, Buhl, Chisholm, Eveleth, Gilbert, Hermantown, Hibbing, Hoyt Lakes, Kinney, McKinley, Mountain Iron, Proctor and Virginia; and in parts of Fayal, Midway, Solway and White Townships. Nearly 25% of Mediacom’s broadband customers choose to use 1 Gig speeds, and the company is transitioning its network to a 10G platform.
Learn more about Mediacom.

Martin County approves two ARPA broadband grants

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The Fairmont Sentinel reports…

The Martin County Economic Development Authority board held a meeting on Monday and approved two broadband development grants as well as measures which will provide event management training. The board also launched a new website.

The board approved two grant requests from its rural broadband development program. The first was submitted by Bevcomm and requested $71,879 which would fund 25 percent of $287,516 which would serve 128 households and 13 additional locations in the Granada area. The second project was a much larger project submitted by Federated REA which would connect much of rural Martin County.

Here’s a little bit more about the Martin County Broadband Partnership Project…

The board approved two grant requests from its rural broadband development program. The first was submitted by Bevcomm and requested $71,879 which would fund 25 percent of $287,516 which would serve 128 households and 13 additional locations in the Granada area. The second project was a much larger project submitted by Federated REA which would connect much of rural Martin County.

The funding for the project comes from ARPA funds.

Duluth is looking at using proceeds from Cirrus property sale go to fund local broadband

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Duluth News Tribune reports…

A proposal to direct the proceeds from the sale of a facility to Cirrus Aircraft into a dedicated fund intended to support local efforts to launch a city-owned broadband system received a lukewarm reception at a meeting of the Duluth Economic Development Authority Wednesday evening.

A “statement of purpose” attached to a resolution authorizing the sale of an aviation incubator building to Cirrus for $3.45 million said: “Proceeds of the sale will be used to fund the city’s broadband internet project.”

But DEDA commissioner and at large city councilor Arik Forsman said he could support the resolution only with the understanding that it would not obligate funds for a project that has not yet received council approval.

They already have a fund set up…

Already, the city has directed about $2 million into the broadband fund, with half that money coming from the American Rescue Plan Act and the remainder coming from a decommissioned tax-increment financing district.

Fleege said the proceeds from the sale of the incubator building to Cirrus would bring the balance in the broadband fund to about $5.4 million.

The resolution passed, but it seems like the part of the reason is desire for better broadband and part is desire for a place to park the funds outside of the general funds…

DEDA Commissioner and 3rd District City Councilor Roz Randorf, moved to amend the resolution’s statement of purpose to say proceeds from the property sale to Cirrus “may be” used to fund the city’s broadband internet project, “subject to council approval.” Her motion was seconded and approved by a 6-0 vote before the amended resolution passed by the same margin.

Will Minnesota’s municipal network barriers delay BEAD funding?

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Broadband Now reports…

For decades, municipal broadband operations have been subject to a minefield of restrictions and barriers designed to make the prospect of establishing or maintaining a community broadband network costly, difficult, and unsustainable.

There are currently 17 states in total that have restrictive legislation against municipal broadband networks in the U.S. To explore further, see a directory of all internet providers in the United States or enter a ZIP code to find all internet providers in your area.

Although no states have managed to remove their restrictions in 2022, 2023 could be the year that things begin to change for states that have historically been opposed to allowing for a public option. A key stipulation in the language surrounding the BEAD grants may set up a large-scale, politically motivated battleground.

Minnesota is on that list…

Minnesota

Minn. Stat. Ann. § 237.19; Minn. Stat. Ann. § 429.021

Minnesota state laws require municipal governments proposing to offer telecommunications exchange to obtain a referendum “supermajority” of 65% of voters to proceed. Municipal governments are able to construct, extend, improve and maintain facilities for Internet access only if the city council finds that the proposed broadband network and service will not compete with existing services provided by private telecom companies, or if such services are not and will not be available through private telecom companies in the foreseeable future.

Find and Compare Internet Providers in Minnesota.

The Legislature is in session now. Now would be a good time to look into what would be needed to remove of minimize the barrier.

EVENT Mar 28: City of Jenkins looks at subsidizing broadband

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Pine and Lakes Echo Journal reports…

CITY OF JENKINS CROW WING COUNTY STATE OF MINNSOTA NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED BUSINESS SUBSIDY CRITERIA AND AGREEMENT NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that City Council of Jenkins, Crow Wing County, Minnesota will meet at or after 4:30 p.m. on March 28, 2023 at Jenkins City Hall located at 33861 Cottage Ave, Jenkins, Minnesota 56474 to conduct a public hearing to consider adopting criteria for the granting of business subsidies and also to consider granting a business subsidy to Emily Consolidated Telephone Company dba ECTC under Minnesota Statutes, Sections 116J.993 through 116J.995, as amended, to assist in expanding rural broadband capacity within the Township. A draft copy of the business subsidy criteria and Broadband Development Agreement are available for public inspection on and after the date of this notice by contacting or submitting a written request to the City Clerk.

EVENT March 27: Ramset County Connectivity Blueprint Community Report-Back

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From the Connectivity Blueprint Team…

The final Connectivity Blueprint report will be released Mar. 27. You’re invited to attend the Community Report-Back on Monday, Mar. 27 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. over Zoom. Click here to register. 

We want you to hear what community members shared throughout the process, and how that has contributed to the final Connectivity Blueprint. We hope you’ll join us for this important community event. 

Today, Online Life is Woven into Daily Life for Many. 

Digital equity is at the foundation of an equitable future and an inclusive economy. The pandemic has accelerated the movement of opportunities in jobs, education, health, services, social connection and more online.

Across Ramsey County and Saint Paul, people rely on their connection to the internet for their daily lives. Every day or every week, Ramsey residents are going online to:

  • Connect with family and friends (85%)
  • Work (69%)
  • Shop (73%)
  • Go to School (45%)

Others are relying on internet access for occasional (monthly or rare) activities like:

  • Doctor appointments (67%)
  • Access public services (46%)
  • Access legal services (38%)