Paul Bunyan Communications has announced it will be expanding its all-fiber optic network the GigaZone®, to over 430 locations in areas of Kimberly, Spencer, Jevne, Flemming, and Morrison Townships east of the city of Aitkin and west of the city of Jacobson.
Anyone interested in getting connected to the all-fiber optic broadband network should sign up for service now. That can be done online, over the phone, or in person at our Grand Rapids Customer Service & Technology Center or Cooperative Headquarters in Bemidji. To check to see if a specific location is within an expansion area and learn more about the expansion construction process, visit http://www.gigazone.com. Construction will take place over the next 2 months with service installations expected to be start this winter.
Expansion construction has been delayed in Ball Bluff, Cornish, and Verdon townships. Expansion is still planned for this area and construction is expected to resume by early October.
The cooperative’s services will become available once the network is operational including GigaZone® Internet with its unprecedented broadband speeds of up to 10 Gig and low cost unlimited local and long distance GigaZone® voice telephone service. There is no membership fee to join Paul Bunyan Communications, membership is included by subscribing to either local phone service or GigaZone® Internet service.
Paul Bunyan Communications has announced it will be expanding its all-fiber optic network the GigaZone, to over 240 locations in areas of the Ball Bluff, Cornish and Verdon Townships south of the city of Jacobson this year.
Anyone interested in getting connected to the all-fiber optic broadband network should sign up for service now. “It is important for anyone interested to sign up before construction ends” explained Brian Bissonette, marketing supervisor. “If someone signs up after construction has left the area we will return to connect them to the network, but it likely will have to wait until next spring/summer for that work to be completed.” Sign up online, over the phone or in person at the Grand Rapids Customer Service & Technology Center or Cooperative Headquarters in Bemidji.
An estimated crowd of nearly 4,000 attended the GigaZone Gaming Championship & TechXpo on Saturday, April 20 at the Sanford Center. The event featured free gaming, numerous gaming tournaments, over 25 technology exhibitors, door prizes, and special guest Danielle Feinberg from Pixar Animation Studios.
This one-of-a-kind regional gaming event showcases Paul Bunyan Communications’ IT and web development team which custom built and integrated much of the online technology and leverages the speed of the GigaZone one of the largest rural all-fiber optic Gigabit networks in the country.
Team Mingle Master from Bemidji- Ayden Sander, Cameron Oakgrove, and Milo Collings won the seventh annual GigaZone Gaming Championship and the top team prize of $900. Team 50 Nations with Tyler Bos from Austin, David Bos from Brainerd, and Trevor Bos from Brainerd took home 2nd place and the $600 team prize. A total of 32 of northern Minnesota’s best Rocket League teams competed on the main stadium stage in the GigaZone Championship Arena.
In addition to the Rocket League Tournament, there was several other open tournaments including Fortnite, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Madden 25, and Overwatch 2, Valorant, Super Smash Bros. plus high score competitions in Bemidji Drift, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smugglers Revenge, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, and Donkey Kong. There were also two tournaments for juniors under 13 and Magic the Gathering Booster Drafts.
“Again this year I’m blown away by the talent and energy on display and how people, technology, and fun come together at our event. Everyone, including the participants, exhibitors, and our Paul Bunyan Communications team we’re all-in, showcasing the tech talent and enthusiasm that exists in our region. I’m proud our broadband cooperative can produce and host such an exciting event!”, said Gary Johnson, Paul Bunyan Communications CEO.
“Our cooperative continues to expand one of the largest rural fiber gigabit networks in the country and that brings many advantages to our members. The GigaZone provides extreme speed and low latency which are critical for the best online gaming experience and the GigaZone Gaming Championship & TechXpo showcases just that,” added Leo Anderson, Paul Bunyan Communications Technology Experience Manager.
“A huge shout out to our entire team for putting on one of the most unique events of this type in the country. Thank you to all of the exhibitors that were a part of the TechXpo and our local partners, we couldn’t do this without them. We’re already looking forward to next year!” added Brian Bissonette, Paul Bunyan Communications Marketing Supervisor.
This Paul Bunyan Communications event includes the talents of many local partners including NLFX, Accidently Cool Games, Northern Amusement, the Sanford Center as well support from several regional and national partners.
For more information on the GigaZone Gaming Championship visit www.gigazonegaming.com
For more information about the GigaZone TechXpo visit www.gigazonetechxpo.com
The Worthington Globe reports on the Lismore Coop’s MN broadband grant application and Nobles County’s support. It’s an interesting glimpse at all of the moving pieces involved in the application…
The Nobles County Board of Commissioners agreed to financially support Lismore Cooperative Telephone Company’s “Fiber to Home” broadband project and include the community of Bigelow in the project. The project aims to expand broadband access throughout the county.
Project director Chris Koneche of Finley Engineering said the project has seen its share of progress in recent months.
“We really appreciate working with you guys all these years,” he told the board. “We’ve made tremendous strides. The most recent win has been with the USDA Connect Round Four program. I think that’s about a $28 million project that would cover the vast majority of the rural areas in the county with fiber.”
However, Konechne said they were initially unable to include Bigelow in the project due to application restrictions.
“Because of the eligibility restrictions and the sporting criteria in that Round Four application, we didn’t think it would be a wise decision to put the city of Bigelow in that application. That application scores things on rurality … we would have lost or been graded lower in that category with USDA. Additionally, we would’ve had some challenge work with the speeds that Frontier was claiming at the time. For those two reasons and due to the size of it… when you look at this potential project with a budget of somewhere around $675,000, we didn’t think it was really worth the risk to a $28 million project to put that in there.”
Based on a scoring system, Lismore Cooperative Telephone Company Secretary Mark Loosbrock said that in order to obtain a higher level of eligibility for the 30% grant, financial support in addition to a letter of support was recommended.
The MN Broadband Task Force met at Black Bear Casino (near Fond du Lac reservation) and online today. There was a lot of talk about federal and state funding and where the Office of Broadband is in process of each.
There was also a brief discussion on bills being discussed in the Legislature now (SF4262/HF4182, SF4742/HF4659 and SF4826/HF4626). It sounds like a subcommittee wrote a letter to legislators about the bills (or maybe bill) and now Senator Putnam wants to meet with the Task Force next Thursday (April 18 from 2-3pm). The Office of Broadband Development is going to email Task Force members surveys (of a sort) to get their views on the various bills, they will analyze the information and report back to members in time for that meeting.
10:00 a.m. – 10:05 a.m. Welcome and Introductions – Teddy Bekele, Chair, Minnesota Governor’s Task Force on Broadband
10:05 a.m. – 10:10 a.m. Approval of minutes from March 20th and the April 3rd Task – Force Meetings
10:10 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Not funding ACP will have on Broadband subscribers on the reservations – Brian Hood, Operations Manager, Fond du Lac Communications
Update/history on broadband in Fond du Lac reservation from Jason Hollinday.
Fred Underwood found ways to get funding for FTTH and Blandin Foundation
Did survey with Blandin Foundation and working with MIRC and BBC
Got federal tribal grant
Formed their own telephone company (ETC)
Helped hugely during COVID
We weren’t able to collaborate as much as we wanted because of the wording of the funding. We wanted to share with neighbors beyond the reservation.
We are continually looking for ways to work with others and we being unique tools to the table including a different rule book.
10:30 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. BEAD Scoring rubric/Updated plan highlights with Diane Wells, Deputy Director, Office of Broadband Development and Bree Maki, Executive Director, Office of Broadband Development
Question: Do we know which FCC map will be used?
Hoping it’s 3 it will be most recent map before getting approval.
11:00 a.m. – 11:10 a.m. Break
10:50 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Digital Opportunity Update
Hannah Buckland, Digital Equity Program Lead
Bree Maki, Executive Director, Office of Broadband Development
Digital Equity Plan was approved.
Capacity grant was opened. MN allocation is $12 million. Application is due in a month.
$12 million is half of what was expected. More opportunities will happen in the future. The scaled funding will make staffing difficult.
ACP is ending in May. In April, recipients will get funding. In May, the subsidy will be drastically reduced.
We are looking at ways to add changes to Digital Equity Plan for training.
Question:
Is there a plan to get more money?
Working on it – might be funding we can get through the State.
11:10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Broadband Overview
Bree Maki, Executive Director, Office of Broadband Development
Doing a weekly webinar series
Hired a new person – state & federal grant experience in St Cloud
Grant Round 10 is open – $50 million. Deadline is May 10 at 1pm.
Line Extension – accepting applications now, will be posting open addresses soon. Round 2 had $53 million go out; average grant was $8,000. This next round average is $11,000.
Question:
Will this info be made available in writing?
Will put info in the minutes for members.
11:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Legislature Discussion Update – Current Volume
Darielle Dannen, State Program Admin Manager
Tom Karst, Federal Program Officer, US Department of Commerce, NTIA
Bree Maki, Executive Director, Office of Broadband Development
Diane Wells, Deputy Director, Office of Broadband Development
The Task Force wrote a letter to send to the legislators. Apparently there’s a subcommittee doing this work.
OBD is going to survey Task Force member on their views of various bills and create an analysis. Want responses by Tuesday. That info will be used to prepare folks for the meeting with Sea
Senator Putnam wants to meet with the Task Force – Thursday. Sounds like that’s only open to the Task Force members. Between 2-3pm Senate building
Updates on bills:
Up in the air at the moment
Questions:
Can public meet with Senator too?
Because the Task Force is a public body, they should be able to.
Is the letter sent to the legislators available online?
12:00 p.m. – 12:15 p.m. Sub-Group Discussion
Not discussed.
12:15 p.m. – 12:20 p.m. Public Comment, Other Business, May 15th Meeting Plans, Wrap-up
The electrical cooperative MiEnergy hopes to win grant funding for rural broadband expansion projects in Winona County and is pitching the County Board on supporting that effort. MiEnergy President Brian Krambeer gave an initial presentation to the County Board last month on his company’s expansion goals, beginning south of St. Charles. …
According to MiEnergy, over 3,100 Winona County households have no internet service or sub-broadband speeds. These areas are also the hardest to reach. Many of them are very rural, with few households to justify the cost of extending fiber optic lines, and others are located in rocky valleys or ridges that make excavation a challenge. “We average less than four members per mile of line,” Krambeer said.
More on the upcoming request…
MiEnergy has not yet submitted a specific request to the county, County Administrator Maureen Holte said. However, in his presentation, Krambeer suggested two ideas as examples: The county might contribute a $2 million grant toward the project or a $10 million deferred loan.
The county has made significant contributions to other broadband expansions projects by HBC. However, the largest ones came from federal relief funds the county received during the pandemic, which are no longer available. To help leverage a $560,000 state grant, the county gave HBC $100,000 toward a $1.7 million project around Cedar Valley and Whitewater State Park in 2017. In 2020, the county dedicated $982,000 from the federal CARES Act funding toward an HBC expansion effort near Rollingstone, Nodine, and St. Charles. Finally, in 2022, the county used $2.6 million in federal aid to back HBC extending internet around the Arches, Saratoga, Lamoille, and Elba areas.
County Board member Marcia Ward encouraged county staff and her fellow board members to consider what funding the county could dedicate toward MiEnergy’s project. “Many communities have done this years ago, and we’ve fallen behind a lot of communities,” she said.
According to Krambeer, Winona County ranked 15th in the state for broadband access in 2018 but dropped to 39th last year as a result of other counties expanding their networks.
Learn about Comcast’s Internet Essentials programandtechnology services local organizations are offering. Enjoy free snacks and the chance to win prizes, including a new Chromebook!
Consolidated Telephone Company (CTC) was one of the grant recipients, receiving $2,292,790 in funding. This will be combined with an equal amount in matching funds from CTC, Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, and St. Louis County. When successfully completed, the $4.6 million project will provide internet services – with speeds of up to 1Gig – to over 300 homes and businesses in portions of St. Louis, Morrison, and Crow Wing counties.
“It’s an honor to receive this award as it helps to further our mission of connecting more communities, especially in rural areas,” said Kristi Westbrock, CEO and General Manager at CTC. “We’re confident that better internet services will enhance the lives of everyone that lives, works, and visits these areas.”
Once complete, the project will allow rural residents to work and learn from home, access telehealth options, safely live in their homes longer, and increase communication. Access to reliable broadband is also proven to boost economic development, enabling businesses to reach new markets, gain new customers, streamline operations, and complete basic functions more effectively and efficiently.
ECE’s diving into the high-speed internet pool began in late 2021 when the board of directors voted to move forward with developing a plan for a full-fiber-to-the-home project.
However, things kicked into high gear in recent months as the replacement of more than 1,000 electrical poles officially began, making the poles also capable of carrying the physical fiber network.
Since 2021, ECE has been busy pursuing state and federal grant money offered exclusively to bring broadband internet to under-served areas. To date, ECE has been awarded $19 million in grants, with another potential $24 million pending approval.
“It’s not just that broadband allows for Netflix, although that’s great — entertainment is important — but it also allows for precision agriculture, for tele-medicine, for young people and adults to engage in learning, or for businesses to engage in commerce, Varilek said. “That’s also why it is worth the investment of state and federal funds.”
ECE has also contributed $46 million from other funding sources to the project. Of those other funding sources, $515,000 came from counties, townships or cities.
“We’re not asking for millions of dollars (from local governments),” said ECE Vice President Ty Houglum. “We’ve asked for a metric, and that metric is not big. The maximum we’ve asked from a county is $200,000, and that is if we covered 100% of their county. For townships, it was $10,000.”
With that money, ECE has run 850 miles of fiber so far. Next year, another 1,200 miles will be put in place. In total, Houglum said, roughly 6,000 miles of fiber constructed will have been run.
This first phase of service has been constructed around much of Isanti County north into Kanabec County. The Pine City area is also the most recent area to be ready to start offering service. Future areas of service, pending grant approvals, include more of Pine County and far eastern Wisconsin.
Paul Bunyan Communications will be expanding its all-fiber optic network the GigaZone®, to over 1,500 locations this year in Itasca, St. Louis, and Aitkin County.
Itasca County expansion will include over 180 locations in the city of Taconite, over 500 locations in the city of Keewatin, and 45 locations in an area of the Greenway Township east of the city of Calumet.
St. Louis County expansion will include over 530 locations in the city of Buhl and over 240 locations in the Forbes area southwest of Eveleth.
Aitkin County expansion will include over 70 locations in areas of Aitkin Township and an unorganized township northwest of the city of Aitkin
“We are committed to our effort to bring gigabit broadband Internet to those currently without reliable Internet access in our region. When we started expanding in 1999, high-speed Internet service was just beginning. Today, Internet access is no longer a luxury, it is a vital component of everyday life and our cooperative continues to bring this essential access to more homes and businesses right here in northern Minnesota every year” said Gary Johnson, Paul Bunyan Communications CEO/General Manager.
Anyone interested in getting connected to the all-fiber optic broadband network should sign up for service now. That can be done online, over the phone, or in person at our Grand Rapids Customer Service & Technology Center or Cooperative Headquarters in Bemidji. To check to see if a specific location is within an expansion area and learn more about the expansion construction process, visit http://www.gigazone.com. Paul Bunyan Communications will be also mailing more information to those within the 2024 plans as construction is about to begin in their area. Construction will take place over the summer with services expected to be available by winter.
“This will be a huge service improvement for everyone in the project areas. It is very challenging for those who don’t have true high-speed internet available at their home or business. As more and more students and employees work from home, many people are learning how critical upload speed is for their job or school work. Unlike many other providers, our speeds are symmetric, the same speeds are available for upload and download. This will be a game changer for these areas.” added Steve Howard, Paul Bunyan Communications Information Technology and Development Manager.
The cooperative’s services will become available once the network is operational including GigaZone® Internet with its unprecedented broadband speeds of up to 10 Gig and low cost unlimited local and long distance GigaZone® voice telephone service. There is no membership fee to join Paul Bunyan Communications, membership is included by subscribing to either local phone service or GigaZone® Internet service.
Two weeks ago, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission held a pre-hearing conference call on the petition to Initiate a Proceeding to Revoke the Expanded Eligible Telecommunications Carrier Designation of LTD Broadband LLC and Deny LTD’s Funding Certification for 2023. Today they released notes from the call, which includes background, specifics on next steps and a timeline:
Big congratulations to East Central Energy for making better broadband happen in Pine and Isanti Counties. It was great to be there for their fiber ribbon cutting ceremony today. I’ve been following ECE and their venture into extending services to broadband to serve their members. It is a gift to that area to have a broadband provider that is engaged and interested in investing in technology. Both counties have hovered near the bottom-ranking counties for broadband for years, despite concerted community effort. This will be a game changer.
As they note in the video below, this isn’t a solo venture. They have received local, state and federal funding to make this happen and they plan to continue to grow.
Paul Bunyan Communications has been awarded two national Excellence Awards from NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association that represents over 850 independent, community-based telecommunications companies that are leading innovative change in smart rural communities across America
James L. Bass Manager Life Achievement Award: Gary Johnson, CEO of Paul Bunyan Communications, for his 35 years at Paul Bunyan, working his way up from computer programmer to CEO. Johnson led the charge to leverage Paul Bunyan’s all-fiber network and other initiatives including the Bemidji Technology Park, 218 Relocate program and GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo. He has also served on several NTCA committees, the NISC Board, Calix Leadership Advisory Board as well as many local boards focused on healthcare and economic development.
Innovation Award: Leo Anderson, Chief Technology Officer, and Brian Bissonette, Marketing Supervisor, for Paul Bunyan Communications, for teaming up to create and lead the GigaZone Gaming Championship and TechXpo. The GigaZone event not only highlights Paul Bunyan’s all-fiber network, but it also brings innovation to the forefront in how it connects the cooperative to school-aged gamers by showing them that the potential for successful careers in tech exist at home. Last year, Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, was the keynote speaker, thanks in large part to Anderson and Bissonette’s outreach efforts.
The NTCA Excellence Awards recognize broadband providers who have exceeded expectations to support their customers and community members and to advance communications services in rural America. Winners are selected by the association’s Awards Committee comprising NTCA members.
The Second Annual Black Broadband Summit was an opportunity for folks to talk about their broadband needs and experience and to learn about cooperatives. There were 2-3 dozen people attending. There is a push to create a black-led broadband cooperative to meet the needs of the local community and develop community wealth. There was more conversation about the reason and the whys than the technology but I think giving a reason for people to want to do something is a great start.
Here are notes from the sessions:
Ini Augustine – Project Nandi
During COVID Ini realized people needed computers. After the murder of George Floyd, Ini realized that having the computer wasn’t enough. People needed training, support, broadband. Redlining for technology seems to mirror the redlining for homeownership laws.
We need a black led cooperatively owned broadband provider. They released a report on broadband in the community and submitted it to the Office of Broadband Development with the hope that it might impact the federal money coming into the state for broadband.
Steering Committee Status Report
We have the power to take control of our own technology. We can be good at technology. It’s all about opportunity.
Internet is a modern day tool people without access to that tool are being marginalized.
We need to take back our money and our power away from the monopolies.
In technology, you don’t take notes for yourself, you take notes for the people who will follow you.
Can you tell us about a time that you needed internet and didn’t have it?
Had to take days off of work rather than work from home
Only one option means putting up with crappy service
Dropped cell phone coverage means loss of Google Maps
Internet is more power than lights
In Hennepin County if you get MFIP, you can submit forms by iphone – but not with an Android and you need a decent data plan.
I need access to compose music – I rely on internet to do that. It’s greater to food to me.
I will pay broadband before I pay electricity. I have five kids and when internet goes out, I pack up my kids to pay it immediately.
Black Coop Training by Nkuli Shongwe
Ownership is a goal of the cooperatives.
How do we relate to community wealth meeting? Buy in the community.
What does it mean build your own membership when the history for some members may lead an inherent or historical imbalance.
Black Panther started food stamps and buses that would bring families to visit loved ones in prisons. The point being cooperatives understand and strive to meet the needs.
Cooperatives meet many needs.
Nandi surveyed Minnesotans about technology – the Myth of Urban Broadband
Here are some of the finding/notes/stories from the audience:
113 people surveyed
According to OBD, 90 percent of MN have broadband but that means 300,000 people in the TC without broadband
3 percent of people surveyed had no device at home
less than 30 percent of people who qualify for ACP take advantage of it – Nandi tris to help with that because they found that the time required to get ACP was a barrier
Access to broadband by ethnicity/race varied dramatically
The speeds and quality of service also varied greatly. They found that people in parts of Minneapolis were paying as much for slower speeds than folks in the suburbs.
Many providers are beholden to shareholders, not customers.
Paul Bunyan Communications 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. 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 Paul Bunyan Communications. St. Louis County 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 U.S. 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. St. Louis County is Minnesota’s largest county at over 6,200 square miles in size and has the highest number of unserved households in the state.
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