Tag Archives: IIJA

Best uses for BEAD Nondeployment funds Part 1: Meeting about Part 2 tomorrow (Fed 18)

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The Benton Institute for Broadband & Society reports on the results of NTIA’s first of two listening sessions on the “Use of BEAD Funds Saved Through the Trump Administration’s Benefit of the Bargain Reforms.” (The second sessions happens tomorrow, Feb 18.)…

As mandated by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, states and territories may use BEAD funds to make subgrants to:

  • Deploy broadband networks to unserved and underserved areas,
  • Connect community anchor institutions,
  • Conduct data collection, broadband mapping, and planning;
  • Install internet and Wi-Fi infrastructure or provide reduced-cost broadband within multifamily residential buildings; and
  • Increase broadband adoption, including programs to provide affordable internet-capable devices.

In addition, Congress authorized Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information Arielle Roth to determine additional uses of these funds to facilitate BEAD’s goals. NTIA’s listening sessions are meant to inform Roth’s determination on additional uses.

Attendees talked about other uses for funds, including the following topics:

  • Device Access and Digital Skills
  • Affordable Broadband Solutions
  • Returning the Funds to Treasury
  • Public Safety and Emergency Communications
  • State and Local Flexibility

President Trump says he would end the Digital Equity Act

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I’m borrowing the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society’s summary of the New York Times report…

President Donald Trump said he would end the Digital Equity Act, legislation that funds three programs that provide billions to extend internet access in underserved communities. Trump is casting the Digital Equity Act as unfairly providing grants on the basis of race. “I have spoken with my wonderful Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, and we agree that the Biden/Harris so-called “Digital Equity Act” is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL,” says the President. “No more woke handouts based on race!” Trump’s move is only the latest by his administration to target diversity, equity or inclusion measures, which his conservative supporters argue discriminate against white Americans. “The Digital Equity Program is a RACIST and ILLEGAL $2.5 BILLION DOLLAR giveaway. I am ending this IMMEDIATELY, and saving Taxpayers BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!,” he added.

How could Trump’s DEI executive orders impact telecoms?

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Fierce Network reports…

The U.S. government’s efforts to scrub diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from public and private sector programs could have a chilling effect on efforts to recruit tens of thousands of telecom workers to build out networks nationwide, experts told Fierce.

Though the telecom sector also includes wireless networks, broadband builds could be among the hardest hit by the administration’s actions. Why? Well, as New Street Research’s Blair Levin explained, DEI is actually an integral part of the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. It’s right there in the name.

DEI efforts may be key to getting enough workers…

Federal efforts to slash DEI initiatives come as the broadband industry braces for a worker shortage ahead of BEAD rollouts. A study commissioned by the Fiber Broadband Association warned of an expected shortage of 28,000 workers on the construction side and 30,000 on the technician side between now and 2030.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were about 418,000 people employed in the telecommunications sector (excluding wired carriers) in 2024. Among these workers, 30% were women and around 27% of the total were non-white. Nearly 15% of workers were black, 14% Hispanic and 9.5% Asian.

Losing ACP will cost everyone – but especially IIJA’s covered populations

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Benton Institute for Broadband & Society reports on the loss of the Affordable Connectivity Program on the economy…

The end of the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) may result in millions of households either eliminating or downgrading broadband service. This, in turn, could mean over $2 billion in lost consumer financial benefits and service delivery efficiencies for health care providers. …

The potential for service termination post-ACP could have significant economic consequences. More than half (55 percent) of ACP households said that being without home service would have a major impact on their ability to purchase items at an affordable price. This could translate into as much as $1.5 billion annually in lost financial benefits from e-commerce for low-income households that used the ACP.

A similar dynamic unfolds for telehealth visits and the forgone cost savings from less telehealth usage. Three in five (60 percent) respondents who used the ACP said that, in the prior three months, they had had an online appointment with a health care provider for a physical or mental health issue. Assuming that households who cut off service once the ACP ends move from telehealth to in-person visits, lost savings for health care service providers could approach $800 million annually.

And on BEAD’s “covered populations,” which are communities that Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) especially seeks to support…

The survey also explored the ACP and the impact of its expiration on the “covered populations” identified in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Some highlights:

  • People with disabilities were among the greatest beneficiaries of the ACP, especially for adding home wireline connections. Some 36 percent of respondents who identified as disabled used the ACP (versus 22 percent for all other respondents). And 24 percent of all respondents with a disability used it for a new wireline home connection, versus 17 percent for all others.

  • Rural households were as likely to use the ACP as all others. Some 27 percent of surveyed non-metro residents said they enrolled in the ACP, compared with 26 percent for all other respondents.

  • Black Americans were more likely to have enrolled in the ACP, as 31 percent of those surveyed said they enrolled in the benefit plan.

  • Hispanics were more likely to say that the ACP’s end will result in them downgrading service; some 45 percent said this compared with 34 percent of all others.

  • Households near the poverty line (i.e., annual incomes below $20,000) were also more likely than others to enroll in the ACP, as 33 percent signed up for the subsidy. Some 27 percent of these households used the ACP for new wireline subscriptions. And nearly one in five (18 percent) of the lowest-income households said they would cancel service upon the ACP’s expiration—twice the rate of other ACP households (9 percent).

Office of Broadband Development talks to MN House Capital Investment Committee about IIJA

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Today the Office of Broadband Development talked to House Capital Investment Committee about IIJA. I have only very high level notes with the video and PPT slides and questions.

IIJA broadband funding includes BEAD and Digital Equity funds. OBD recognizes that the funding will not be enough to satisfy all funding priorities. They are working with local government and providers to fine tune the broadband maps so that funding will go to the right areas.

Questions:

Talk about unserved areas – are there commonalities?
Unserved locations are generally expensive to serve – remote, tough terrain and lower population density. There are three counties that are fully served.

Question on timeline – why does funding start in 2026?
Dictated by approval process with NTIA. Also, we need to have all of our grantees selected before granting funds. We can open the challenge process after Initial Proposal volume 1. That can take up to 100 days, with 30 days for rebuttal, followed by 60 days of corrections.

You’ve submitted your plan … are there still opportunities for the public to comment on the plan?
The door isn’t closed for comments. NTIA has already submitted some comments and we are working on getting waivers.

BEAD $651 million won’t meet the priorities – do you know how much of the priories will be met?
No. We are still working on State grants.

An American-Made Internet for All – policy updates

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Thanks to Tom Karst, Minnesota connection to NTIA (not his official title), for keeping me up to date…

An American-Made Internet for All  

President Biden and Vice President Harris made a historic commitment to connect everyone in America to affordable, reliable high-speed Internet service while creating good-paying jobs and boosting American manufacturing.

Under the Administration’s Internet for All initiative, a core piece of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda, made-in-America requirements and historic funding for high-speed Internet infrastructure have already spurred significant progress towards that goal.

Heeding President Biden’s call, numerous companies are now onshoring and expanding domestic manufacturing and creating thousands of good-paying jobs in communities across the country.

Furthering the goals of the President’s agenda to expand access to high-speed Internet service across America, today, NTIA released a Build America, Buy America (BABA) waiver for the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. The waiver and an FAQ are available here.

This BABA waiver takes the strongest approach possible to protecting American jobs while also ensuring that we can quickly build the Internet networks.

When we released the proposed BABA waiver in August, we estimated that our approach would mean close to 90% of BEAD funds spent on equipment would be spent on equipment manufactured in the U.S. Under the waiver released today, that estimate holds steady.

The majority of fiber broadband equipment—including optical fiber, fiber optic cable, key electronics, and enclosures—necessary to bring affordable and reliable high-speed Internet service to everyone in America will be made here in the United States.

At first, many in industry told us that requiring the Buy America domestic manufacturing preference for the BEAD Program couldn’t be done—and that a blanket waiver would be necessary. We worked closely with stakeholders to develop this guidance and we’re pleased to see that manufacturers have stepped up and proved this narrative wrong.

Taken together, these investments represent hundreds of millions of dollars of new investments in American manufacturing, jobs, and local communities – with real impacts for Americans. In Tennessee, an entire factory workforce has been retrained to manufacture state of the art fiber optic cable. In Alabama, I met a worker whose job making broadband electronics gives him the stability to provide for his six children.

The waiver we’re releasing today takes into account comments received during the 30-day public comment period for the proposed draft waiver and provides specificity and certainty on how the Buy America preference applies to optical fiber, fiber optic cable, electronics, enclosures, and other products that will be used to build broadband networks.

We’re also releasing this waiver following over a year of careful research and deliberate engagement with stakeholders across the country. We held more than 385 meetings with over 50 firms and 250 individuals—representing a diverse range of manufacturers, Internet service providers, trade associations, and unions among others—who are potentially impacted by the BABA waiver.

We’re doing this because the stakes are high. At more than $42 billion, it is the single-largest investment to expand high-speed Internet access in American history. These are American tax dollars—and we strongly believe they should be spent on equipment made by American workers in American communities.

These policies are a bet on the American worker—a bet that President Biden often says he’d make any time. And they give this Administration confidence that its approach to domestic job creation is the right one.

We will continue to release essential information on Buy America policies for Internet for All as necessary. For example, we expect to release the self-certification list guidance as well as measurement and reporting requirements soon. We encourage manufacturers and other stakeholders to contact us at BABA@ntia.gov.

EVENT Feb 26: MN House committee on Capital Investment learns about IIJA

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On February 26, the MN House committee on Capital Investment will hear about the Federal IIJA. Details from the MN House of Representatives:

Monday, February 26, 2024 , 1:00 PM

Capital Investment

Chair: Rep. Fue Lee
Location: Basement Hearing Room
Agenda:

Federal IIJA Environment-Related/Broadband: Broadband, Clean Energy and Power; Environmental Remediation; Resiliency; Water; and Other

This hearing may be viewed on the House webcast schedule page. All video events are closed captioned with automatically generated captions.

For further information on accommodations, please visit FAQs for Disability Access or contact the LCC Accessibility Coordinator at accessibility.coordinator@lcc.mn.gov
If you are having accessibility or usability problems with any Minnesota Legislative website or software, please send your comments to the Accessibility & Usability Comment Form
To request legislative services for American Sign Language (ASL), Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) closed captioning services, or live language interpretation services for Hmong, Somali, or Spanish speakers to testify, please contact the Committee Administrator as soon as possible.

For questions about the agenda or the committee, please contact the Committee Administrator, Jenny Nash, at jenny.nash@house.mn.gov

Live Video

OPPORTUNITY: Comment on MN’s Draft Digital Opportunity Plan

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Minnesota State Library Services shares advice to help libraries encourage Minnesotans to comment on the Digital Opportunity Plan; it will impact the who, where and how much money will go into digital equity around the state. I know we can’t all be librarians, but I think a lot of readers will have comments to share and colleagues or constituents who might be interested too…

Minnesota’s Office of Broadband Development (OBD) invites public comment on a draft Digital Opportunity Plan. (Read an executive summary, or the full Digital Opportunity Plan.)

This plan will guide the state in investing an anticipated $20 million from the federal Digital Equity Capacity Grant to expand digital inclusion for all Minnesotans through access to the internet, access to devices, and digital skills training.

Libraries can encourage public comment on the plan in two ways:

  • Request free copies of the plan and handouts for your library! Copies of the plan are about 100 tape-bound pages. Handouts are one page and come in 50-copy bundles. Consider having a full copy of the plan on hand in case a patron wants to review it. OBD will process orders on Friday afternoons from August 18 to September 15. Please plan on two weeks for processing and delivery. For assistance completing the form, please call 651-259-7267 or email Hannah.Buckland@state.mn.us.
  • Promote a Digital Opportunity Listening Session happening near your library! These are free events for all Minnesotans to bring their thoughts about access to the internet, access to devices, digital skills, and Minnesota’s digital future. There are two virtual sessions and 16 in-person events happening around the state in late August and September. See the Connecting All Minnesotans flyer for dates, times, and locations.

The public comment period ends September 29, 2023.

Update from NTIA: Making Internet for All in America: The Next Steps

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An update from the NTIA…

Making Internet for All in America: The Next Steps

Following President Biden’s State of the Union Address in January, NTIA announced that it would take a strict approach to enforcing Build America, Buy America requirements for the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Now we’re ready to provide more specifics.

The justification for a firm approach to enforcement is clear. Internet for All is a once-in-a-generation investment to expand and upgrade America’s high-speed Internet networks, with $42.45 billion in funds from the BEAD program alone. Those American tax dollars should be used to buy products made in America and to create hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

That’s why NTIA is proposing a limited and targeted waiver of Build America, Buy America provisions for the BEAD Program that follows this strict approach to enforcing rules that protect and create American jobs.

Proposal: Majority of fiber broadband equipment will need to be made in the U.S, including optical fiber, fiber optic cable, key electronics, and enclosures. 

The policies recommended in this draft waiver will ensure that close to 90% of BEAD funding spent on equipment will be spent on equipment manufactured in the United States. The proposed waiver is the result of months of careful analysis of market conditions and sustained outreach to industry and stakeholders.

As a result of these efforts, NTIA established criteria to prioritize products targeted for onshoring:

 

  • Strategically important technologies, like those that ensure the security, integrity, and reliability of network data, should be produced in America.
  • If a product’s domestic manufacturing line can be scaled quickly, it should be produced in America.
  • And if a product—like the fiber-optic cable so critical to deploying high-speed Internet networks in communities throughout the country—comprises a significant portion of the overall network spend, it should be produced in America.

There are, however, limited circumstances where a nonavailability waiver will be needed for certain pieces of broadband equipment. For example, as the Biden-Harris Administration and the Commerce Department are engaged in a whole-of-government effort to reinvigorate America’s domestic semiconductor industry, NTIA acknowledges that some chips may not be available in time to meet BEAD Program construction timelines. We’ve proposed a limited nonavailability waiver to fit these unique dynamics.

Americans are already seeing the results of the Administration’s aggressive approach to onshoring and domestic job creation.

Several companies have already announced plans to open or expand fiber optic cable and electronics manufacturing operations here in America. Earlier this month Secretary Raimondo joined Vice President Harris in Kenosha, Wisconsin to celebrate Nokia’s plans to expand its broadband electronics manufacturing, creating up to 200 new jobs. Just last week, Adtran, a telecom equipment manufacturer, announced an investment that will see expanded production of key broadband electronics at its Huntsville, Alabama facility and the creation of up to 300 new jobs.  These two companies are joined by fiber optic cable manufacturers like Corning, CommScope, and Prysmian who have all recently announced investments to make more fiber optic cable in the U.S.

The American companies who announced expansions are just the beginning. As 2023 turns to 2024, even more companies will expand production to meet the demand of Internet for All.

These announcements show that ensuring American tax dollars are leveraged to create American jobs works. That’s why we’re doubling down on our approach with today’s proposed waiver.

What’s Next?

Over the next 30 days, stakeholders will have an opportunity to comment on this proposal. After final publication, NTIA will continue to monitor implementation to ensure that we’re creating jobs here at home and delivering affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service to all Americans.

Interested stakeholders with questions are welcome to reach out to BABA@ntia.gov.

Minnesota recognizes that $650M in BEAD for broadband is not enough

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Fierce Telecom reports…

Officials from New Mexico and Minnesota are the latest to declare that federal and state funds currently available to them will not be enough to bring broadband to the underserved and unserved in their states.

At Mountain Connect 2023 this week, Bree Maki, the executive director of Minnesota’s Office of Broadband Development, said the state’s Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) allotment of about $651.8 million is “very close to” what her office expected.

“However, we have statutory goals that are different when we talk about what unserved is,” said Maki. The state of Minnesota considers unserved locations to be those without access to 100/20 Mbps speeds.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) defines an unserved location as one without any broadband service at all or with internet service offering speeds below 25/3 Mbps, and it is instead this definition that Maki said Minnesota’s allocation was based on.

“That dollar amount, though, is incredible,” she added. “We’re very thankful. It will continue to get us where we already wanted to go. But our dollar amount, we just know, is not going to be enough.”

Another hiccup in the broadband maps: 10 day rule

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Doug Dawson (POTs and PANs) points out an oddity in the FCC Broadband maps…

There is one nuance of the FCC maps that doesn’t seem to be talked about. ISPS are only supposed to show coverage on the FCC maps for locations where they are able to serve within ten business days of a customer’s request for service. Any ISP that is claiming areas it won’t serve that quickly is exaggerating its coverage on the FCC maps. That can have real-life consequences.

He adds several examples, including one from my fellow St Paulite…

Many of my readers know Chris Mitchell. The FCC map for his home deep inside St. Paul, Minnesota showed the availability of gigabit wireless from a WISP. Upon inquiry, the WISP said it was willing to serve him but would have to build fiber first to be able to deploy the needed radios. It’s fairly clear that this particular WISP is using the FCC maps as advertising to let folks know it is in the area, and it had greatly exaggerated its coverage area by ignoring the 10-day rule.

These are the consequences…

There are real-life consequences for areas that are misclassified on the FCC maps. Consider the pockets of unserved areas inside cities. We worked with an urban area recently where we identified nearly 200 such unserved pockets. If those pockets were identified correctly on the FCC maps, then an ISP could ask for BEAD or other grant funding to extend network into these small areas. But if they are claimed as served, then it would be an uphill battle to get grant funding.

In rural areas, any ISP that offers speeds greater than 100/20 Mbps is effectively locking down areas that it claims to serve – and in doing so, is stopping grant money from funding unserved areas. I can’t imagine any easy way to estimate the overall impact of areas that are overclaimed because of ISPs ignoring the 10-day rule – but it’s not hard to imagine that this could represent an additional 5% – 10% of unserved places in rural areas that are incorrectly identified as served. It’s hard to even imagine the extent of the problem in urban areas.

Investment in broadband in rural MN should reap jobs

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Public News Service reports…

Minnesota is preparing to make use of more than $650 million in federal aid to bring high-speed internet to underserved populations.
Rural areas often lack broadband access, and the extra support is seen as a pathway to well-paying jobs in smaller communities. The Biden administration announced last month exactly how much broadband funding states would get from the bipartisan infrastructure law.
Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, compared the move to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, which brought electricity to many small towns for the first time. He called the federal broadband support a “game changer” for rural economies.
“It’s well-needed and it’s a good investment,” Wertish contended. “Whether you’re a farmer or you’re a businessman, it seems like we’re competing in a global economy.”
Wertish noted farmers use broadband in their work, but added it might also convince people who left small towns to move back for business opportunities. Rural areas have grappled with population woes, but state researchers say many businesses still struggle to fill openings outside the Twin Cities. Broadband advocates said rural residents could also take more online classes to gain new skills.
Because the workforce is often smaller, Wertish pointed out union-scale jobs can be hard to come by in rural communities, but he suggested creating more broadband fairness could change the narrative.

Cass County looks at federal and state investment in broadband: is it enough?

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Walker’s Pilot Independent has started a series of monthly articles from the Cass County DFL Party. This month they are looking at broadband. It’s sort of a 101 lesson of the policy or business of broadband…

Created by the state legislature, the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development (OBD) began operations in 2014 to work toward the goal of border-to-border high-speed internet access by 2026. The OBD has administered $296 million in broadband grants thus far, helping to connect 103,000 businesses. The OBD predicts that the additional public investment from 2022 to 2026 needed to reach the goal is $1.38 billion at a 75 percent grant funding level. This is over and above state and federal funding to date including the recent $652 million award.

While this is still a significant amount needed to reach the goal, there’s little doubt that the federal infrastructure funding, coupled with the $100 million appropriated by the 2023 DFL-led state legislature for broadband, will make a tremendous impact on achieving our border-to-border access goal. It is anticipated that the $1.38 billion will come from a second federal infrastructure appropriation expected next year, biennial state budget appropriations, and state reserves.

Why subsidize broadband expansion? In a word — money. It’s too expensive for broadband developers to lay fiber optic cable in difficult terrain and more sparsely populated areas. Broadband is not unlike the development of other types of basic infrastructure over our country’s rich history in the need for public investment. Our intercontinental rail system, interstate highway system, electric grid, and our wired telephone system, all needed public investment to ensure these systems served all Americans. Then and now, public investment bridges the gaps through public-private partnerships when market incentives are not sufficient to meet real needs.

While this is still a significant amount needed to reach the goal, there’s little doubt that the federal infrastructure funding, coupled with the $100 million appropriated by the 2023 DFL-led state legislature for broadband, will make a tremendous impact on achieving our border-to-border access goal. It is anticipated that the $1.38 billion will come from a second federal infrastructure appropriation expected next year, biennial state budget appropriations, and state reserves.

Why subsidize broadband expansion? In a word — money. It’s too expensive for broadband developers to lay fiber optic cable in difficult terrain and more sparsely populated areas. Broadband is not unlike the development of other types of basic infrastructure over our country’s rich history in the need for public investment. Our intercontinental rail system, interstate highway system, electric grid, and our wired telephone system, all needed public investment to ensure these systems served all Americans. Then and now, public investment bridges the gaps through public-private partnerships when market incentives are not sufficient to meet real needs.

The system also requires the installation of some ground equipment. The commitment to broadband via fiber optic cable is seen as a nearly no-fail technology with very low ongoing maintenance costs to fill an increasingly urgent need sooner than later, that some would say we needed “yesterday.”

Free apartment wifi could help spread affordable broadband

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The Education Superhighway reports…

The IIJA designates the installation of Free Apartment Wi-Fi networks in substantially unserved affordable multifamily housing as a priority broadband deployment. This creates an unprecedented opportunity to bring affordable high-speed internet to historically marginalized communities and those living on lower incomes. Improvements in Wi-Fi technology have made it possible to connect affordable MDUs to reliable broadband service simply by deploying Wi-Fi access points throughout the property and then connecting the Wi-Fi network to a fiber connection to the building.4 Free Apartment Wi-Fi is modeled after the way Wi-Fi is delivered in most hotels today (see Appendix 1). Rather than buy a separate internet connection for each room, the hotel buys a single internet connection for the building and then installs a building-wide Wi-Fi network. The hotel then makes it easy for guests to use the Wi-Fi by giving them the network name (SSID) and password when they check in. There are no complicated forms to fill out, and the demand from guests has now made Wi-Fi a standard, free amenity in virtually every hotel.

In Minnesota there are 72,000 who could be connected through apartment wifi.

Will $652M be enough for ubiquitous broadband in Minnesota? And when?

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MinnPost reports…

During a stop in Minnesota last month, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo made a promise: The $652 million earmarked for Minnesota to help build infrastructure for rural high-speed internet would be enough to finally cover every part of the state.

“This is enough money to finish the job,” Raimondo told reporters, gathered at the Association of Minnesota Counties’ office near the Capitol in St. Paul.

Is that true? It depends, it turns out, on how you define a finished job.

When calculating who has access to proper broadband, the federal government counts much slower internet speeds compared to Minnesota’s definition. As a result, the cash may be enough to hit federal goals for universal broadband, but not state ones.

They had a few responses to this news…

1) The money probably won’t arrive for years

Congress approved the $42.5 billion broadband funding package two years ago. But state officials say it could take another two years before Minnesota can spend its share.

Why the big delay? Where there’s a lot of money, there’s a lot of logistics. …

2) It’s (still) not enough to fully hit state goals for speed

Even if the federal money were to arrive faster, it still wouldn’t be enough cash to fully hit the state’s broadband goals, because the state has higher standards for speed than the federal government.

The federal government believes the $652 million is enough to cover the whole state because of their definition of an area that is “unserved” by broadband. The feds count any location with access to internet that can potentially reach speeds of 25/3 Mbps as “served.” Maki said that includes “fixes wireless” technology — internet distributed through a device placed on a high location like a water tower — that state officials view as less reliable than fiber-optic cable. Maki said the federal definition leads to a count of 134,850 unserved businesses and households. …

By contrast, in Minnesota, the state’s broadband task force estimated in October there were 291,000 unserved locations because they’re operating on a much higher speed standard of 100/20 Mbps. “There’s a gap there,” Maki said.

Using the Minnesota Task Force report, Minn Post points out that there’s an expected shortfall of $326 million…

One estimate by the state broadband task force expected about $426 million in new state or federal money — on top of the $652 million from the infrastructure bill — needed to hit the 2026 goal, though the price tag could be larger if developers need bigger subsidies to reach the hardest-to-serve areas. Since the Minnesota Legislature approved $100 for broadband subsidies earlier this year, the leftover sum necessary is roughly $326 million.

3) Officials are keen to prevent another LTD debacle

The last time Minnesota was in line for such a large influx in cash for broadband infrastructure, it turned into a bona fide debacle.

The company LTD Broadband was awarded $311 million in Minnesota by a program run through the Federal Communications Commission. But the relatively small company had little experience in the fiber-optic cable required by the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. LTD faced a litany of questions from competitors and broadband advocates about its ability to actually meet its promises and build infrastructure.

Eventually, LTD came under state investigation and then had its awards revoked by the FCC, almost two years after winning them. The company CEO always maintained LTD could do the work. But either way, Minnesota was left in the lurch.