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Ground Level Blog
Dave Peters

Another $23 million in broadband stimulus hits Minnesota

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The federal government awarded more than $23 million today to three more Minnesota proposals to improve high-speed Internet access outstate.

This comes on top of some $180 million in federal stimulus loans and grants that has been awarded Minnesota communities and companies this year. In all, the federal goverment plans to award about $7 billion nationally for broadband by the end of next month.

The three awards, among 94 announced today by Vice President Joe Biden, are:

--$16.8 million to Enventis Telecom to run two fiber lines totalling 428 miles. One will extend from the Twin Cities to the Duluth area and the other will run from Brainerd to the Fargo-Moorhead area. The lines are known as "middle mile," not running directly to residences but delivering the capability for future projects to make those connections. Enventis, a subsidiary of Mankato-based Hickory Tech, has been expanding its fiber service throughout Minnesota and has partnerships for this project among health care providers, schools and colleges. It is investing $7.2 million of its own money in the project.

--$6 million to Carver County to build a another middle-mile fiber project connecting some 55 health providers, schools, libraries and other institutions with speeds much greater than is available to them today. It's similar to a grant provided to Anoka County earlier.

The project is instructive about the role of the stimulus money. The county's technology manager, Randy Lehs, said county employees first proposed a project to connect a dozen county facilities to make county-related services run better. But when the stimulus money became available, the county expanded the idea to include dozens more institutions, he said.

The county has a private partner in the endeavor as well, Jaguar Communications, which hopes to build service to residences from the project's fiber ring.

--$866,000 to Sjoberg's Inc. to allow service in Roseau, Thief River Falls and the small town of Fox, largely benefitting farms in that area of northwestern Minnesota.

Another project awarded money today lops into Minnesota as well. Merit Network received a nearly $70 million award to offer middle-mile service in Michigan but including connections to research and educational networks in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

You can find a compilation of earlier Minnesota awards here.