Minnesota announces $50 million round of broadband expansion funding

After two rounds of historic investments in 2022-2023, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) launched its latest effort to provide high-speed broadband to Minnesota homes and businesses that need it. DEED has released a Request for Proposals (RFP) to award $50 million in broadband grants to providers across the state. As part of the new grant round, $30 million will go to DEED's flagship Border-to-Border Broadband Program, through which broadband provider grantees are reimbursed for up to half the eligible cost of deploying broadband infrastructure, with funding for a single project capped at $10 million. Another $20 million will be for the newly permanent Low Population Density Program which offers grants to providers building broadband service to areas of Minnesota with particularly low population densities and high broadband deployment costs. Grants can be worth up to $10 million and cover up to 75 percent of the total cost of a project. All projects must offer speeds of at least 100 megabits per second (Mbps) download and 20 Mbps upload.