Minnesota

Gigapower, the AT&T-BlackRock joint venture, has identified several towns in the southern Minneapolis-St. Paul area as expansion targets for a multi-gigabit fiber network that will be underpinned by an "open access" framework. Gigapower's expansion there will include Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Eagan, Savage, Apple Valley, Burnsville, Farmington, Lakeville, Rosemont and Shakopee.

I’m here today to talk about something that doesn’t get enough attention: the progress we’re making to invest in America — in American workers, in American products — to invest in America.  That’s what we’re doing: bringing work, opportunity, and hope to people and communities all across this country.....We’re making sure every American ...

The Office of Broadband Development (OBD) is located in the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. OBD was created by statute in 2013 and just completed its tenth year of work on its mission to improve access to broadband service that meets the state’s speed goals, serving the needs of anchor institutions, and expanding the skills and knowledge needed to use these services. Border-to-Border high speed internet access is the goal throughout Minnesota. 2023 milestones for the Office included:

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) voted unanimously to suspend a crucial certification for LTD Broadband, dealing a blow to the company and its hopes of unblocking $311 million in federal cash to build infrastructure for high-speed internet across rural Minnesota. In December 2020, LTD won more than $1.32 billion nationally through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) to develop blazing-fast internet in rural areas, including more than $311 million in Minnesota. The outcome shocked many in the telecommunications industry because LTD was relatively small and had little exp

The Federal Communications Commission committed $37.7 million in a new funding round through the Emergency Connectivity Fund Program, which provides digital tools and services to support students in communities across the country. This funding commitment supports applications from the third application window, benefitting approximately 100,000 students nationwide, including students in Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Texas, and Washington.

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.