Minnesota Again Taps Capital Projects Fund to Bridge Broadband Deployment Gap

Minnesota’s Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program is the state's financial tool to address the primary cause for the lack of broadband in unserved areas: high costs and lower population densities resulted in unsustainable business plans and thus broadband installations are not feasible. This month, Minnesota announced new grants that represent a significant acceleration of the Border-to-Border Program: previously, the Department of Employment and Economic Development's (DEED) Office of Broadband Development had provided nearly $130 million in Border-to-Border grants—matched with over $180 million in private and local matching funds—to connect more than 57,000 homes and businesses around Minnesota to high-speed internet since the program's inception in 2014.