Minnesota officials estimate $650 million in broadband funding to come from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act

Minnesota is poised for an unprecedented windfall of money to help build high-speed internet in rural areas; estimating $550 million in extra cash. This will bring Minnesota up to $650 million for broadband from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The final amount Minnesota will get won’t be known until later, and it’s dependent on maps of areas without access to broadband that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) needs to update. In addition, Minnesota must submit a plan for how it would use the money over a five-year period. It could take roughly a year before Minnesota gets any money to spend under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program. Minnesota officials currently have two goals in law for broadband access across the state. One is for every home to have access to internet with download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 3 Mbps no later than 2022. The other is to provide a faster broadband speed goal of 100/20 Mbps by 2026, which has been the primary focus of Minnesota broadband officials.