Minnesota telecom companies are seeking to block a controversial broadband developer from using $311 million in federal grants

The controversial telecom company LTD Broadband has long been criticized by those who argue it can’t deliver high-speed internet to Minnesotans as promised using an unprecedented $311 million in grants from the federal government. Now, those critics are trying again to block the small Nevada-based company from getting any of that federal money for work in Minnesota. On May 6, two trade groups representing telecom companies and rural electric cooperatives filed a petition with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) that says LTD will waste taxpayer time and money in the company’s bid to serve more than 160,000 people. “Public funding is essential to bring broadband to unserved and underserved areas of rural Minnesota,” says the filing submitted by the Minnesota Telecom Alliance and the Minnesota Rural Electric Association. “But public dollars are limited, making it essential that those who obtain public funding can be counted on to deliver broadband to those areas as intended. The record will show that LTD cannot.” If the PUC sides with the coalition of telecom providers and electric cooperatives, it would be the latest in a string of defeats for LTD Broadband across the country — and another reversal for a company that shocked the broadband industry by winning $1.32 billion in subsidies in 15 states from one of the country’s largest efforts to bring high-speed internet to rural areas.