U alumni in Greater Minnesota say broadband means more than just connectivity. It means productivity.

“When we ask people around the state what concerns them most,” says Bernadine Joselyn of the Blandin Foundation, “they talk about education, health care, jobs. They don’t talk about broadband access, yet broadband is the common intersection for those things. Broadband supports them all.” The Blandin Foundation, based in Grand Rapids (MN) is a private foundation funded through a $407 million trust, established to strengthen rural Minnesota communities. Joselyn, director of public policy and engagement for the foundation, has worked with a number of communities in the Itasca area and elsewhere to ensure that rural voices inform public policy on broadband issues.

According to the MN Office of Broadband Development—housed in the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED)— in 2015, 85.8 percent of MN residences had 25 Mbps/3Mbps or greater connections, but only 68 percent of rural residences had that access. After the state and federal government, foundations, and providers, including rural cooperatives, began directing resources toward the disparity, by April 2019, 92.7 percent of households in MN had access to broadband. That’s a significant improvement, but it still leaves tens of thousands without full, affordable access.