Minnesota State Broadband Office

The Office of Broadband Development and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development are the state broadband coordinators. The Minnesota Broadband Infrastructure Plan was created in 2019 and reviewed in January 2021. 

The state broadband speed goals are articulated at Minn. Stat. §237.012. They call for achieving border-to-border access by all homes and businesses in the state to a service that offers speeds of at least 25 Mbps download by 3 Mbps upload by the year 2022. 
A second goal to be achieved by the year 2026 seeks to have broadband service offering 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload from at least one provider available to all homes and businesses

So far, 89% of the state obtains terrestrial broadband coverage of 25 mbps, yet 15% of residents have access to low-priced broadband plans with over 266 ISPs operating within the state. 

Broadband Programs include the K-12 Connect Forward Initiative for affordable bandwidth and Wifi for Digital learning. 

Minnesota's state legislature approved $70 million for broadband grants in 2021 for the state’s Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant program. That came from the the American Rescue Plan.

The Walz Administration has proposed $170 million for the state's Border-to-Border program for fiscal year 2022. 

More info

Jenn Frost

Broadband Grants Administrator

Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development

jennifer.frost@state.mn.us

Karrie Jansen

Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development

karrie.jansen@state.mn.us