State officials have announced $34 million in grants for 42 projects to expand broadband Internet access in Greater Minnesota. Projects are spread across the state, except a swath from Moorhead east to the B-W-C-A and the Arrowhead. Broadband Office head Dana MacKenzie says there weren’t a lot of applications from that area, “in part because there’s a lot of good work already happening in that region. We had large federal investments, both in Cook and Lake County, that have covered the majority, if not all, of both of those counties.” Officials says the grants will expand high speed Internet access to over 16 thousand households and more than 22-hundred businesses, plus leverage 40 million dollars in private and local funding.
The largest grants (greater than $2 million) went to Kandiyohi County, Cass and Crow Wing counties, Nobles County and Thief River Falls.