Rural electric cooperatives, rural telcos and Comcast were the biggest winners in the latest broadband funding announcement from the state of Minnesota. An announcement from the state’s Office of Broadband Development states that the awards were made on June 30, although it isn’t clear if the announcement was released at that time.
The biggest winner was Federated Rural Electric Association, which was awarded a $7 million grant in the Low Density Broadband Grant Program.
The next biggest winners were Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone and Comcast, both of whom will receive about $5.5 million. Paul Bunyan’s award also came through the low density program, while Comcast’s funding came through two awards in the Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program.
Both programs. cover some of the costs of deploying broadband in rural areas. In addition, funding recipients are required to contribute matching funds.
Minnesota awarded over $66.8 million in the two programs in the announcement. Matching funds will bring the total that will be invested to almost $138.5 million.
Other companies awarded about $5 million or more included Interstate Telecommunications Company, East Central Energy and Runestone Telephone Association.
Over 20 companies were awarded funding and a large portion of them were rural telcos and rural electric companies.
Two of the bigger names that won funding were Midco, which won three awards totaling about $3.1 million, and Frontier, which won about $830,000.
Arvig also won funding and offered details in this press release.
A complete list of winners and details of the Minnesota broadband funding that they won can be found here. Additional information about the two programs can be found on Telecompetitor’s Broadband Nation web page about Minnesota.
