Description: News and information on broadband use, policy, and trends
To be more specific, Minnesota has been allocated $651,839,368.20 for the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. This is slightly more than $650 million estimated last summer . It is undoubtedly a large chunk of money, but as noted in an article in MinnPost, it’s not enough.
In October [2021], the state estimated about 88.5 percent of Minnesotans have access to wireline internet like DSL, cable and fiber at speeds of 100/20 Mbps. And in March, before the Legislature approved $110 million for broadband, DEED officials said they would conservatively estimate the cost of meeting the 2026 goal for adequate broadband at $1.3 billion.
The NTIA reports …