Diane Wells Office of Broadband Development for St Louis County broadband meeting

1. Provider Partnership Strategies
June 25, 2019
Diane Wells
651-259-7613
diane.wells@state.mn.us
Office of Broadband Development at DEED:
https://mn.gov/deed/programs-services/broadband/
651-259-7610

2. Partners in the program
• Small and large traditional telephone companies
• Cable providers
• Wireless ISPs
• Electric cooperative
• Broadband cooperative
• K-12 service cooperative
• Counties
• Townships/Towns

3. Basic Partnership
• Neighborhood Group Partners with Incumbent or
Adjacent Provider—can make ROI work with grant
• Otter Tail Telecom (8 awards, ranging from 21 to 110
locations)
• Arvig serving neighborhood along North Sauk Lake
• Sjoberg and Wikstrom—poll areas they are
interested in serving
• Mediacom along Pintar Road
• Halstad serving Gentilly Township, Kertsonville
• Runestone Telephone and Holmes City

4. Additional Basic Partnership Examples
• Albany serving Big Watab Lake
• Gardonville Coop serving areas near Lake Louise,
Country Estates, Pospisil Drive
• Paul Bunyan into discrete areas of Itasca, St. Louis,
Hubbard, Becker Counties

5. Partnership between Business and Provider
• Wikstrom and Beamco/Alvarado
• Smallest project: 11 households and 1 business
• Beamco contributed $14,500
• Grant was $43,481

6. Partnership between Town or Township and
Provider
• Sunrise Township with CenturyLink
• Fish Lake Township with CenturyLink
• City of Watson and Farmers Mutual Coop
• Medina and Mediacom
• Annandale and Midco
• Wanamingo and Midco
• Shamrock Township and SCI
• Balaton and Woodstock Telco

7. Partnership between County and Provider
• Big Stone County and Federated (county bonding repaid
by provider partner)
• Swift County and Federated (same as Big Stone)
• Rock County and Alliance (county contribution plus
provider contribution plus state grant)
• Sherburne County working with provider (Palmer
Wireless) to connect industrial parks, neighborhoods
• Winona County working with provider (HBC)
• Itasca County and Paul Bunyan (and IRRRB)
• Nobles County with Lismore Telephone Coop.—
combined FTTH and fixed wireless

8. County Partnerships (cont.)
• Martin County with Frontier
• Carlton County with Frontier
• Aitkin County with MLEC and SCI (county grants)
• Renville County with HBC/RS Fiber
• Rural Grant, Stevens and Wilkin Counties with
Advantenon
• Pope County and Hanson Communications
• Scott County and Jaguar
• Pipestone County and Woodstock Telco
• Meeker County and Meeker Electric

9. Partnership between Economic
Development Region and Provider
• Region 5 with CTC and WCTA
• Region 5 helped write grant applications
• Assisted with pre-application expenses and in-kind
contributions to cover ineligible expenses
• Engineering firm covered preliminary engineering
costs

10. Coop Participation
• RS Fiber formed specifically to provide broadband
service in Renville and Sibley Counties
• NESC in partnership with IRRRB and Frontier

11. Tribal Examples
• Fond du Lac—with state grant funding and also
Community Connect and HUD Funding
• Mille Lacs Band and SCI
• Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux and Nuvera
• Prairie Island and HBC
• White Earth and Garden Valley Telco

12. MN Border to Border Broadband
Development Grant
• Grant purpose: To provide financial assistance for the
acquisition and installation of middle-mile and last-mile
broadband infrastructure to areas of the state that do not have
wireline access at federal and state minimum standard speeds.
• Allowable costs: Examples of allowable costs include: project
planning; obtaining construction permits; purchase and/or
construction of facilities, including construction of both
“middle mile” and “last mile” infrastructure; and installation
and testing of the equipment used to provide broadband
service.

13. Partnership Strategies
• Organize (at some level—neighborhood, township, county) to
identify interest and project area
• Identify possible providers to partner with—partner will
determine technology type
• Demonstrate demand (that project will have high take rate)
• Financial contribution towards project?*
• Work with provider partner on the application

14. Trends
• New partnership configurations
– Multiple financial participants including private, local
governments, federal and state
– Electric cooperatives partnering with telephone companies
• New technology configurations
– Wireless is evolving and playing a bigger role
– Promising hybrid models blending fiber and wireless