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Broadband Grant Program

Office of Broadband Development

The Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program funds the expansion of broadband service to areas of Minnesota that are unserved or underserved.

2023 Broadband Grant Recipients are listed below under "2023 Awards" tab.

Overview

The Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program was created in Minn. Stat. 116J.395 in 2014. The legislative focus of this grant program is to provide financial resources that help make the business case for new and existing providers to invest in building broadband infrastructure into unserved and underserved areas of the state. The Border-to-Border Broadband Grant Program has been funded with state general fund revenues and a combination of both state general fund revenues and federal American Rescue Pan Act (ARPA) Sec. 604 Capital Projects Funds (CPF). The 2023 Legislature appropriated $50 million for each of FY 2024 and FY 2025. Plans for distribution of that funding are still being developed. Subsequent grant rounds are anticipated to be funded with Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment Funds (BEAD).

2023 Grant Round

In the 2022 legislative session, the legislature directed an additional $60.7 million of federal ARPA funds to be used for broadband programs of which $42.6 million will be available for Border-to-Border grants, including up to $30 million for a Low-Density Pilot program. Additionally in the 2022 session, the legislature allocated $25 million in State General Revenue Funds to the Border-to-Border grant program for FY24.

With the $25 million in State General Revenue Funding and $42 million in Capital Projects Funds, DEED opened the application window for the 2023 grant round on December 19, 2022. Grants awarded for 2023 total $66,869,009, including $29,961,246 for the Low-Density Pilot program. Applications were due by 4:00 p.m. on March 2, 2023. The first tab below provides information on the 2023 grant awards. The 2023 Application Process tab provides additional detail on the currently awarded grant round process and the remaining tabs provide information on grant awards from 2022-2014.

Please continue to visit this page of the Office of Broadband Development website to stay up-to-date on the Border-to-Border Broadband Infrastructure grant program or Sign Up For Broadband Updates.

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