Minnesota

On Sunday, January 25, 2026, National Digital Inclusion Alliance Executive Director Angela Siefer received an email with the subject line “Help Needed in Minnesota.” By Monday morning, we were on a call with the leaders of the Hopkins Digital Access Initiative—Rebekah Crosby, Carolyn Leslie, and Beth Kivett—forging a new partnership to address urgent digital inclusion needs in Hopkins, a first-ring Minneapolis suburb, a community flooded with ICE and CPB agents.

Hopkins (MN) is a small town of around 19,000 residents, less than 20 miles west of Minneapolis. Compared to the surrounding suburbs, Hopkins is a different kind of community centered on a vibrant and walkable downtown. New residents face familiar challenges. How do they get connected? How do they sign up for utilities? How do they get to know what is available? How do they do all of the things that you would need to do just to live and work and play in today's society? Where are the parks? Where can they find daycare?

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the Commission has sent three Letters of Inquiry to Minnesota educational institutions to investigate potential misuse of federal funds disbursed through the E-Rate program. This marks the latest effort by the Commission to combat fraud, waste, and abuse in Universal Service Fund programs. The USF’s E-Rate program helps schools and libraries obtain affordable telecommunications and information services so students, teachers, and library patrons can take advantage of online opportunities.

Arvig will begin construction on an upgrade project to bring last-mile fiber connectivity to 446 structures in eight Minnesota counties. Arvig was recently awarded grants totaling $3.4 million from the state’s Broadband Line Extension program after submitting successful lowest-cost bids to serve the locations. Arvig will invest another $442,000 to cover the remaining project costs, bringing the grand total of the project to $3.87 million. Upon completion later this year, 104.3 route miles of new fiber infrastructure will have been constructed.

Paul Bunyan Communications has started construction on expanding its all-fiber optic network to over 600 more locations in Itasca and St. Louis County (MN) across five townships. This project includes areas south and west of the city of Cook including parts of the following townships: Alango, Carpenter, Field, Sturgeon, and an unorganized township east of Carpenter. The construction phase of the project is now underway and is expected to take up to three months.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB or Bureau) denied Savage Communications, Inc.’s (Savage) request for waiver of the Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) non-compliance rules, finding that Savage did not demonstrate that good cause supports waiving the non-compliance rules or reducing the required support recovery. After being announced as an RDOF winning bidder, Savage filed a long-form application seeking to be authorized to receive support for the winning bids in exchange for providing voice and broadband service.  In December 2021, Sa

Midwest FiberPath says it will build a 1,200-mile multi-conduit long-haul backbone intended to support the increased traffic created by artificial intelligence in east-west and north-south directions in the Midwest. It will provide what it describes as next-generation carrier mesh diversity. The multi-conduit design will enable diverse carrier deployments within a single controlled right-of-way.

Technology shapes how Minnesotans access essential government services — from childcare and healthcare to public safety, licensing, and regulatory oversight. In 2025, the Minnesota Technology Advisory Council (TAC) focused on strengthening the enterprise foundations required for effective, accountable government. Minnesota continued to lead in responsible artificial intelligence (AI) adoption by strengthening enterprise governance, shared standards, and workforce readiness.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that certain Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) census block groups (CBG) are now eligible for other funding programs.

When it comes to federal efforts to close the digital divide, Minnesota has been left behind. Program after program has promised transformational change—yet time and again, your communities are still waiting. But Minnesota has the power—and the track record—to build its own broadband future. Federal broadband programs have failed the state. They promised a feast and delivered crumbs. In the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, ISPs defaulted on 80% of  more than $400,000,000 in state RDOF funds and on 78% of the over 142,000 RDOF locations.