Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton wants lawmakers to approve $100 million in state funds for broadband access grants to build out the system.
"That's essential to give everyone in Greater Minnesota equal access to the economic future that people in the metropolitan area enjoy," Dayton said.
While there is broad support for getting high-speed Internet to unserved and underserved corners of the state, making that a reality is more complicated.
Debates about state-mandated connection speeds, concerns about overlap with the federal government and private competition, questions about technology preferences and the amount the state should spend, and requests to reform regulations and wage requirements make the desire to build complex.
Broadband basics
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As central cities across the country were getting used to the idea of linking in to high-speed internet everywhere, folks beyond city borders were often left behind.
The cost of providing high-speed internet service to small burgs and distant farmland was not worth the tiny potential customer base.
Despite that, Minnesota has long had lofty goals.
"Minnesota should have ubiquitous (every home and business in the state) high-speed broadband coverage as soon as possible but no later than 2015," said a 2010 state report.
With the dawn of 2016, it is clear the state has fallen short.
"We are making progress but we cannot declare victory," said Margaret Anderson Kelliher, a former House speaker and CEO of the Minnesota High Tech Association. Kelliher leads the Broadband Task Force that Dayton set up soon after he took office.
By most accounts, Minnesota is behind many other states in providing high-speed access to its far-flung citizens.
"Broadband is like the rural electrification or the water pipes or the roads of the 21st century economy and we have a situation right now where the access to that broadband infrastructure is very uneven," said Lt. Gov. Tina Smith, a key Dayton administration backer for the broadband program.
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Backers say the time is right for the state to provide that boost.
"I think we have a lot of things working in our favor right now," said Rep. Ron Kresha, R-Little Falls. He said he plans to push for more state broadband funding in the 2016 session but hasn't yet decided how much he will back.
Enter, the government
The Dayton administration's push for government funding to fill in the broadband gaps is not new. Both in 2014 and this year, the state provided grants, which required a local match, to build out internet access. The grant funds - about $20 million two years ago and $10 million last year - were relatively small.
A federal program has recently made about $500 million worth of funding available to Minnesota providers through a program called Connect American Fund.
Last month, House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, said he was concerned that a robust state program would duplicate those federal efforts. Others have also raised that issue.
"My primary concern with a (state) broadband fund is that it focus on the unserved, be technology neutral and it be synchronized with the federal Connect American Fund," said Andrew Schriner, director of government relations at CenturyLink in Minnesota.
CenturyLink, which is broadly supportive of the state's broadband program, is one of the nation's largest telecom and broadband providers. It has received state and federal funds to build its network.
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State officials say the federal program and state program have key distinctions.
"There is no circumstance where we are duplicating or supplanting the federal dollars," Smith, the lieutenant governor, said.
The federal program provides grants only to specific service zones, and leaves others out. Further, it requires providers meet different, slower, speed goals than the state program would, state officials said.
A $100 million state program, on top of a federal program, may also increase competition to hire workers to actually build out the system.
The Pioneer Press is a media partner with Forum News Service
