Those looking to have stable, high-speed internet may get a boost if county officials give a green light for a project that could provide rural broadband to a larger part of Mower County.

The Mower County Board will be voting during their Tuesday session to either approve or deny support for the rural broadband project that would expand high-speed internet in rural parts of the area. The Mid Continent Communication (MIDCO) based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, requested the board to pass a resolution and approve a letter of support from the county after being provisionally awarded $38.9 million in Connect America Fund (CAF) Phase II funding through the Federal Communications Commission to provide high-speed internet access to 9,371 places using optical fiber and terrestrial fixed wireless assets.

County Administrator Trish Harren shared that Phase II support recipients must:

• Offer commercially at least one voice and one broadband service meeting the relevant service requirements to the required number of locations in the following time frame:

— 40 percent of the required number of places in Minnesota by the end of third year of support

— An additional 20 percent in each subsequent year

— 100 percent by the end of the sixth year of support

— The exact deployment schedule is determined by the carriers themselves and not the FCC.

Also, the recipients have to file with Universal Service Administrative Company yearly reports and built-out milestone certifications and data on the locations where service is available. Failure to meet these terms of support can result in increased reporting requirements as well as possibly withholding support.

Harren noted that outside of Austin city limits, much of Mower County were either underserved or unserved with high-speed internet services. For those who depend on the internet for their businesses and education, ensuring that residents who live in the county received affordable, competitive internet services when many providers would not be able to give high-speed internet in sparsely populated areas is imperative.

Although there weren’t specific percentages as to how much of Mower County remains underserved or unserved entirely, Harren said that the high cost often deterred providers from extending services to areas where populations were more sparse.

“The agricultural areas have sparse populations that would not support the expense of a fiber build out there because there are not enough users,” Harren said. “We have a lot of geography that is completely unserved with sparse population due to our ag industry. We also have a large underserved geography. Without Minnesota Broadband and the FCC doing this type of funding, it would not be financially feasible in rural areas. It takes a MIDCO grant to make this possible.”

Currently, MIDCO is working on an application for Minnesota Broadband funds that would permit them to build out broadband in unserved or underserved areas in rural Minnesota by working with six counties and submit their grant with either five or six projects.

Mower County was chosen as one of the six counties to be eligible for a grant between $300,000 to $500,000 for its project of bringing rural broadband into the area, and was part of the region that was awarded Connect America Funds because the large geographic area that was unserved and underserved. Harren said that the goal is to keep deployment costs low, under $5,000 per home.

If the county board approves, then this will be included in their Minnesota Broadband grant application. If given the Minnesota Broadband grant, then MIDCO would provide high-speed internet access to every home and business in the following areas:

• Sargeant
• Waltham
• Elkton
• Grand Meadow

Then, MIDCO would deploy fixed wireless assets in a six- to seven-mile radius within those communities. Harren shared that even though many providers continue to focus more on fiber in ground solutions, MIDCO has been utilizing deployment solutions including fixed asset high-speed access and a hybrid solution using a mix of fiber and cable.

“With Mower County being a large ag community, fiber in the ground was never a viable option,” she said. “But, MIDCO can put fiber in the ground in towns while using fixed assets such as grain elevators and sending signals from a direct fiber connection, then they can cover almost every part of the county.”