Big projects have small beginnings.
This week, two of our crew members, Rich (pictured) and Andy began building signs for our middle mile optical fiber expansion project scheduled for construction this summer in East Central Minnesota. After five years of development, we are eager to begin.
In 2021, the US Economic Development Administration granted the Northeast Service Cooperative $3.4M in federal funding to help deploy new, critical broadband infrastructure (link below). Once completed, the 135 miles of new fiber plant will expand our total network miles by 11%, add three additional counties to the eight we already serve, and leverage new opportunities in both the public and private sectors.
We look forward to working with our bid awardees Lakes States Construction, LLC and GCG Communications & Network Solutions to bring this project home. Watch for progress updates from us from time to time as construction gets underway this spring and continues into 2025. Finally, look for more of Rich and Andy. Along with our whole crew, they are “lit” and ready to go!
_______