Latest DEED Grants Clear the Way for Further Minnesota Broadband Coverage

East Central Energy (ECE), Braham, MN, recently celebrated a nearly $7 million award from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development’s (DEED) Border-to-Border Broadband Development grant program. The funding will help ECE continue its ongoing project building broadband to building remote areas of Mille Lacs County, MN.

“As a cooperative, we are grateful for the support from entities like MN DEED. Their commitment to advancing the state’s broadband connectivity has been a major contributing factor to the growth of ECE Fiber,” said ECE President and CEO Justin Jahnz on the co-op’s website.

Most recently, DEED announced a total of $52 million in grants following the tenth round of Border-to-Border awards. NRTC assisted ECE’s application for tenth round grants and for two earlier rounds. ECE says it intends to apply for more grants as it continues to fill in holes in broadband coverage.

ECE is building out broadband over a wide area of central and eastern Minnesota and parts of northwest Wisconsin working with NRTC’s electronic design process, which improves efficiency and helps control construction costs. ECE’s project was the subject of an article in an advertising insert to the August RE Magazine.