Garden Valley Telephone Company has been awarded a border-to-border broadband grant to provide Internet access in Bejou and rural Mahnomen, MN.
Garden Valley Telephone Company has been awarded a border to border grant from the State of Minnesota to assist in a broadband build to Bejou and rural Mahnomen, including portions of the White Earth Reservation.
Residents and businesses in Mahnomen County were supportive of Garden Valley’s border-to-border grant application, which gives Garden Valley the opportunity to offer Bejou and rural Mahnomen Internet access, allowing employees to work from home and their children improved access to homework and educational resources. Bejou and White Earth leaders agree that the area is in desperate need of fast reliable Internet service to help the area progress, especially as technology continues to advance around them.
The grant provides the assistance needed to plow state-of-the-art fiber optic cable to the homes in this area allowing access to local phone service, Internet speeds up to 1 Gbps, and digital video services, which includes over 200 channels.
The border-to-border broadband project for Bejou and rural Mahnomen will serve 214 unserved households, 17 unserved businesses, and 7 community anchor institutions. The total project cost of $2.6 million will be financed by the $1.3 million Minnesota border-to-border broadband grant and a local match of $1.3 million by Garden Valley Telephone Company. Construction on the 2.6 million dollar project is set to begin the summer of 2018, with installation of services to the resident’s homes starting in early 2019. Residents living in the area can expect to receive communications from Garden Valley in the near future.
“This is exciting news and promises to be another busy year. I know our team is up to the challenge as we continue to grow Garden Valley” said Tim Brinkman, CEO/General Manager at Garden Valley Telephone Company.
