Garden Valley Technologies has been awarded a Low-Density Population Broadband Development Grant from the State of Minnesota through the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development (OBD). This grant is within the borders of the White Earth Reservation in Mahnomen County and is one of only 26 grants being funded in the State of Minnesota in round 10 grant awards.
Residents and businesses in this area expressed support for GVT’s grant application, which gives GVT the opportunity to offer rural Mahnomen Internet access, allowing employees to work from home and their children improved access to homework and educational resources. The grant area covers parts of two counties and seven townships and will consist of over 142 miles of fiber.
The grant provides the assistance needed to plow state-of-the-art fiber optic cable to the homes in this area allowing access to Internet speeds up to 6 Gbps, local phone service and digital video services, which includes over 200 channels. “This is exciting news, and I would like to thank the office of broadband and the State of Minnesota for this grant opportunity,” said Timothy Brinkman, CEO/General Manager at Garden Valley Technologies. “Grants like these make it possible to build out broadband in highly rural environments.”
The border-to-border broadband project for rural Mahnomen County will bring service to reach 287 unserved and underserved locations which include 221 residences, six businesses, 56 farms and four community institutions. The total project cost of $6,471,341 million will be partially financed by the $4.6 million Minnesota broadband grant.
Next Steps
GVT’s outside plant engineering team is working on the most efficient method to extend fiber optics to the residents and businesses in this grant area. The company has started collaborating with tribal and county officials to map the fiber route. Once they receive approval, GVT’s
construction team will partner with local contractors to begin the construction process and have a groundbreaking ceremony, which will be held next spring.
The grant area map outlines the zones that will be served as part of the Border-to-Border grant. In addition to this grant, there are also some shaded areas inside the outline that will be built out with funding from other federal programs. It is important to note that the City of Naytahwaush and areas around Twin Lake are not part of this grant program.
Garden Valley Technologies has committed to a project completion date of 2027. However, many residents in this area can expect to start receiving service in late 2025 and 2026. To see if your address falls in this grant area or to express interest in receiving GVT services, please visit join.gvtel.net. GVT will continue sending updates as this project progresses
