The Northeast Service Cooperative (NESC), awardee of the First Round NOFA funded Northeast Minnesota
Middle Mile Project, collaborated with the Blandin Foundation and three tribal bands of the Lake Superior
Chippewa Indians – Bois Forte Band, Fond du Lac Band, and Grand Portage Band, to create this regional
broadband development plan. This plan is intended to spark local entrepreneurship and business opportunities
in an eight county region in northeastern Minnesota.
The counties served by the project include Aitkin, Carlton, Cook, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake, Pine, and St. Louis.
Northeast Minnesota extends from the Arrowhead region of far northeast Minnesota, west to the Iron Range,
and south to the mixed woodlands and farms of east central Minnesota. Lake Superior, the largest of the Great
Lakes, provides a natural boundary to the east and southeast. This boundary is further characterized by rocky
and hilly terrain. The Boundary Waters, a regional wilderness area straddles the Canadian and U.S. border to
the north and west.
Large areas of northeastern Minnesota are covered with dense forests. Rural communities in these areas are
often many miles from each other, and sometimes hundreds of miles away from the larger cities without any
significant transportation infrastructure. Much of this region, especially those areas outside of municipal
boundaries, lacks broadband service of any kind, excluding satellite service. Some areas have mobile wireless
Internet capabilities. But satellite and wireless services lack the reliability, affordability, and/or capacity and
speed for active Internet users. At the same time, these areas have significant potential for small business
development and entrepreneurial activity, especially those related to the creative class and knowledge workers.
The design framework of this planning project involved three facets of implementation: 1) conduct a market
study to determine regional business, economic, and broadband needs; 2) develop engineering designs for a
broadband network to serve several communities in the area; and, 3) create a pro forma financial analysis of a
proposed future loan for each type of community.
The project resulted in the development of four (4) broadband engineering models, covering different types of
geography within the region, enabling a potential environment for private sector development while leveraging
regional infrastructure projects that will connect several communities in the region. Each phase of the project
was led by public and private sector experts in engineering, project management, and finance.
The project also concluded that it was not plausible to sustain a “loan” without substantial financial assistance.
Should this significant barrier be eliminated, we project up to 60 jobs would be created or saved if each of these
communities pursued deployment of broadband access as described here. We base that number on two
factors: 1) the number of residential respondents who indicated they would get more opportunities to work in
the home if high-speed broadband were available, and 2) the model for Cloquet suggests up to four small light
manufacturing businesses would successfully utilize high-speed broadband if extended into the city’s business
park, thus making them more likely to expand their operations due to increased competitiveness.