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10-20-2020 IAC ReportPage 1 of 1 City of Scandia 14727 209 th St. N. PO Box 128, Scandia, Minnesota 55073 Phone (651) 433 -2274 Fax (651) 433 -5112 http://www.ci.scandia.mn.us DATE: October 20, 2020 FROM: Bob Willmers Internet Action Committee Chair TO: Honorable Mayor and City Council Members RE: October 2020 Internet Action Report The 2020 Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Local internet service provider, Midco, has had its latest application for the 2020 Border-to- Border Broadband Development grant program received by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). It is one of 64 total grant submission. Here is an except of latest update from DEED regarding the status of this latest round of grants: “Sixty-four (64) applications for the 2020 Border-to-Border Broadband Development grant program were received by the September 30 deadline. The Office of Broadband Development has initiated the challenge process required by Minnesota law (Minn. Stat. 116J.395 subd. 5a) concurrent with its review of the applications. A list of the applications filed and instructions on how to file a challenge, if necessary, are available under the “Challenge Process” tab. Any challenges must be submitted in writing by 4:00 p.m., Wednesday, November 4, 2020 to the Office of Broadband Development, 1st National Bank Building, 332 Minnesota Street, Suite E200, St. Paul, MN 55101.” The following is a link to the part of the application that shows the service areas and census blocks: https://apps.deed.state.mn.us/assets/broadband/2020-Midco-Scandia- CBlksandmaps.pdf Similar to last year, the City is in the process of obtaining a full copy of this grant application. Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Update The FCC ’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund will award up to $20.4 billion to connect millions of rural homes and small businesses to high -speed broadband networks in a two -phase approach. Midco is participating in t he Phase I reverse auction , which will target census blocks that are entirely unserved by voice and broadband with download speeds of at least 25 Mbps. Several areas within Scandia are eligible . (See map below). Page 1 of 1 City of Scandia 14727 209 th St. N. PO Box 128, Scandia, Minnesota 55073 Phone (651) 433 -2274 Fax (651) 433 -5112 http://www.ci.scandia.mn.us We will know the results of both the DEED and RDOF programs by the end of the year or early 2021. Additionally, The Internet Action Committee is working with MidCo to get service to the Gammelgården Museum. The installation costs to make this service connection are about $1,900. MidCo is considering waiving this expense, even though the Gammelgården location is outside the current 2021 DEED project area. We hope to have a final answer on this within days. Finally, MidCo’s current and future builds are using a “fiber deep” technology that will eventually allow 10 Gigabit speeds as they make improvements to their network. More details on this service opportunity are described here: https://www.midco.com/10g/ Robert Wilmers Chairman - Scandia Internet Action Committee robert.wilmers@icloud.com