Border to Border project edging closer to finish line

MARTIN COUNTY - Federated Broadband’s Border-to-Border project, which has worked in select areas stretching through rural north and south Martin County, is nearing completion after a year of work.

The broadband project has taken $10 million to complete, with $8 million coming from a state Border-to-Border grant, while the other $2 million has been financed by Federated Broadband. Broadband Operations Manager Troy Rasmussen said these areas in north and south Martin County were established and then judged to see if they would receive the grant.

"It’s on different scoring criteria, such as the need for fiber line to the customers," he said. "A lot depends on their speed. There is also what they currently get from whatever provider they might be using. They also run a challenge round, so if there are other providers in the area, they have the opportunity to say that the customers are served and the grant shouldn’t be funded."

Rasmussen likened grants like this to what was done in the 30s with rural electrification, as broadband has been neglected in rural areas, and assistance helps get smaller areas up to speed with other areas.

"Rural electrification was only getting done by the co-ops because they were given the opportunity to be able to do it in an economical way that allowed a decent business model for it," he said. "Otherwise, the major electric companies wouldn’t have brought electricity out, and it’s kind of the same thing here with the fiber."

Once the need was determined, grant funding went out, and over the last year, Federated Broadband has been hard at work reaching out to everyone in the designated areas to install fiber optic cables for free. In that timeframe, Rasmussen said there have been three camps.

"One where the property owner wants the service brought to the house and is going to take the service," he said. "Two where the service is brought to the house and they don’t take the service, and three where they don’t want anything brought onto their property. Almost everybody brings the service up to the house, and then the majority of people take service when we get it."

For the small minority who haven't opted to have the cables installed, Rasmussen gave a couple of reasons why that has been the case.

"Sometimes they have a provider that they’re either in a contract with, or they just don’t need the change," he said. "Some of it can be a more elderly demographic that doesn’t even use the internet, so they don’t see the need to bring it up to the house."

In the year since they started, Rasmussen said they are about 99 percent done.

"Currently we are 99 percent complete," he said. "We are hooking customers up in all areas on the border-to-border tent. We are doing some follow-up, going back through and hitting the customers that didn’t take it just to verify. A lot of times we’ll get people that, now that it’s done and their neighbors are hooking up and people start talking, they change their mind and then they want it. We’ll keep the grant open here for a little bit just to help with the late takers. Then we’ll at some point, probably near the end of the year, close the grant out and move on."

On top of this project, Rasmussen said they are also doing what they call the Martin County Ring, a ring of fiber optic to go through each one of the townships, from which further broadband development can spring from in the future. Rasmussen said they also plan to have that construction done by the end of the year.

As they were ahead of schedule on Border-to-Border, Rasmussen said they plan to also have the Martin County Ring construction done by the end of the year as well. From there, they will have to wait and see what becomes available for funding and availability.

"It depends on funding at the state level and what they have available to do with that," he said. "Our overall vision is to get service to whoever wants it in Martin County, Jackson County, and Cottonwood County. That is our end goal, get service to everyone that needs it."

For more information, including maps of the Border-to-Border and Martin County Ring project areas, visit federatedbroadband.coop/fiberbuildouts.