[News] Minnesota Told to Take Broadband Future Into Its Own Hands

The following article appeared on Broadband Breakfast:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2025 — After years of broken promises from Washington, Gigi Sohn urged Minnesota leaders last week to take the state’s broadband future into their own hands.'

“While Washington has failed you, Minnesota has the power – and the track record – to build its own broadband future,” she said. Sohn, executive director of the American Association for Public Broadband and a former Biden FCC nominee, delivered her remarks Sept. 10 in New Prague at What’s Next for Broadband in Minnesota, a forum hosted by the Minnesota Public Broadband Alliance.

Sohn pointed to the federal Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, launched in 2020, where providers defaulted on 80 percent of more than $400 million in Minnesota awards. “These numbers are nothing less than tragic,” she said.

Turning to the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program, Sohn said recent rule changes resulted in 22,000 of 76,000 eligible BEAD locations in the state going unclaimed, and reduced fiber to just 58 percent of awarded projects.

Originally designed to prioritize fiber, the program was reshaped under the Trump administration to emphasize technology neutrality and cost-efficiency, resulting in more awards flowing to satellite and fixed wireless providers than Minnesota’s initial plan envisioned.

Beyond deployment, Sohn faulted the Commerce Department for limiting how unspent BEAD dollars can be used, preventing reinvestment in workforce development, adoption and digital literacy programs.

Despite those setbacks, Sohn argued Minnesota can chart its own path.

“The good news is that Minnesota has a long history of self-help. When Washington has failed, when the market has failed, your communities have stepped up. You’ve built cooperatives, power systems, and water systems,” Sohn said.

She highlighted local, community-led broadband projects, including: a planned $24.5 million open-access fiber network in Wilmar; efforts by the Southwest Broadband cooperative to link rural farms and clinics; and, countywide fiber backbones connecting schools and first responders in Dakota and Scott counties.

“Broadband has become a cornerstone of livability, as critical as good schools and safe streets,” Sohn said. She added that community networks can drive population growth, raise property values, and generate cost savings by keeping revenues local.

Sohn concluded that local ownership can provide both resilience and long-term returns. “A community network isn’t just a cost – it’s an investment that pays dividends across the community,” she said.