Blazing-fast Internet comes to Bemidji

Blisteringly fast internet service is coming to Bemidji and a 5,000-square-mile swath of northern Minnesota.

A rural cooperative, Paul Bunyan Communications, has spent the past decade quietly laying the foundations of a $150 million gigabit fiber optic network, dubbed the "GigaZone," that will be one of the largest and fastest rural high-speed networks in the nation, starting early next year.

"This might be viewed as, 'Wow, we have faster Internet.' But it's so much more than that," said Paul Bunyan general manager Gary Johnson.

The new network will offer thousands of homes and businesses in five northern counties access to internet service 100 times faster than average. Jubilant economic development officials in the region are already spreading the word that some of the fastest internet connections in the nation are coming to communities like Bemidji, Grand Rapids and Walker.

"When I visit with companies looking at locating to the Bemidji area, I always get two questions, The first is about talent -- do we have the talent to support their companies -- and secondly, do we have broadband to support them," said Dave Hengel, executive director of Greater Bemidji, the region's joint economic development commission.

The cooperative will begin offering 1 gigabit internet speeds to customers in Bemidji early next year and will expand the service across its 5,000-square-mile coverage area over the next few years. That service area stretches from Bemidji to the Canadian border to Grand Rapids and Walker.

Gov. Mark Dayton, who has been pushing for statewide broadband access, welcomed the coming GigaZone. As many as a quarter of homes in Minnesota still lack access to high-speed Internet.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, DFL-Minn., called the rural gigabit network "a game changer" for the region.

"Expanding broadband is a great equalizing force for boosting rural economies," Klobuchar said in a statement. "Today, you don't need to live off a major highway or in a bustling city to find a good job, start a new business or get a high quality education, but today you do need a high-speed internet connection."

There are a number of gigabit fiber optic networks around the nation -- Century Link announced plans this summer for a super high speed network in the Twin Cities -- but most of them are in urban areas. Paul Bunyan Communications, which started in the 1950s when no one else seemed interested in running phone lines between far-flung homes and communities in Northern Minnesota, decided to take the same leap with high-speed broadband.

"We're here because no one wanted to serve this are in the first place," Johnson said. "That's in our DNA. We're here because others wouldn't do it and now we're reliving that with broadband."