Minnesota communities with limited access to high-speed internet are getting a boost from the state in the form of $26 million in grant funding for broadband projects.
Lt. Gov. Tina Smith and other state officials announced Tuesday that 39 projects will get a share of the money set aside this year for the "Border-to-Border Broadband" grant program.
In addition to the money from the state, the selected projects will also get a combined $34 million in private matches from local communities.
Smith said the grant program, now in its fourth year, is helping to erase a significant divide between areas of greater Minnesota and more densely populated communities with robust high-speed internet access.
Because many providers see little incentive in building in rural areas, she said about 20 percent of Minnesotans still don't have access to what the state considers a minimal internet speed of 25 megabits per second.
"As the market is working, it isn't economically feasible for internet developers to expand into areas where people are living so far apart," she said. "Just as we had to do with rural electrification, the concept here is we all come together and make sure this can happen."
The grants provide up to 50 percent of what local internet providers need to expand service in a particular area, with individual grants of up to $5 million.
This year's recipients are scattered across the state, from Rushford Village in southeast Minnesota, which will get $2 million to help expand service to residents, farmers and medical facilities, to a $1.3 million grant for sparsely populated areas of Kittson, Marshall and Roseau counties in northwest Minnesota.