December 8th, 2022
For Immediate Release
Minnesota’s State Department of Employment and Economic Development announced JTN will receive one of the 61 matching state grants offered for broadband development under year’s this round of funding.
Almost $100,000,000 was awarded with the aim of providing high speed internet service to more than 33,000 homes that lack sufficient wireline broadband service.
JTN was awarded $113,076 and is matching an additional $56,538 along with an equal contribution by Eureka Township. The project provides service to Eureka Center, rural areas of Eureka Township, and Eureka Estates with service delivery to over 100 homes.
President Ben Blomgren confirmed the projects will be scheduled to begin in spring of 2023. “We are pleased to be able to offer fiber-to-the-home to the residents of Eureka Township. Construction will begin in spring of 2023. The partnership with Eureka Township, initiative of residents, and a willingness by the State to fund communities on the edge of rural Minnesota was instrumental in seeing that this project was funded. Broadband is an important element for rural areas as we saw during 2020. We designed the network to be able to achieve future expansion with minimal additional capital costs as new funding sources are secured. This is just the beginning of our footprint in the area.”
This project coincides with JTN’s privately-funded fiber-to-the-home construction in neighboring townships and complements its fixed wireless gigabit service offering scheduled to launch in more areas in early winter 2023.