Arvig to Construct $18 million Fiber Network to Serve 12 Stearns County Communities
Arvig will invest a recently awarded Border to Border Broadband program grant into a fiber-to-the-home infrastructure project that will expand high-speed internet access in the rural areas near 12 communities in Stearns County.
The mainline and last-mile fiber project will reach 945 unserved and 1,204 underserved structures in central Stearns County, near the rural parts of Sauk Centre, Melrose, Meire Grove, Greenwald, Elrosa, Spring Hill, St. Martin (including in-town St. Martin), Roscoe, Farming, Richmond, Cold Spring and Eden Valley.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $18,424,333, and will be funded by a three-way partnership between Arvig, the State of Minnesota’s Border to Border Broadband Program and Stearns County. Arvig will invest its $4.9 million Border to Border grant and an additional capital investment of $5.1 million, and Stearns County will contribute $8.3 million toward the project.
“Residents in these communities are well-connected and tech-savvy,” said Mark Birkholz Director of Customer Operations and Southern Markets at Arvig. “Our goal in building this fiber network is to provide services that can reliably meet the growing needs of this region, for work, school, entertainment and daily life.”
Construction on the network will begin as soon as the grant is awarded and all are slated for completion before June of 2025. Once complete, residents will have access to internet speeds from 100Mbps (20 Mbps upload) up to 10 Gbps (1 Gbps upload), meeting and exceeding Minnesota’s 2026 state speed goal.
The Border-to-Border Broadband program is administered by the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED)’s Office of Broadband Development. Arvig has participated in the program since its inception in 2014.
In total, 61 broadband expansion projects around Minnesota will receive a share of $99.6 million in grants from the Border-to-Border Broadband program, representing the largest single investment in broadband in the state’s history, according to the governor’s office.
A full list of grant awards by project is available on DEED’s website.
About Arvig
Headquartered in Perham, Minnesota, Arvig is a local, employee-owned broadband and full-service telecommunications provider. Committed to delivering cutting-edge technology to customers throughout the region, Arvig provides residential internet, television, and telephone services. Additionally, Arvig provides a wide variety of business technology solutions. Visit arvig.com for additional information.