Dunn County has secured four additional state grants to improve broadband access to homeowners and businesses.

The grants are part of $43.2 million in new broadband grants announced recently by Gov. Tony Evers and the Public Service Commission to fund 30 projects across the state. They will expand broadband access for about 16,000 residential and business locations in Wisconsin.

“This is amazing and unexpected news,” said Dan Dunbar, Dunn County Assistant County Manager. “Dunn County accounted for over 10 percent of all the awards. The broadband providers that cover our county have done a wonderful job making compelling applications."

The grants are:

Town of Grant: an $816,954 grant to reach 124 homes and 43 businesses by Mosiac Technologies

Town of Colfax: a $335,000 grant to reach 40 homes and five businesses by 24-7 Telcom.

Town of Lucas: a $535,000 grant to reach 51 homes and 10 businesses by 24-7 Telcom.

Village of Knapp: a $580,000 grant to reach 158 homes and 42 businesses by 24-7 Telcom.

The grants carry a match requirement from the broadband providers and other entities. Dunbar said Dunn County pledged $182,500 to the grants. Since 2022, Dunbar said, the county will have contributed $194,000 to broadband projects in Dunn County.

Dunbar also said that since 2017 there have been 29 broadband projects awarded grants covering all or part of the Towns of Menomonie, Red Cedar, Rock Creek, Lucas, Sherman, Colfax, Otter Creek, Sand Creek, Dunn, Elk Mound, Lucas, Spring Brook, Stanton, Tainter, Weston, Tiffany, Grant, New Haven; and the villages of Boyceville and Knapp.

Evers said in making the announcement that a good broadband connection “means helping folks log on to work, go to school, buy groceries, order prescriptions, see the doctor, connect with friends and loved ones, and so much more. We must remain steadfast in our efforts to expand access to affordable high-speed internet across the state and close the digital divide that is holding families and communities back once and for all.”

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Comments

Sat, 07/06/2024 - 07:34

Scott McCurdy (not verified)

Kudos to our persistent representatives who pushed to expand access to high speed internet throughout the county.  I am, however, perplexed at the lack of 5G cell access in our area.  While recently shuttling grandchildren about their various activities I was impressed on 5G connectivity in Chetek and Bloomer and surrounding ‘rural’ areas as well as in Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire.  It seemed odd that Menomonie has limited if any 5G access.  I live just south of the City limits and even with an updated 5G phone and service through Spectrum, a Verizon partner, we have LTE service.  I contacted the City and their IT personnel replied that we have 5G? If so it must be a very limited and spotty service.  I recall that the Dunn County board at one time some 15-20 years ago placed a moratorium on cell tower development so I’m curious if the DC Board has elected to expand wired broadband to our rural residents through grants provided to local service providers while limiting cell providers the ability to expand a service that is considered by many to be necessary and improve the safety and well-being of our residents and visitors.

Sun, 07/07/2024 - 21:40

Steve Hanson

5g service can be fairly unreliable in a lot of areas. Different providers are using different 5g technologies.  I've actually found I get fairly reliable 5g service in town, but I am using Google Fi (which is essentially T-Mobile). On the other hand for most of my uses there's really very  little practical difference between LTE and 5g service. This is really much more of an issue for your cell phone provider than the government. Verizon's coverage map seems to not show 5G service in Menomonie currently.

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