BATTLE LAKE, MN – The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development Office of Broadband Development announced the 2023 Minnesota Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program recipients and Otter Tail Telcom (d.b.a. Park Region) is pleased to be one of them. The legislative focus of this grant program is to provide financial resources that help make the business care for new and existing providers to invest in building broadband infrastructure into unserved and underserved areas of the state.
This last-mile project will serve a total of 506 households, businesses, farms, and community anchor institutions in the South Battle Lake area. In a funding partnership with the State of Minnesota and Otter Tail County, Otter Tail Telcom will provide 1 Gbps download and 1 Gbps upload broadband speeds, exceeding Minnesota’s 2026 state speed goal. Building a fiber-to-the-premises network that provides advanced, high-speed broadband services to households, businesses and farms will improve access to critical school e-learning applications while also making agricultural operations more efficient and enhancing crop production through enabled precision agriculture tools. The broadband network will improve access to rural healthcare resources and will stimulate a more robust local area economy.
Dave Bickett, Park Region’s General Manager/CEO said, “This collaborative effort with partners at the State of Minnesota and Otter Tail County will enable Park Region to expand broadband access in Otter Tail County.” He goes on to say, “We extend our sincere appreciation to our partners for their initial and continued support as well as the residents and businesses in the project area who will entrust us with the privilege to be their communications services provider.”