Minnesota prepares broadband for remote worker influx

Remote work has grown 400% in the last decade. By 2025, an estimated 70% of the workforce will be working remotely to some extent. As remote work grows, people are moving to rural areas, causing rural community leaders to rush to provide infrastructure that supports a remote workforce.

Hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans are now working from home, placing a new demand on internet service. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a study by Connect Minnesota and the Minnesota Broadband Task Force found that 37% of Minnesotans worked from home at least occasionally, and 20% tele-worked regularly. When the pandemic hit, these numbers drastically increased with recent estimates showing that over 600,000 workers in Minnesota were teleworking. In addition to answering emails and text messages, joining Zoom calls and working on virtual projects all day, these remote workers are streaming videos for fun and spending more time online overall. Data networks can become constrained when so many people are using the internet at once, especially when they are using it to stream videos or play video games.

In addition to the Minnesotans who are already working from home, there has been a surge in out-of-state remote workers moving to the area.

Remote workers are moving to rural areas

Nine percent of adults ages 18-29 are on the move due to COVID-19, and 22% of adults overall are moving as a result of the virus. Many people are moving to find more space to work from home, while others want to get away from congested areas to limit the spread of the virus. More space and smaller populations are bringing a large number of remote workers to rural areas. Rural communities that effectively attract the remote workforce are bound to prosper.

While rural communities offer many benefits to offer those who reside there, historically, internet access has been limited in these areas. Unfortunately, internet access is one resource that can make or break a move for a remote worker. Sixty-seven percent of respondents to a recent survey by SatelliteInternet.com said that internet availability in a rural area would affect their decision to move somewhere rural, and 36% said limited access is preventing them from moving to rural destinations. Fast, affordable and dependable internet access is a key proponent in attracting remote workers.

Minnesota electric co-ops secure grants to grow fast, reliable internet

Great River Energy and its member-owner electric cooperatives are ahead of the curve in working to bring better broadband to rural areas by leveraging state and federal grants. In 2021, several Minnesota electric providers were awarded major grants for internet development. This includes Mille Lacs Energy Cooperative, which was awarded a Minnesota State Broadband grant for Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Internet projects. FTTH is the fastest and most reliable internet currently available.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced in December 2020 that more than $408 million of a $9.2 billion national broadband grant program would be spent over a 10-year period on developing high-speed internet in rural Minnesota alone. This is the fourth largest sum for any one state, putting Minnesota behind only California, Mississippi and Arkansas. This new development makes rural Minnesota a promising location for remote workers.

Arrowhead Cooperative (AC) of Cook County, Minnesota, recently won a bid for $18.4 million in funds from the FCC. AC has already made high-speed internet hook-ups possible to over 70% of Cook County’s population, and they are continuing to efficiently grow the broadband.

Efforts like these are bringing more remote workers to rural Minnesota. A recent study by Gallup found that 48% of respondents now prefer to live in a town or rural area, up from 39% in 2018. Rural communities offer space for children to play while maintaining social distancing, access to lakes, golf courses and hiking for recreation during downtime and fewer opportunities for the virus to spread.

As remote worker numbers grow in Minnesota, Great River Energy applauds its member-owner co-ops’ continued efforts to bring fast, reliable internet to rural Minnesota.