High Speed Internet Initiative
We are happy to announce that the city of Harris, in cooperation with CenturyLink (AKA Lumen), has been awarded Minnesota Border to Border (B2B) Grant!!
Border to Border (B2B) Grant Project summary.
This last mile project will deploy the fiber and electronics necessary to 228 unserved or underserved locations in Harris Minnesota. In a funding partnership with the CenturyLink, The State of Minnesota, Chisago County, and the city of Harris, will improve unserved/underserved levels to 940 Mbps download and 940 Mbps upload speeds, exceeding Minnesota’s 2026 state speed goal. Building a fiber-to-the-premise network that provides advanced, high speed broadband services to all households, businesses, and farms in the proposed grant area improves 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 health care resources and will stimulate a more robust local area economy.
Project summary:
This project builds FTTP to approximately 228 living units (LUs) in project areas that are considered unserved and underserved. This does not include the additional living units serviced by Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) That was awarded in 2020. Both RDOF and B2B projects will be installed in parallel and to the residents of Harris will look like one large project. The delivered services will be the same the only difference is how it’s paid for, RDOF is federal grant, B2B is state grant.
When fiber internet service is ordered, the fiber drop connection, Optical Network Terminal (ONT) and gateway equipment will be placed from the distribution fiber facility to the customer location.
For at least 6-months after the project completes, Lumen will not charge new customers signing up for fiber internet service for the placing of the fiber drops, ONT and gateway (router), unless it is a very high-cost fiber drop placement. For fiber drop placements above $1,500, the customer may be charged for the amount above $1,500.
Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF):
Lumen was awarded RDOF in areas in the Harris area. With the awarded of the B2B state grant for the Harris area, it will coordinate the timing of the RDOF project in this area to coincide with the B2B grant project. Running to two projects at the same time, and reusing some of the RDOF equipment, will save the city of Harris over $269,000 with the B2B project.
Funding Break down of the B2B project, not including RDOF:
B2B Grant $465,814
CenturyLink $207,528
Chisago County $186,736
Harris $186,736
Total Project $1,046,814
RDOF funding covers more than just Harris, we are trying to breakout RDOF details for just the city and will update when available. In general RDOF is about the same size project as B2B.
Type of FTTP Technology:
Beginning in 2022, Lumen began deploying 10 Gigabit Symmetric Passive Optical Network (XGS-PON) FTTP technology. This demonstrates Lumen’s commitment to remain an industry leading provider of fiber internet services. Customers served with XGS-PON FTTP will be able to subscribe to multi-gig internet services. This is the latest technology and will serve the community for years to come.
Proposed pricing structure of service for project area:
The current pricing and terms and conditions for Quantum Fiber, is located at the following website: https://fiber.q.com/fiber/s/welcome
Speeds up to 200 Mbps symmetrical is $49 a month.
Speeds up to 940 Mbps Symmetrical is $65 a month.
(Taxes and fees may also apply. Prices are subject to change.)
Quantum fiber internet services are priced using nationwide pricing and are very competitive in comparison with other 1-gig fiber internet service providers. Customers in the grant project areas, who subscribe to Quantum fiber internet services will get the same pricing and benefit of Quantum fiber internet service customers located in very competitive areas, such as Minneapolis.
Note: Because the decision to adopt a newer technology was made so recently, Lumen’s current retail fiber internet service offerings do not yet reflect XGS-PON FTTP multi-gig capabilities. Lumen is working through its product development process and will publicize the offerings once the process is completed.
Low Income Assistance Programs
Lumen participates in the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) for qualified low-income customers. Information about this program is located at the following website:
https://www.centurylink.com/aboutus/community/community-development/lifeline/acp.html
Lumen also participates in the FCC Lifeline program. Information regarding this program is located at the following website:
https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/account/consumer-assistance-programs.html
Qualified low-income customers can subscribe to these programs and receive offsetting monthly credits for high-speed internet service. (ACP - $30, Federal Lifeline - $9.25)