What’s new: In Minnesota, we invested more than $650 million in our network infrastructure from 2020-2024 to connect more people to greater possibility.
Cities and communities throughout Minnesota are seeing the impacts of this investment, including:
- More than $425 million in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington metro
- Nearly $60 million in Duluth
- Nearly $20 million in Brainerd
- Nearly $15 million in Rochester
- More than $10 million in St. Cloud
Why it matters: Every American deserves access to fast, reliable connectivity when it matters most – whether it’s an important call to a family member or friend, the internet that powers work or online learning, or the connection that first responders rely on. It’s this connectivity that’s powering economic growth and supporting job creation across America.
Our mission: We’re investing across the country not only to boost network reliability and capacity, but also to expand broadband nationwide to help bridge the digital divide.
How we’re making it happen in Minnesota: Committed to expanding connectivity, our investment focuses on all facets of the network — including fiber, 5G and FirstNet,® Built with AT&T.
- Expanding Access to Fiber: We’re bringing AT&T Fiber soon to the south metro of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Through a joint venture with BlackRock, we plan to serve customers outside of AT&T’s traditional service areas through Gigapower.
- Building Networks for the Next Century: To reach our goal and better serve our customers with faster, more reliable services, we’re actively investing to modernize our networks that will power us for the next century, not the last one. We’re working to exit our legacy copper network operations across the large majority of our wireline footprint by the end of 2029. Throughout this transition, no customer will lose voice or 9-1-1 services. We developed products like AT&T Phone-Advanced, a digital phone service that uses our reliable wireless network and any broadband connection, as a reliable alternative to plain old telephone service (POTS).
- Unlocking the Power of 5G: From rural communities to urban areas, our overall wireless voice and data network covers more than 99% of all Americans, including Minnesota. Our 5G network using low-band spectrum reaches more than 310 million people in more than 26,100 cities and towns in the U.S.
- We’re working with businesses from manufacturing to healthcare to create new innovations and increase efficiencies with AT&T 5G.
- We’re ramping up performance in high traffic areas, like airports, stadiums and venues, including Allianz Field in St. Paul and the Target Center and U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
- For less densely populated areas like Grand Marais, Redwood Falls, and Thief River Falls, we’re expanding our 5G network so people there can have access to reliable connectivity.
- And we’re also working with AST SpaceMobile to one day offer voice, data, text and video services in remote, off-grid locations.
- We also launched AT&T Internet Air, our fixed wireless home internet service delivered over our 5G network, an all-in-one device that powers strong Wi-Fi coverage in your home.
- Unprecedented Connectivity for First Responders: As public safety’s partner, we are bringing better connectivity to public safety when — and where — they need it. Now with more than 2.99M square miles of coverage, FirstNet has the largest network footprint in the country, covering more first responders than competing commercial networks, and we are only continuing to grow. As part of our 10-year, $8B+ investment initiative with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) to transform public safety’s communications, we’ve completed the buildout of 1,000 new FirstNet sites across the country – well ahead of schedule and almost twice as fast as we pledged – providing first responders with dedicated connectivity on public safety’s Band 14 spectrum. And we’re continuing to expand FirstNet with purpose-built FirstNet sites — based on public safety’s direct feedback and network considerations — focused on rural, tribal and remote areas of the country.
- In Minnesota, we’re connecting public safety agencies and organizations in 720 localities across the state, including Duluth, Hibbing, Little Falls, Minneapolis, Red Wing, Rochester, St. Cloud, St. Paul, Stillwater, Wabasha, Willmar, and Winona, among many others.
- We’ve rolled out Band 14 on nearly 950 sites across Minnesota to provide public safety with truly dedicated coverage and capacity.
And we’re not just investing in our network, we’re also investing in our communities. AT&T announced last year it’s committing an additional $3 billion by 2030 to help close the digital divide, bringing the company’s total commitment to $5 billion since 2021.
- To help bridge the divide in Minneapolis, AT&T recently teamed up with Human-I-T to provide 300 free laptops for families and students served by the Urban League Twin Cities. AT&T also provided $80,000 in contributions to the Urban League Twin Cities to Support its digital literacy programs for families. Read more.
Good news is always great to share. Here are a few recent highlights from Minnesota:
- December 18, 2024 | AT&T and Human-I-T Provide 300 Laptops to Minneapolis Families to Help Close the Digital Divide. Learn more.
- October 3, 2024 | Boys & Girls Club of Rochester Receives $30,000 AT&T Contribution to Support Youth Affected by the Digital Divide. Learn more.
- February 8, 2024 | ‘It Takes a Village’ – Free Laptops for North Minneapolis Kids and Families. Learn more.
To keep up with all the latest updates from AT&T Minnesota, follow us on X @ATTPublicPolicy and on LinkedIn.
*FirstNet and the FirstNet logo are registered trademarks and service marks of the First Responder Network Authority. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
*About AT&T
We help more than 100 million U.S. families, friends and neighbors, plus nearly 2.5 million businesses, connect to greater possibility. From the first phone call 140+ years ago to our 5G wireless and multi-gig internet offerings today, we @ATT innovate to improve lives. For more information about AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), please visit us at about.att.com. Investors can learn more at investors.att.com.
