Fiber broadband provider Arvig has announced completion of the construction of its first 400 Gbps-capable routes in parts of its Minnesota backbone.
The routes, located in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area, offer the potential for four times as much capacity as the former 100 Gbps network. They also reach into central and north central Minnesota, going into major regional hubs that include St. Cloud. The upgraded portions of the backbone can scale to 1 Tbps.
“This network upgrade positions Arvig to offer premiere enterprise-grade fiber-based high-bandwidth service to many customers in Minnesota, especially in the metro areas,” Vice President and Chief Operating Officer David Arvig said in a prepared statement. “Investing in this level of capacity will ensure that our customers get optimal performance from their services—from internet, to carrier Ethernet, to hosted PBX and more.”
Arvig is using a variety of growth strategies in its expansion. In January of this year, the company acquired a fiber network from ALP Utilities that serves about 130 businesses in the city of Alexandria, MN.
In July 2022, the company entered a $4.4 million public–private partnership with Redwood County, MN, to bring 1 Gbps connectivity to residential customers and 10 Gbps service to businesses in Belview, Clements, Morgan, Seaforth, Vesta, Wabasso, Walnut Grove and Wanda.
The partnership is partially funded by a $1.3 million grant Arvig received in December 2022 from Minnesota’s Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant program. In addition, Arvig will contribute $1.2 million to the project and the county will add $1.9 million through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). It is expected to be completed in June 2025.
Arvig’s Minnesota network currently has 27 data centers and more than 15,500 route miles and is growing by at least 1,000 miles per year. The company offers internet, television and telephone services to more than 54,000 residential and business customers in Minnesota.
