What is the Connect Up Carver Initiative?

On June 28, 2022, the Carver County Board of Commissioners approved the largest expansion in history of the CarverLink Network with the approval of the CarverLink Connect Up Carver (CUC) Initiative.

The $10.5 million project leverages the County's existing publicly owned CarverLink middle mile fiber network to construct 360+ miles of additional middle mile County owned fiber routes to serve defined geographical areas of Carver County, primarily rural, identified as underserved and unserved locations.

The County's CUC Initiative follows its existing CarverLink public/private model, with the County collaborating with the private service provider Metronet, who offers access to fiber connectivity (last mile) to all desiring residential and business locations in the project's service area. This initiative has a project completion deadline of no later than December 31, 2024.

Metronet Construction on the Way Flyer - TouchPoint 1_Page_1

The CUC leverages $6.5 million in County funding from Federal stimulus programs and County funds, to expand our existing, publicly owned, middle mile fiber network, CarverLink.
It continues our positive and mutually beneficial public/private partnership with the service provider Metronet, which provided $4 million to fund the project's remainder and requires them to make available service to all locations within the project's defined service area.
It makes fiber service available to 2,200+ locations identified as under and/or unserved within the project's defined service area, which helps close the rural/city divide that exists for broadband access.
The Connect Up Carver project, along with other CarverLink projects and efforts, strives to make available high speed internet access to 100% of the business and residential locations in Carver County.
Metronet is required to make up to three progressive points of contact to each serviceable address in the Connect Up Carver defined geographic area. The first will be a flyer identifying construction in your area (see example to the left). The second will most likely be some type of a sales flyer. And if you haven’t signed up for service with them after the second flyer, they will make one final attempt by having door knockers come to your door asking if you desire service. Metronet has up until December 31, 3024 to complete the fiber build and make service available to anyone that desires it in the Connect Up Carver area. Plus, once the County signs off on the CUC completion, for a period of 12 months, they are required to make service available to anyone that was missed or any new residential or commercial building construction that is within the Connect Up Carver service area that desires service.

The map with blue areas is a map showing the defined geographic areas included in the Connect Up Carver project. Your parcel must reside immediately within these areas to be part of the project.

Separately, the next image showing the purple lines are the fiber cables we are installing to support the Connect Up Carver project. If a purple fiber line falls in the blue coverage area, anyone on that fiber line route is part of the Connect Up Carver Initiative. For anyone on the purple fiber lines that are not within the blue areas, you are not part of the Connect Up Carver project. However, we have negotiated with Metronet to include you in our initiative called Across the Road and Feeder Line Routes, so you will also be able to connect to Metronet service as part of that effort.

Currently there remains an additional 440+ rural locations, previously awarded to LTD Broadband through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), that sit outside of the County's ability to help make fiber service available. The County is continuing to work with the private sector and is also looking at other state and federal funding opportunities to try and find the $2.5-$5 million needed to finish making fiber service available throughout all rural areas.

Carver County has created an address search tool that provides information on the County's various broadband efforts for locations throughout the County.

As of April 2024 crews have completed over 350+ miles of the overall 360+ miles of fiber installation. In March 2023 Metronet, CarverLink's private service provider in the project, connected up their first two locations using the Connect Up Carver fiber. Throughout the 2023 season, Metronet was actively connecting customers along completed routes and continues that today. Typical timeframe for Metronet to be able to make services available to you are 30-60 days after fiber is installed along the roadway in front of your location.

What is the Connect Up Carver Expansion?

On December 12, 2023 the Carver County Board adopted the 2024 Property Tax Levy and Budget, which included $2.5 million in one time funding to expand CarverLink's ongoing Connect Up Carver rural fiber build project with the Connect Up Carver Expansion. This funding is planned to be used to construct an additional 80+ miles of rural fiber that would make fiber internet available to the remaining 440+ rural locations in Carver County that when complete, based on the County's analysis of all all already completed and ongoing efforts, would make fiber internet available to all rural locations in Carver County by December 2024. This funding would also assist in building out fiber the majority of the city areas of Victoria and Chanhassen.

Currently, CarverLink is in the contract negotiations stage with our chosen vendor, Metronet and the other involved entities of the City of Chaska and Victoria.