CarverLink History
2007-2010
2007 - County hires relevant IT staff and begins researching independently as well as with our existing service providers, options to resolve current connectivity issues between County facilities
2007 - County identifies solution to remedy connectivity issues is massive increase in data capacity provided by either service provider T1 lines or new fiber connectivity or combination of both
2008 - County receives and rejects all service provider solutions to our connectivity issues due providers lack of currently available connectivity or huge cost estimates
2008 - County identifies fiber connectivity as the solution to our connectivity issues and begins exploring a fiber build project with a series of public meetings with schools, cities, businesses leaders and existing service providers
2008 - County drafts and issues an RFB for Fiber Optic Network and Service which requests costs options for publicly owned, privately owned and joint public/private owned network models
2008- County receives 3 bids for our RFB, one if which is for a public/private partnership owned fiber network with Jaguar Communications out of Owatonna, MN
2008 - County board reviews bids and approves contract to move forward with Jaguar on public/private partnership to build a fiber optics ring network. Prior to the board approving the Jaguar bid, Commissioner James Ische convinces other members to select the fiber ring build option that spends an additional $291K to include the cities of Hamburg and New Germany. This addition will be a key component of the future success of the network
2009 - The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) is signed into law, which includes $7.2 billion to expand broadband access in the US
2009 - Jaguar on behalf of County submits County's already designed fiber network project that was expanded to also include fiber connections to all public and community support entity locations in Carver County which includes public schools, city facilities as well as colleges and medical facilities, as an ARRA Round 1 Grant request. The fiber network submitted has Jaguar as owner and County as tenant.
2010 - County informed that its ARRA Round 1 Request did not score high enough so it did not win a grant award
2010 - County submits ARRA Round 2 Grant request for the Carver County Open Fiber Initiative (CCOFI) with the fiber ownership reversed from our Round 1 Request. With Round 2, County is the network owner and Jaguar is tenant. This change will be a key component of the future success of the network
2010 - On 8/18/10 County notified by Vice President Biden's office that its ARRA Round 2 Grant request for it's overall $7.5 million CCOFI fiber network project has been awarded $6 million in federal funding with the remaining $1.5 million funded by the County
2010 - County Board accepts ARRA Round 2 Grant funding for the CCOFI project and staff begin work on projects required Environmental Assessment and Archaeological Review
2011-2015
2011 - County identifies locations for the three needed fiber huts for our network, with locations in Victoria, Mayer and Cologne, each approximately 30 miles distance from each other in our 89 mile ring network
2011 - After three years of effort County lights up its first fiber link, which is a collaborative fiber build between Carver County, Scott County, MN Judicial District and Access Communications for a fiber link between the Carver and Scott County Govt Centers in a route underneath the MN River along the Hwy 41 corridor
2011 - County issues RFB for construction of CCOFI Fiber Network
2011 - County submits completed Environmental Assessment to National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) and receives sign off approval FONSI (Finding of No Significant Impact)
2011 - NTIA approves County request to increase base ring fiber cable from a 72 to 192 count. This change will be a key component to the future success of the fiber network
2011 - County Board approves bids relating to the construction of the CCOFI network to MP Nexlevel, Power and Tel for fiber optic cable and conduit and Jaguar Communications for splicing, testing and engineering as well as overall construction management services
2011 - MP Nexlevel begins fiber construction of the CCOFI Fiber network, starting in Chaska, heading towards Carver
2011 - County hosts a CCOFI Construction kickoff event at Cologne Public Works with Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken presenting
2011 - County receives first truckload of 192 count fiber cable from Power and Tel
2011 - By years end County completes installation of 88 miles of the overall 132 miles of conduit installation
2012 - County coordinates effort to facilitate the seven Carver County School Districts banding together as a technology consortium known as the Carver County Schools Network (CCSN)
2012- By mid summer construction completes 89 miles of base ring and 28 miles of lateral fiber installed of the overall 132 miles
2012 - Based on the design build engineering used to construct the CCOFI project so we could meet the required completion deadline, County identifies that initial estimates of fiber needed for project were short by roughly 150,000 ft (in addition to the original 700,000 ft ordered) so the search begins to locate and purchase additional fiber during a time of unprecedented fiber shortages
2012 - County completes the first Requirements and Specifications for Communications Conduit and Fiber Installation document
2012 - MP Nexlevel completes all fiber construction including pulling fiber, and hands off responsibilities for maintenance to Jaguar
2012 - County issues RFB for electronics and equipment to operate the CCOFI fiber ring network
2013 - Jaguar Communications is purchased by Davis Family (Davisco, Cambria, Sun Country Airlines) and puts in place a new CEO and CFO
2013 - County signs first agreement with the Carver County Schools Network (CCSN) to provide connectivity and bandwidth service
2013 - After years of considerable financial struggles, Jaguar reaches an agreement with USDA Rural Utility Service (RUS) to forgive nearly 90% of Jaguar's RUS debt
2013 - County Board reviews and approves bid from TIES for the purchase and installation of the network electronics for the CCOFI network
2013 - County works with Jaguar as it continues its long term financial struggle, which continues to impact Jaguar's ability to meet its financial obligations of the CCOFI fiber build, even after their recent RUS loan forgiveness
2013 - County identifies CarverLink as the new name for the CCOFI network once it goes operational
2013 - After reviewing a variety of fiber documentation solutions, County determines to move forward with having County GIS build a custom fiber/mapping solution called FIT (Fiber Inventory Tool) to store all our fiber network and splicing data
2013 - On 4/12/13 even though the CarverLink electronics network is not fully installed, County turns on services to the Chanhassen Sr. High School making them the first customer of the CarverLink Fiber Network with Crown College following shortly thereafter
2013 - County’s request from The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) for a block of carrier independent IPV4 IP addresses is approved
2013 - On 7/31/13 all fiber construction and equipment installation activities associated with the CCOFI ARRA funded project are completed
2013 - On 8/01/13 the CarverLink Fiber Network officially goes live
2013 - CarverLink holds formal “Light Up” Dedication Ceremony at the Waconia High School with featured speaker Senator Amy Klobuchar
2013 - County and Jaguar sign a letter of understanding to not compete with each other relating to services to public and community support entities within the CarverLink network. This "understanding" will be a key component to the future success of the fiber network, creating an open, positive, non-competitive, mutually beneficial relationship with each other
2014 - LightNet (AGL Consulting) acquires 15 year fiber IRU from Jaguar for strands of fiber within CarverLink's base fiber ring (effectively establishing CarverLink's first open access/open interconnect service provider in the network)
2014 - After splicing issues due to Jaguar documentation issues, CarverLink assumes full ownership, responsibility and assignment of CarverLink's splicing needs. This change escalates the use of County GIS's Fiber Inventory Tool (FIT)
2015 - In July, based on CarverLink's customers unprecedented use, the CarverLink network hits its peak maximum acceptable operational bandwidth limit 3 years earlier than anticipated. Research is immediately begun to review increased bandwidth options
2016-2020
2016 - CarverLink is awarded new 5 year contract with the Carver County Schools Network for connectivity and bandwidth service
2016 - After CarverLink's persistent encouragement for Jaguar to begin to fiber up our cities, Jaguar signs a franchise agreement with the City of NYA to become the first city in Carver County that Jaguar will complete a fiber overlay overbuild in, which will provide fiber connectivity to all addresses located within city limits
2016 - Arvig acquires LightNet's (AGL Consulting) 229 mile fiber network, which includes LightNet's 6 strands of CarverLink base ring fiber. This makes Arvig the first commercial provider to reside within CarverLink's open access / open interconnect fiber network
2016 - CarverLink upgrades core hub electronics for its schools and hub location electronics and migrates the existing network from a 1GB to 10 GB network
2016 - In September, CarverLink upgrades current 1GB internet backbone connections to two 10GB diverse and redundant connections to the Minneapolis Gateway 511 Facility secured from the State of Minnesota MN.IT Office. This eliminates the bandwidth bottleneck CarverLink has been experiencing since July of 2015
2016 - CarverLink goes live with Ridgeview Medical fiber ring, which connects all Ridgeview facilities located within Carver County
2017 - CarverLink goes live with Lakeview Clinic fiber ring, which connects all Lakeview Clinic facilities located within Carver County
2017 - CarverLink goes live with first out of County connection for one of its community support entities, with the connection to Ridgeview's Belle Plaine Clinic
2017 - CarverLink leads the first of what will be an ongoing theme, by leading a $225,00 public/private fiber collaboration between County, School District 112, City of Chaska, MP Nexlevel and Jaguar
2018 - CarverLink hires a 25% cost share portion of a Sr. Systems Engineer position with remaining hours and costs covered by Carver IT
2018 - After CarverLink's continued encouragement Jaguar signs a franchise agreement with the City of Hamburg to become the second city in Carver County that Jaguar will complete a fiber overlay overbuild in
2018 - After considerable unsuccessful negotiations with Zayo to place CarverLink equipment in their recently acquired Neutral Path colocation facility in Belle Plaine, CarverLink secures an agreement with Jaguar to colocate equipment in Cambria’s Belle Plaine data center, one of Jaguar's sister companies owed by the Davis Family. This agreement will be a key component to the future success of the fiber network
2018 - After CarverLink's continued encouragement Jaguar signs a franchise agreement with the City of New Germany and Mayer to become the third an fourth cities in Carver County that Jaguar will complete a fiber overlay overbuild in
2018 - CarverLink finalizes the first of what will be many fiber collaborations with Hennepin County, with a joint build along Hwy 61 Flying Cloud Drive from Chaska to Eden Prairie
2018 - CarverLink finally gets Zayo to complete their agreed upon fiber splicing and termination work at their Belle Plaine Colocation facility so CarverLink can connect to its diverse internet backbone carrier Hurricane Electric
2019 - County Board approves new Right of Way (ROW) Ordinance, which includes CarverLink's language on its Dig Once Policy, which requires communications providers to allow CarverLink to install communications conduit within their builds in the ROW at an “incremental” versus the typical shared proportional cost
2019 - Based on the positive and mutually beneficial relationship between CarverLink and Jaguar founded from our 2013 Letter of Understanding, Jaguar agrees that CarverLink can request fiber strands within any of Jaguar's current or any new fiber cables installed in Carver County, at a cost that is basically 1/10th the normal price. This agreement will be a key component to the future success of the fiber network
2019 - CarverLink goes live with what it calls its Scott County and Southern DWDM rings. This Southern ring puts in place fiber connectivity that now carries all traffic for Ridgeview's Belle Plaine, Henderson, Le Sueur, Gaylord, Winthrop and Arlington Hospitals and Clinics
2019 - Based on County's new ROW ordinance with CarverLink's Dig Once language, a Verizon project on Hwy 61 and Stoughton in Chaska becomes the first project to have CarverLink conduit installed at an incremental cost
2019 - With assistance from the State of MN, CarverLink goes live with a connection to Midwest Internet Cooperative Exchange (MICE), an IX that provides CarverLink a 10GB direct internet backbone connection at the 511 Minneapolis Gateway
2019 - Jaguar leadership informs CarverLink of informal discussion with Metronet out of Evansville, IN for Jaguar to be a potential acquisition
2019 - Based on County's new ROW ordinance with CarverLink's Dig Once language, a Comcast project in Chaska and Chanhassen becomes the second project to have CarverLink conduit installed at an incremental cost
2019 - CarverLink acquires District 110 (Waconia School Districts) fiber resources in Waconia for $100 which brings this fiber under the CarverLink maintenance and locate requirements of Jaguar
2020 - CarverLink goes live with fiber connectivity for the Carver County Sheriff's 800MHz system that was previously functioning via microwave that had become unreliable due to tree growth at various sites
2020 - CarverLink meets John Cinelli, Metronet President, for the first time
2020 - World Health Organization declares Covid 19 coronavirus outbreak as a global pandemic
2020 - President Donald Trump signs $2 trillion CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act, which includes $871 million in funding for Minnesota Counties
2020 - CarverLink, in collaboration with Jaguar, goes live with several enterprise hotpot locations to support remote and distance learning and health services due to Covid impacts. Sites established at SW Metro Chaska, Waconia High School and New Germany City Hall
2020 - On July 1, Metronet, a $3.5 billion Evansville, IN based regional fiber provider that does business in 13 states from Florida to Minnesota, officially acquires Jaguar Communications. Metronet's is an urban fiber provider, avoiding metro areas and seeking cities in the 75k or above population range, which is significantly different than the rural and small city provider that Jaguar was
2020 - County Board accepts $12.8 million in funds provided from the Federal CARES Act
2020 - FCC announces a $1.3 billion award to LTD Broadband for their application in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) Phase I Reverse Auction 904. The award includes over $5 million for LTD to build out fiber to over 2700 un/underserved locations in Carver County
2020 - CarverLink executes a master fiber sharing agreement with Hennepin County which allows for easy fiber collaboration and sharing activities
2021-Present
2021 - CarverLink completes a CarverLink lead collaborative fiber construction project with Scott County which connects Carver and Scott Govt Centers via the Hwy 101 MN River Crossing, using a combination of existing fiber, ROW Dig Once fiber (Verizon build), collaboration fiber (Carver/Scott), collaboration fiber (Carver/Hennepin), Carver County Public Works Fiber (Hwy 101 Bridge Crossing), and new CarverLink build fiber
2021 - CarverLink has meeting with Metronet senior leadership to help educate them on the County’s ownership of CarverLink and define Metronet's responsibilities based on our fiber agreements and operational understandings with each other. At multiple times Metronet identifies that CarverLink is an anomaly in their business model
2021- CarverLink is awarded a 5 year contract to provide connectivity and bandwidth to the Carver County Schools Network (CCSN)
2021 - President Biden signs into law the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021 which includes roughly $20 million in funds to Carver County identified as Coronavirus State/Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (CSLFRF), that identifies investments in broadband infrastructure as one of the appropriate uses of the funds
2021 - CarverLink removes the stalemate between Metronet and several of the County's remaining non fiber built out cities, by facilitating what becomes known as the City Fiber Agreements, which is a CarverLink drafted non binding agreement between Metronet and each respective City for Metronet to build fiber within their respective city limits. The agreement also establishes that the City will waive fiber construction permit fees in return for Metronet having the requirement to construct fiber to all identified City facilities
2021 - CarverLink has meeting with executive VP of Metronet and strongly promotes our fiber desires, based on our long standing mutually beneficial relationship, to work with them on County's desires to be the first county in the State of MN with 100% high speed broadband coverage. This is basically the initial kick off of what will become the Connect Up Carver Initiative
2021 - After 5 years of activity, CarverLink completes a fiber install into a City of Chaska water tower. This completes a project to install fiber into at least one water tower in all 11 cities making available a future use opportunity for the County to activate any publicly desired wireless services countywide via the use of this new city water tower network
2021 - CarverLink executes a fiber collaboration with Hennepin County for use of fiber in Eden Prairie that will be used for a separate but parallel collaboration with City and School District of Eden Prairie
2021 - City of Chanhassen approves franchise agreement with Metronet to build out city with fiber, which Metronet is doing based on CarverLink's long standing Jaguar/Metronet understanding to build fiber out into all of our cities. This franchise also includes the first CarverLink drafted City Fiber Agreement, which has value for both the City and Metronet and is what brought Metronet to the table
2021 - CarverLink moves forward with a $600,000 systemwide network server and Extreme Networks switch replacement project that will replace all network electronics for the entire CarverLink network, which is operating on the original electronics installed in 2012
2021- CarverLink presents the Connect Up Carver Initiative to the County Board. This initiative would be a public private fiber build of roughly 350+ miles of primarily rural fiber in Carver County to roughly 2200+ locations. The project has a cost of roughly $10.5 million with County’s contribution of $6.5 million funded from ARPA funds and a provider contribution of $4 million
2021- CarverLink’s begins construction of its $400,000 (half funded by the County) Waconia to Cologne Network Segmentation route, which will effectively split CarverLink’s 90 mile network into two conjoined figure eight 45 mile rings
2021 - President Biden signs the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which includes $42.5 billion for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program a broadband infrastructure program
2021 - City of Carver approves franchise agreement with Metronet to build out city with fiber, which includes the second CarverLink drafted City Fiber Agreement
2022 - CarverLink begins drafting Request for Bid for fiber construction maintenance and last mile connections and associated IRU and agreements for what will be known as its Connect Up Carver Initiative
2022 - CarverLink has discussion with president of Metronet Dave Heimbach, to work through issues that would prevent Metronet from submitting a bid to the County's upcoming Connect Up Carver RFB
2022 - CarverLink finalizes discussions with City of Eden Prairie, Eden Prairie School District, Metronet and Hennepin County and all parties agree to move forward with what becomes known as the Eden Prairie Collaboration, that for CarverLink will complete a 9 year effort to bring fiber to two SW Transit facilities located in Eden Prairie
2022 - MN Telecom Alliance and MN Rural Electric Association jointly file a petition with the MN Public Utilities Commission asking them to revoke the Eligible Telecommunications Carriers (ETC) status for LTD Broadband. If revoked it would disallow LTD from being eligible to receive funding from their FCC RDOF Bid award for the 102,005 locations in Minnesota, of which $5 million of that covers locations in Carver County
2022- CarverLink publishes an RFB for its Connect Up Carver Initiative
2022 - County Board approves the single bid from Metronet of $5.9 million plus $600k contingency for the overall estimated $10.5 million 350+ mile Connect Up Carver primarily rural fiber build, with Metronet picking up the remaining $4 million
2022 - The MN Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved to move forward with opening a proceeding to determine whether there is cause to revoke the ETC (eligible telecommunications carrier) designation of LTD Broadband’s that the PUC provided them in June 3, 2021. A revocation would impact LTD’s $311 million MN RDOF award
2022 - County has Connect Up Carver Initiative kick off event at Zion Lutheran School and Church in rural Cologne, which is attended by a number of elected officials including Representative Dean Phillips
2022 - FCC Chairwoman Rosenworcel rejects the long form application of LTD Broadband’s $1.3 billion RDOF Funding Award noting that the application failed to demonstrate the provider could deliver the promised service submitted in their application. This makes all of LTD’s $1.32 billion RDOF winning bids nationally, which includes over $5 million they received for Carver County, effectively dead
2022 - CarverLink begins construction of Connect Up Carver fiber build starting in rural New Germany
2022 - After two years of effort and data gathering, the FCC releases the new updated FCC National Broadband Map. This map will be used to allocate over $42.5 billion in upcoming B.E.A.D. grant funding
2022 - After CarverLink reviews Metronet's planned Connect Up Carver construction, CarverLink identifies the design does not include infrastructure which would allow Metronet to service residents along what are identified as Feeder Routes and Across the Road Addresses. CarverLink then completes an intensive review of Metronet's design and identifies over 1100+ locations that can be directly serviced if handholes are placed. Metronet agrees to add these at no cost to CarverLink and make service available to these locations based on the County's provided data
2022 - After a years worth of CarverLink facilitation, the City of Waconia and Watertown both execute the CarverLink drafted City Fiber Agreement with Metronet, which identifies that Metronet will build out the city with fiber, making these our 8th and 9th Cities with completed or planned fiber overlays
2022 - CarverLink is successful in negotiating with Metronet to pilot a program in Carver County in which they eliminate their current 200 ft driveway limit maximum for an address to be considered serviceable. This non-binding pilot program eliminates any driveway limits and makes service available to over 340+ addresses in rural Carver County. CarverLink sends out a direct mailer to these addresses notifying them of their service availability
2023 - State of Minnesota releases the Broadband Line Extension Connection Program which awards grants for the extension of existing broadband infrastructure. CarverLink identifies over 440 addresses within the County that would benefit from this program and sends out a direct mailer notifying them of this grant opportunity
2023 - CarverLink submits 550+ bulk location and service challenges to the FCC regarding inaccurate data in the new Broadband Availability Map
2023 - Metronet informs CarverLink that they are no longer interested in building fiber in the City of Victoria.
2023 - CarverLink goes live with newly designed www.carverlink.com website that is heavy on public information
2023 - CarverLink submits a Congressionally Directed Spending Request to Senator Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar's offices for a $2.5 million project to build out the remaining 70+ miles of rural fiber needed to make fiber access available to all rural locations in Carver County called Help Us to the Finish Line - Carver County Rural Broadband
2023 - CarverLink is notified that its recently submitted Congressionally Directed Spending Request is no longer under consideration for funding
2023 - CarverLink initiates a project to refresh the current SmartOptics DWDM system that is a shared Ridgeview Medical, Metronet and CarverLink system that carries a number of vital connections for all parties, with replacement estimates of $375k
2023 - Metronet lights up service to the first two Connect Up Carver customers, which are located in rural Hamburg
2023 - CarverLink drafts the first full scale Carver County Traffic Management System (ATMS) fiber network architecture based on discussions with Carver County IT and Public Works
2023 - In efforts to promote CarverLink's negotiated Metronet pilot program to eliminate the 200 ft driveway limit, CarverLink sends out direct mailers to addresses it has defined as eligible for the program
2023 - LTD Broadband rebrands itself as GigiFi Internet
2023 - President Biden signed into law H.J.Res. 7, which is a joint resolution that terminates the national emergency related to the COVID-19 pandemic that was declared by the President on March 13, 2020
2023 - CarverLink reintroduces a previously excluded Connect Up Carver Exhibit C item that provides Crown College fiber diversity through St Boni on Hwy 7
2023 - CarverLink completes work associated with our Eden Prairie Collaboration project, which is a collaboration between CarverLink, Hennepin County, Eden Prairie Schools and City and Metronet that constructed fiber into Eden Prairie and via this new fiber and existing fiber, established diversity and redundancy for Eden Prairie City and Schools to their data centers and provided CarverLink connectivity to SW Transit Eden Prairie Garage and SW Station locations.
2023 - CarverLink introduces the CarverLink Partners Spare Network Electronics Cost Assistance Program which is a program available to CarverLink public partners that will cover 50% of cost up to for network electronics spares
2023 - CarverLink celebrates its 10 year anniversary of going live
2023 - After 10 years of effort, CarverLink goes live with the last Ridgeview facility not connected to CarverLink fiber, going live with Delano Clinic
2023 - Scott County issues an RFP requesting for a service provider to populate their currently open/empty 2nd base ring fiber route communications conduit and receives no bids
2023 - Met Council via Met Transit informs CarverLink that its collaboration request for fiber in a cinch point between the Mall of America and the 511 building is being granted
2023 - Metronet informs the City of Chanhassen that it desires to cancel its franchise agreement and no longer desires to build fiber in the City
2023 - CarverLink goes live with services to St Boni Ed Center, Jordan River Valley Ed Center and Waverly Freedom Farm Academy
2023 - In the first collaboration request with McLeod County, CarverLink completes a request to make available fiber into Carver County's NYA 800MHz tower site
2023 - CarverLink establishes a direct peering relationship via our MICE IX connectivity with Meta (Facebook), Google, Microsoft, Apple, Akamai (which carries almost all Microsoft and Apple updates and CDN content), Amazon (AWS) and Netflix
2023 - County Board approves $2.5 million for the Connect Up Carver 2.0, project, which would be an add on to the current ongoing Connect Up Carver project and would construct an additional 70+ miles fiber to connect the 400+ remaining rural locations in Carver County
2023 - As of December, CarverLink completed 350+ miles of the overall 360 miles of Connect Up Carver fiber construction
2023 - In continued collaboration with the MN.IT office from State of MN, CarverLink completes a request to make available fiber from the Scott County Govt Center to the Chanhassen Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for the University of MN
