Madelia is one of nine communities chosen to participate in the Minnesota Rural Broadband Promotion Project

In the past decade, community and regional leaders have expended significant resources and energy to obtain broadband services for their areas. By and large, these efforts have been successful in encouraging telecommunications and Internet providers to deploy advanced technologies, even in some very small communities. In some areas, extraordinary efforts were required by governments, non-profits and other non-traditional providers to bring broadband services to communities.

Technology activists were motivated by the belief that these services, once available, would be a foundation for all types of community improvements in the local economy, health care, education and culture. Many organizations and individuals have taken advantage of the power of these new technologies to expand their markets, improve their services and to communicate more effectively across town and across the world. Yet, there is a widespread feeling that communities, as a whole, have not yet realized the full potential benefits that broadband services offer.