I am Carter Grupp and my journey started at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter Minnesota as an undergraduate Political Science student where I was tasked with a senior research thesis. My thesis “The War on Information” 2021 focuses on the intersection of public policy & technology infrastructure (most specifically Telecommunications).

I spent the pandemic researching the $2.2 trillion-dollar CARES Act 2020 and later introduced $1.9 trillion-dollar American Rescue Plan (APRA) 2021 as both bills were not just opportunities to rescue sectors and individuals in the American Economy, but also to set the pace, plan, politics, and priority of a new generation of digital infrastructure spending.

Upon discovery of my thesis I was contacted by a newly founded branch - the American Connection Corps (ACC) or American Connection Project within the AmeriCorps umbrella that was funded by several Fortune 500 companies such as Land o’ Lakes, Microsoft, Comcast, Accenture, and Centra Care looking to maximize the digital investment in rural Broadband and Telecommunications.

This brought me to rural Otter Tail County Minnesota who was facing a unique problem - over 1,040 lakes - making the deployment of physical broadband infrastructure a real challenge. Otter Tail County was also facing a social problem with an older/aging population.

My contributions in Otter Tail County led to 3 grant awards of 4 submissions (75%), for project budgets over $15.9 million, with over $5.1 million in public/local match and over $6.8 M in State of Minnesota grant funds resulting in over 2,400 businesses, farms, and residences receiving access to fiber to the home broadband.

In Otter Tail County I also led initiatives to establish social programming tech opportunities working with seniors, entrepreneurs, local businesses, establishing smart rooms, and volunteering with the 2nd annual Northland Hackathon to advocate for computer science adoption in local MN high schools.

My final endeavor was to rank every county/parish in America across 18 different data fields based on physical and digital infrastructure access from publicly available sources such as the American Community Survey, the FCC’s 14th Broadband Report and other US Census related datasets. This research was published by the Blandin Foundation in 2022 as the basis for the 2022 Minnesota County Broadband Profiles.

In 2023 I was asked by the Minnesota Office of Broadband to moderate the “Internet for All Connecting One Minnesota” panel on Expedient Infrastructure Deployment as a part of the public event hosted by the State of Minnesota Department of Economic Development. Shortly before this I presented to the Governors (Tim Walz) task force on Broadband on my contributions in Otter Tail County as a member of the ACP.

This led me to my current employer Finley Engineering Company Inc. who was on the cusp of realizing a real market opportunity via the passage of the $42.5 Billion Dollar BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, Deployment) program.

My 3-year contributions at Finley Engineering Company Inc. have led to the grant awards or private capex planning of over 37 total telecommunications projects, for 21 separate entities, in 7 States and across 15 unique funding mechanisms and programs.

The financial impact of my work has involved approximately $281.73M in total project budgets, with over $117.99M in State, or Federal funding, with over $6.96M in local P3 financial match and representing roughly $20.70M in Engineering flat fee and time and expense-based revenues.

This nationwide engagement has enabled the planned delivery of fiber to the home (FTTH) services to over 9,526 residences, businesses & farms representing over 3,508 miles of fiber more than the 2,897-mile width of the United States of America from East to West!