4:23 PM Friday, March 7, 2025
A fiber optic internet business has plans to construct a high-speed network in the city of Robbinsdale.
Minnetonka-based US Internet plans to lay fiber underground throughout the city, a project that’s expected to take three years.
The company sees itself as the future of high-speed internet.
“There’s no better technology right now. This is really futureproofing Robbinsdale,” said Tim Martin, chief financial officer at US Internet.
The company will demolish the shuttered Robbinsdale Clinic building, located at 3819 West Broadway, and construct a new 4,000-square-foot building.
The Robbinsdale City Council approved a variance and conditional use permit for the project on March 4.
Martin describes the building’s use as a small data center.
“This data center isn’t like you’re hearing on the news and the big behemoths that are being constructed,” Martin told the Robbinsdale City Council. “Our data center isn’t like data mining, which is a heavy user of power. It’s really a switching station that our fiber is coming into.”
Rendering of proposed US Internet building in Robbinsdale
US Internet has a half dozen similar facilities in the Twin Cities. The company said it has extended its network into Minneapolis, Edina, St. Louis Park, Minnetonka, Richfield and St. Anthony. It’s also eyeing an expansion into St. Paul.
Fiber internet transmits data by sending pulses of light through thin glass fibers within a cable, basically transferring information at near light speed.
“Our network performance is one of the best in the industry,” Martin said. “It is more costly for us. Everybody looks at us crazy. ‘Why are we doing an individual fiber strand?’ But it’s futureproof.”
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