Posted by: Ann Treacy | February 9, 2010

Citizens input needed on government redesign

Thanks to Jennifer Armstrong for sending me information on the citizen comment line and Web site. Here’s the call to help from the Session Daily:

A citizen comment line and Web site have been created by a bipartisan House caucus to generate ideas on how government can change the way it delivers services.
…
The redesign caucus is set to meet on various Tuesdays throughout the legislative session with the goal to “promote and develop public sector redesign strategies and proposals within the legislature.” The first one is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. Feb. 16.

Not a direct connection to broadband, but a great use of the Internet. (And a great chance to promote broadband and the Internet as a tool for future savings – maybe by promoting more remote meetings.)

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Posted in Broadband Applications, MN, Policy

Posted by: Ann Treacy | February 8, 2010

More info on the Outage in NE Minnesota

Last week I posted a note from Chris Swanson on the broadband outages in Northeast Minnesota. I’ve had a few people (thank you!) send me follow up articles, which I wanted to share here:

Minnesota Public Radio covered the story. The reporter spoke to several people in the area who lost connectivity – and business due to the outage in broadband and cell coverage. (That includes access to process credit cards and 911 service!)

MPR also posted commentary from Grand Marais resident Jim Boyd, who is a retired reporter and was able to capture the frustration and the danger of the incident. As he states simply, “Along most of the North Shore, we are dependent on a single fiber cable. This incident illustrated too well what will happen if it breaks.”

Chris Mitchell from Institute for Local Self Reliance posted an article that notes, “The conclusion is impossible to dismiss: these networks are essential infrastructure and communities must have the option of building their own network to avoid these problems.” He points to the need and offers examples where counties have been able to build redundant networks.

One of the big issues is that it’s not really clear yet how the outage occurred. Initially it was reported that there was an incident involving the Duluth Steam Cooperative Association. They say there were no such incidents – but indicate that they had warned Qwest about laying fiber cable over steam pipes without proper insulation. According to the Lake County News Chronicle,

Qwest spokesperson Joanna Hjelmeland, who originally reported the steam pipe rupture, was made aware of Duluth Steam’s contention but offered no more details. “We are working on an investigation to confirm the exact cause of the external damage to our facilities,” Hjelmeland wrote in an email response. “Until our investigation is complete, I’m not able to discuss more details.”

John Stanoch at Qwest was kind enough to send me the letter that he sent to various interested parties. Apparently When crews responded to the scene, they observed steam escaping from two manholes. The air temperature when they open the manhole was significantly warmer than normal and materials inside the manhole were deformed from what appeared to be heat damage. That was the basis for the original assessment that heat damage had caused the failure.

Since Qwest heard from the city they have been working to determine the cause. As John said in his letter, this wasn’t a typical cable cut. Apparently they have local and national experts working on the situation.

As the Chronicle article points out, people are frustrated both in terms of getting answers but also in terms of moving ahead with solutions. Both Lake County and Cook County have been working on broadband initiatives.

Cook County ran into some barriers this fall when they were unable to get a 65 majority vote to support their plan to provide phone service in the area. (Phone service would have been one-prong in the triple play service most broadband providers want to offer and most customers want to have.) Both counties have applied for ARRA funding.

According to the Lake County Chronicle and the ARRA site, both Lake and Cook County are still in the hopper to receive funding, but neither has been contacted.

MPR points out that the recent incident does help make the case of the need for redundancy in the area. That may improve their chances for ARRA funding. Paul Bergman, a Lake County Commissioner, sent me an email emphasizing that,

The main story here is the safety of the 25,000 citizens that were affected by a phone line break. Next is the safety of the citizens of the United States because this also greatly affected the communications of the Border Patrol at the International border with Canada.

I think this incident will also help push the conversation about a statewide entity to think about security, as recommended by the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Task Force. Here’s a excerpt from their report:

The Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force recommends that the state undertake and fund a detailed study of this issue to determine the advisability and approach to addressing the goals and the detailed suggestions contained in this report.

The policies and actions necessary to move Minnesota to the front ranks of security, reliability, and redundancy rest on establishing a robust ongoing collaboration between a broad range of public, private, and citizen stakeholders.

Just as with achieving our other broadband goals, “steady leadership wins the race.” Ensuring that the state has secure, reliable, redundant broadband infrastructure is not a one-time project but rather a long-term commitment of leadership talent to an ongoing program of vigilance and collaborative problem solving.

Creating a diverse team to look at the security, privacy and various technical issues of broadband and the Internet might help to determine what happened in NE Minnesota and more importantly address solutions to prohibit this from happening in the future. The support of such as team might be helpful in directly or indirectly (through research, reports and recommendation) securing federal funding for redundant networks.

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Posted in Broadband Applications, Funding, MN, Policy, Rural

Posted by: Ann Treacy | February 8, 2010

Keep fiber and copper?

Thanks to Timothy Finnerty for sending me an interesting article today – Loss of Copper Infrastructure Threatens Small Business Broadband. The gist of the article is that innovators are finding ways to get better broadband speeds out of copper – but the issue now is that telecom providers are replacing copper with fiber.

Here’s a quote from Carl Grivner, president of XO Communications in the article:

“Companies like mine deploy Ethernet over Copper, delivering speeds up to 45 Mbps where we have access to this vital–and existing–infrastructure. We will get even faster, but that innovation is threatened by existing rules allowing large telecom providers to remove copper wiring – a communications resource originally subsidized by ratepayers – without regard to potential public benefits.”

It really highlights the frustration of the market these days. Do we shoot for the moon or keep our feet on the ground?

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Posted in FTTH, Vendors

Posted by: Ann Treacy | February 6, 2010

Franken and Comcast

There have been several reports on Senator Franken “ripping into” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts at the Congressional hearings that focused on Comcast’s proposed merger with NBC.

Most articles have highlighted the fact that according to Senator Franken, the folks at Comcast had played a little fast and loose with the truth. Beyond the fact that obviously people shouldn’t lie and without saying whether I know the Comcast folks lied or not, it opens the door to some questions that are going to need to be addresses sooner and probably later …. Should the people who manage the content also manage the transport of information?

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Posted in MN, Policy

Posted by: Ann Treacy | February 4, 2010

S.F. No. 2254 Broadband bill introduced in MN Senate

Today Senators Prettner Solon, Doll, Scheid and Rosen introduced S.F. No. 2254: A bill for an act relating to communications; setting state goals for the deployment and speed of high-speed broadband; proposing coding for new law in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 237.

It was referred to the Committee on Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications and a hearing has been confirmed for 3pm on Feb 11.

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Posted in MN, Policy

Posted by: Ann Treacy | February 4, 2010

Local Crosslake provider happy with Task Force Recommendations

Yesterday the Lake Country Echo / Pine River Journal in (and around) Pequot Lakes ran an editorial from Paul Hoge, general manager of Crosslake Communications. Paul commented on the state of rural broadband in Minnesota and praised the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force Recommendations.

I wanted to call out the editorial for a few reasons. First, I like to support local broadband providers who appear to be doing a good job and according to Paul…

Crosslake Communications is contributing to Minnesota’s strong positioning. Today, Crosslake Communications is offering broadband to 100 percent of our customers up to speeds of 5 Mbps. We have done this because of the strong commitment we have to our local community and customers. We understand how increasingly important broadband is to conducting business, educating our students, providing medical services and just living our daily lives.

Second, I like to see that broadband continues to be in the news across the state. Again I think that helps build momentum for broadband as a hot topic in the legislature – because if people are reading and writing about broadband it demonstrates that it is important to them.

Third, I’m happy to see providers who support the Task Force recommendations. The more support the recommendations can garner in and out of the industry the better the chances are of legislators supporting the recommendations.

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Posted in MN, Policy, Rural

Posted by: Bernadine Joselyn | February 2, 2010

Blandin Foundation Stimulus grant update

Blandin Foundation is pleased share the news that our request for funds from the NTIA BTOP program for our MN Intelligent Rural Communities project is now in the due diligence phase. We have been busy preparing responses to an initial set of questions posed by NTIA staff and have a conference call scheduled for Tuesday afternoon when we hope to learn more about the process from here.

NTIA has made it clear that entering due diligence does not guarantee funding so we are not counting the chickens yet.

We wanted to share this exciting news with you. Keep your fingers crossed for us please!

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Posted in Blandin Foundation, Funding, MN | Tags:

Posted by: Ann Treacy | February 2, 2010

Blandin eNews February 2010

Here’s the news from our latest newsletter. It’s mostly a compilation of Minnesota-related stories from the blog in the last month – but sometimes it’s nice to have it compiled.

Minnesota Broadband Policies
Politics in Minnesota predicts that broadband will be one of the hot topics with the Legislature this spring. http://tinyurl.com/yzkxk7f Broadband has been in the local media more than usual in the last month, so it seems as if momentum is building. Finance & Commerce featured Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force member and serial Internet entrepreneur Mike O’Connor promoting the Task Force recommendations. http://tinyurl.com/yhsa78a The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran a story on the importance of promoting broadband adoption as well as deployment. They mentioned several Blandin Foundation projects. http://tinyurl.com/yhj99bf According to the Daily Session, policies are already being discussed, starting with barriers to creating a fiber optic infrastructure to all schools. http://tinyurl.com/ylolk8z  

Got Advice for Legislators?
The Blandin Foundation is collecting comments from Minnesota citizens based on the following question: “What would you like your legislators to know about the importance of broadband access for you and your community?” Please send comments to broadband@blandinfoundation.org, if you are interested in responding. http://tinyurl.com/yj3sr3w  

ARRA Funding
The NOFA (Notice of Funds Available) for Round Two of the ARRA broadband stimulus money has been released. One big change is that the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration) http://tinyurl.com/y87vcvn and RUS (Rural Utilities Service) http://tinyurl.com/y8novec will have separate applications. To help facilitate collaboration, the NTIA has created a matchmaking tool for potential applicants. http://tinyurl.com/yexd6wf For some the decision to apply or reapply will be made easier this week as NTIA and RUS announced that Round One applicants who did not qualify for follow up would be notified by mail by the end of January. http://tinyurl.com/yl29466

Minnesota Pilots Online Care Anywhere
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota employees and family members are part of a pilot project that allows them access to medical care from home or work via computer or phone. BCBS has also created secured rooms at their Eagan and Virginia campuses for remote appointments. Each is equipped with a computer; web camera; and biometric machines to record weight, body mass index, and blood pressure; and other basic diagnostic tools. http://tinyurl.com/y9mg5q2 It seems as if this might be a benefit of Minnesota developing a telemedicine industry cluster. http://tinyurl.com/ykwoorh  

Broadband in the Governor’s Race
Broadband came up with at least two candidates (Steve Kelley and Paul Thissen) at a DFL forum for gubernatorial candidates in Alexandria last month. http://tinyurl.com/y8adhwx Broadband came up again in a student video interview with candidate Thissen, when he talked about being open to receiving stimulus money for projects, such as broadband. http://tinyurl.com/ybxr65v

Local Broadband News

Anoka
Anoka County wants to pursue ARRA funding for a fiber network. Anoka cities have been voting on resolutions to support the idea with varying levels of success. http://tinyurl.com/yg8oax6  

Bemidji
The Minnesota House Commerce and Labor Committee met on January 28 to discuss a range of issues having an impact on local business. Issues include broadband. http://tinyurl.com/yh9pfmo (This was one of several meetings planned around Minnesota, although many were cancelled or rescheduled due to weather conditions.)

Brooklyn Park
Brooklyn Park has been approached by Clearwire to provide WiMAX with no investment required from the city. http://tinyurl.com/ydow3hn

Coleman’s Corner
While the H1N1 virus seems to be in remission, we are now witnessing the renewal of RUS BIP and NTIA BTOP fever.  The NTIA BTOP CCI is especially contagious.  The prescribed medication is demand aggregation, a concept that has driven community broadband planning for more than the past decade.

As people read the federal notice, they think, “This is written just for us!”  It is written for them and almost everyone else who reads it.  Who wouldn’t want an I-Net connecting government, health care, and education partners at 70% off retail price? Find a private sector provider who will come up with the 30% match and you get the public sector side for free!  This concept works equally well at the municipal, county or regional levels – for rural, urban or suburban places.  That is going to be one big stack of applications!

Before you submit an application that looks just like this, get your team together and ask some questions.  First, what are we going to do with this network that will make us stand out from the others?  What new ideas or collaborative behavior are we going to implement over this network?  Ideas like merging ten rural counties into one unit of government would definitely get some attention. Merging ten rural county IT departments gets you part way there.  Or creating a unified health care system linking hospitals (even competing ones), clinics, nursing homes and pharmacies together with shared records.  Obviously, all of these big ideas require more than six weeks of discussion (Have you started yet?).  These networks support all kinds of transformation, but are only one piece of the puzzle; the network is probably the easy part.

Another question revolves around existing networks and providers.  Could one or a collaboration of existing providers provide this network?  What is it that you are really seeking from such a network? While 144 strands of fiber in your own conduit sounds sweet, what if you had two, four or six multiplexed strands to connect to your partners and stakeholders?  The MN High Speed Task Force called for more partnerships between communities and providers with the providers strongly endorsing this approach.  Let’s give it a test.

Unlike the H1N1, the NTIA BTOP fever is guaranteed to pass in six weeks.  For some, it will pass very quickly with early decisions not to apply.  For others, the fever will intensify as the March 15 deadline gets closer, causing severe discomfort resulting from too many meetings, lost text revisions and partnership hurdles.   All followed by a recuperation period of four to six months waiting for news from Washington D.C. 

Smart communities will use this time to keep working on solutions rather than betting that their 1 in 20 long shot will come home.

Cook County
A four member Fiber Optic Network Commission was appointed to run the fiber optic system if and when it is established. http://tinyurl.com/ykrohtr  

Duluth
A broken steam pipe in East Duluth melted a fiber optic cable, causing outages throughout Northeast Minnesota. Strides are being made to improve redundancy and security in the area. http://tinyurl.com/yjj6lhu

Houston
Kim Ross, Superintendent for ISD 294 Houston Public Schools, has been selected as one of the Top Ten Tech Savvy Superintendents in the Nation by eSchool News. http://tinyurl.com/yf7tjkm  

Minneapolis
Minneapolis is touted as a municipal Wi-Fi network that works in an article in Government Technology that talks about how to make municipal Wi-Fi work. http://tinyurl.com/y85cxpu  

St Paul
Brent Christensen will be replacing Randy Young as President of MTA (Minnesota Telecom Alliance). http://tinyurl.com/yeujrbb  

Red Wing
Hiawatha Broadband heard that they will not receive Round One funding from the ARRA broadband stimulus money. http://tinyurl.com/yjlzk7r  

Twin Cities
Web 2.0 applications promote civic engagement, such as allowing residents to report local things that need fixing through tools such as SeeClickFix. http://tinyurl.com/yftwusa

(Many stories are gathered from local online newspaper. Unfortunately each newspaper has a different policy in regards to archive news and therefore we cannot guarantee access to all articles cited.)

Coleman’s Corner

While the H1N1 virus seems to be in remission, we are now witnessing the renewal of RUS BIP and NTIA BTOP fever. The NTIA BTOP CCI is especially contagious. The prescribed medication is demand aggregation, a concept that has driven community broadband planning for more than the past decade.

As people read the federal notice, they think, “This is written just for us!” It is written for them and almost everyone else who reads it. Who wouldn’t want an I-Net connecting government, health care, and education partners at 70% off retail price? Find a private sector provider who will come up with the 30% match and you get the public sector side for free! This concept works equally well at the municipal, county or regional levels – for rural, urban or suburban places. That is going to be one big stack of applications!

Before you submit an application that looks just like this, get your team together and ask some questions. First, what are we going to do with this network that will make us stand out from the others? What new ideas or collaborative behavior are we going to implement over this network? Ideas like merging ten rural counties into one unit of government would definitely get some attention. Merging ten rural county IT departments gets you part way there. Or creating a unified health care system linking hospitals (even competing ones), clinics, nursing homes and pharmacies together with shared records. Obviously, all of these big ideas require more than six weeks of discussion (Have you started yet?). These networks support all kinds of transformation, but are only one piece of the puzzle; the network is probably the easy part.

Another question revolves around existing networks and providers. Could one or a collaboration of existing providers provide this network? What is it that you are really seeking from such a network? While 144 strands of fiber in your own conduit sounds sweet, what if you had two, four or six multiplexed strands to connect to your partners and stakeholders? The MN High Speed Task Force called for more partnerships between communities and providers with the providers strongly endorsing this approach. Let’s give it a test.

Unlike the H1N1, the NTIA BTOP fever is guaranteed to pass in six weeks. For some, it will pass very quickly with early decisions not to apply. For others, the fever will intensify as the March 15 deadline gets closer, causing severe discomfort resulting from too many meetings, lost text revisions and partnership hurdles. All followed by a recuperation period of four to six months waiting for news from Washington D.C.

Smart communities will use this time to keep working on solutions rather than betting that their 1 in 20 long shot will come home.

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Posted in Blandin Foundation, MN

Posted by: Ann Treacy | February 2, 2010

ARRA broadband application updates

Wondering who is out of the running for Round One funding from the NTIA? It appears as if the NTIA has started to update the status of Round 1 applications at broadbandusa.gov.

Do a search and you’ll see updates in the Status field. At this point there seem to be a few options:

  • Application Received
  • Application Not Funded
  • Application Not Funded by BTOP – maybe implying that there’s still hope for BIP/RUS money?
  • Awarded – not as many as I’d like to see here

Most seem to be in the Application Received or Application Not Funded at this point. According to Broadband Breakfast, Larry Strickling had encouragement for “those in the Not Funded group…

“Don’t fret over round one, there’s more money in round two,” said Larry Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the Friday presentation. “I know folks are getting what you’re calling a rejection letter, but we’re looking at it as an ‘opportunity to reapply’ letter.”

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Posted in Funding, Policy | Tags:

Posted by: Ann Treacy | January 30, 2010

Wireless from someone who knows

Thanks to Steve Borsch for sending me a podcast – Brett Glass on Lessons from Laramie: Broadband Innovation on the Wireless Frontier. You can also see a video on the talk and/or his PPT presentation online.

The conversation reminded me of so many people I knew back in the day who started ISPs. Brett Glass has a wireless and talks about how wireless works and how policy works and doesn’t work with wireless. He is clearly very smart both in terms of the practical aspects of the technology and the policy. If you have the time and want to learn more about wireless, this is worth a listen.

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Posted in Rural, Wireless

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