Daily Archives: September 11, 2007

Important House Meetings in Park Rapids and Bagley Sept 8

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Thanks so much to Ann Higgins for sending me the following announcement/invitation. The commute is too much for me (from Dublin) but I hope that those who are nearby and/or available will attend. In fact if anyone does and can send a few notes from the sessions – please do send them and I’ll post them!

State Rep. Sailer Announces House Telecommunications Committee Coming to Park Rapids and Bagley

In an effort to get a clear picture of telecom issues facing Northern Minnesota residents, the House Telecommunications and Infrastructure Finance Division will be spending an entire day in Northern Minnesota on Tuesday, September 18.
The visit on September 18 will begin with a private tour for committee members to the Arvig Communications Systems (ACS) facility in Park Rapids. Following the tour, the committee will hold a public meeting to hear from area businesses, local government officials and individuals at the Hubbard Courthouse in Park Rapids from 11:30AM – 1:00PM.

From there, legislators will travel to Douglas Lodge in Itasca Park where, from 2:00-3:15 p.m., they will hear from Emergency Management Services, Law Enforcement and other local and state government staff discussing communications issues that are affecting their ability to provide services to area residents. The last stop of the day will be a public meeting at the Clearwater County Courthouse in Bagley from 4:00 – 6:00PM.

Residents are strongly encouraged to attend the meetings in their area. The sessions are designed to give individuals and businesses in this area a chance to talk about things that work well and to speak to the challenges they face with telecommunications infrastructure concerns.

For more information or to sign up to speak please contact Rep. Brita Sailer at (800) 920-5867 or (651) 296-4265, 577 State Office Building, 100 Martin Luther King Boulevard, St. Paul, MN 55155 or via e-mail at rep.brita.sailer@house.mn  

Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act of 2007

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Last week Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) unveiled the Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act of 2007. The goals of the bill are threefold: will require wireless service providers to share simple, clear information on their services and charges with customers before they enter into long-term contracts; a thirty-day window in which to exit a contract without early termination fees; and greater flexibility to exit contracts with services that don’t meet their needs.

You can learn more on Senator Klobuchar’s web site.

Earlier this year Senator Olson introduced a bill related to cell phones (SF 833) in the Minnesota Legislature. I don’t know that it went very far – I think it was just introduced. I remember that Senator Olson mentioned that there was considerable interest from consumers about the bill – but it seems as if getting it (or a federal version) through the lobbyists of the cell phone companies is an uphill battle.

I must admit I am currently paying for a cell phone contract that is useless to me in Dublin. (It expires in October.) But it was easier and cheaper to ride out the contract than fight with my cell phone company. So as a consumer I’m rooting for Klobuchar and Olson.

Lack of Rural Broadband Hinders Economic Development

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Speed Matters ReportThanks to Bernadine Joselyn for forwarding two recent stories from the Speed Matters blog that focus on rural broadband and economic development.

In the first (Using tax credits to spur investment in rural Wisconsin), Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has announced an economic development plan that includes $7.5 million in tax credits to spur businesses to expand high speed internet access.

Great idea and great that access is being tied to economic development!

In the same week Speed Matters also focused on a recent article in Computerworld on the growing digital divide between urban and rural areas. According to the Government Accountability Office only 17 percent of households in rural America subscribe to high speed internet service.

Computerworld points out that the limited broadband in rural areas is hurting everyone because it’s hurting local business and therefore local economic development. Ubiquitous broadband access could be the rising tide that lifts all boats – but when it only lifts some boats the rest of us end of making up the difference.

The article names a few larger businesses that are affected by limited broadband in rural areas. For example, Trans World Entertainment owns 1000 music shops (nearly showed my age there and write record shops) but 17 percent cannot get broadband access and therefore run into troubles when trying to access their back-end inventory and financial systems.

We noted a few other businesses in this blog that either were able to choose a great rural location because of access to broadband and a couple that were hurt because of their rural location.

Speed Matters finds a solution in Tech Republic’s blog:

Over at Tech Republic’s IT News Digest blog, Andy Moon makes a good point about what needs to be done to fix this:

The government, in my opinion, has an obligation to provide either regulation or incentives to convince the telecoms to extend their services, just as they were forced to extend telephone service and just as the electric companies were forced to provide power to all areas.

Broadband is Here!

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Like Santa Claus, the broadband guy (think cable guy with an Irish accent) visited today. I am online at the house!!

We have DSL to the house and they set you up by default with a wireless network for your house. It’s pretty slick.