Christopher Mitchell (from Institute for Local Self-Reliance) and I have been emailing and eventually talking via Skype about the meeting last week with Rep. Al Juhnke and Rep. Sheldon Johnson on the ‘Connect Minnesota’ telecommunications mapping proposal. As I reported earlier, Brent Legg of Connected Nation presented.

I wasn’t able to attend – but John Reich (from the Commerce and Labor Committee Telecom Regulation & Infrastructure Division) was kind enough to send me a draft version of the bill they are proposing – it’s a very draft version. (Broadband Mapping Draft Bill ) And Christopher was kind enough to send me his notes to share.

My boring factual synopsis:
The bill is for a grant from the Commissioner of Commerce to do a statewide inventory of broadband service. The inventory will include:

1. Residential and business use of broadband, computer, and related technology
2. Barriers to broadband and computer use
3. Demographic analysis of info

Next they’re going to create a map of served and un-served areas using data gathered from broadband providers.

Christopher’s interesting and passionate take on it:

They are talking about millions of dollars over 3 years to develop a map of where broadband is. This does not seem especially helpful at this point. In 3 years, we are going to start encouraging companies to build DSL to rural areas???

Yes, they need connectivity as fast as possible but this plan does not solve the problem as fast as possible and offers the worst possible upgrade path. This is not a means to making rural areas competitive, it is a way to give them crumbs and forget about them. Slow DSL speeds are not going to help economic development.

If this was 1998, I can see how that might seem like a solution. In 2008, this strikes me as waving a white flag and telling the rest of the world, the U.S. is more interested in propping up old monopolist telecom firms than it is in being globally competitive.

I may be wrong about this — and Blandin folks probably know better than most! — but I have to believe that most people in the state who do not have broadband now do understand why it is better than dial-up.

This plan is based on the idea that people need to first be “hooked” on broadband (he frequently used terminology reminiscent of a low-level drug dealer) and then we will figure out how to give them better “broadband” (above 896/256 kbps, it seems).

Sigh. I think the legislature is just frustrated that this is a problem and they can find no good solutions. I think many across the country are in a similar position, so they move forward with a Connected Nation
(ConnectKentucky) approach because they see no better alternative and lack the vision/courage to try something more ambitious.

That said, I think a lot of their success is smoke and mirrors. They brag about how many tech jobs have been created but neglect to mention that nearly all of them are in the cities and not in the rural areas – where this is supposed to be creating them (from what I have read – for all the money they have spent tracking stats, I don’t find much of it very persuasive).

I’m happy to add Christopher’s comments as food for thought for the decision makers.