Thanks to Bill Coleman for sending me a copy of Steve Kelly’s recent article (Minnesota needs high speed Internet access, but only at affordable prices) from the St Paul Ledger. (Unfortunately the article isn’t available online to folks without a paid subscription.)
Steve is a former senator, many readers will know him for his tireless campaigning for broadband. He is currently a senior fellow at the Humphrey Institute and a member of the Blandin Broadband Strategy Board.
Steve is skeptical of the recent broadband being offered by Comcast and Qwest. First neither service is affordable to the average household. Comcast charges $150 per month; Qwest changes $105. That’s OK for home businesses and affluent geeks, but not affordable to all. Second, each service is 50 megabytes per second (mbps) NOT the Gig that is becoming the hallmark rate of those who seek good broadband for their community. So it seems as if these companies are opening low to proactively appease policy makers. Finally, this service is only offered in the Twin Cities – not rural areas.
Steve urges the new Broadband Task Force to think about speed and cost when coming up with goals for the state.
I might also add that both have anemic upload rates that are 10% or less of the download speed. It still does not solve the work-from-home problem or allow full participation on the modern Internet.
By: christopher mitchell on June 10, 2008
at 7:53 pm