Daily Archives: June 3, 2008

Broadband or Internet news from towns around Minnesota

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We just sent out the Blandin eNews. It always includes highlights of the last month from the blog. But it also includes broadband news from around the state, which I wanted to share here too.

Bemidji
Jon Slusser, president of MTV Networks and manager of Spike Entertainment, advises businesses to embrace technology at the Bemidji Area Chamber of Commerce Awards of Excellence luncheon. (http://tinyurl.com/6nf6b7) Steve Wenzel, Minnesota state director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development agency spoke at Paul Bunyan Telephone Cooperative’s annual meeting about the impact of the 2002 Farm Bill on Minnesota’s rural infrastructure. (http://tinyurl.com/67gxcr)  

Cannon Falls
The Cannon falls School Board has agreed to upgrade the district network from two T-1 Internet lines (at 1.5 meg each for a total capacity of 3 megs) to a 10 meg line. (http://tinyurl.com/5hghev)  

Cook County
WTIP radio hosted a conversation on broadband efforts in the area with Blandin Foundation Community Coach Bill Coleman, Broadband Strategy Broad Member Danna MacKenzie, and Jack McDonald from Boreal Access. (http://tinyurl.com/6b43zq)  

Detroit Lakes
A man is charged with child pornography after offensive files online are tracked back to his IP address. (http://tinyurl.com/6bhogq)  

Duluth
Professor Tom Bornan from UMD talks about the disruptive influence of the Internet on K12 schools and the potential for a widening digital divide between affluent and poorer students as well as between urban and rural opportunities. (http://tinyurl.com/6qgv9c)  

Elk River
NorthStar Access, a telephone company offering local dial tone, long distance and Internet services such as broadband fast Internet (DSL) iZoom, is one of two businesses recognized as Elk River Business of the Year. (http://tinyurl.com/5n4j7a)  

Isanti
Local editor wonders about state of news media in age of blogs. (http://tinyurl.com/6nns6e)  

Lac qui Parle
More than 30 community leaders from economic development, local government, education, business and health care met in Dawson, MN to begin a discussion on broadband deployment and use. (http://tinyurl.com/5luf8l)  

Mankato
Investigators use a computer and Google mapping to track criminal activity. Some worry about privacy rights. (http://tinyurl.com/6nro2z)  

Monticello
Most of the FiberNet Monticello project has successfully moved forward including network engineering, construction planning and negotiating a management contract. However, they ran into issues when Bridgewater Telephone served a lawsuit against the City claiming that state laws do not grant the right to use revenue bonds for establishment of a telecommunications system. (http://tinyurl.com/5v42wq)  

Morris
Alex Andersen, a UMM sophomore from St. Joseph, is working with the Morris Area Chamber of Commerce to develop a customized Google map highlighting Chamber businesses and other area attractions. (http://tinyurl.com/5pourl)  

Paynesville
Paynesville Area Public Schools will allow students to surf the Web next year through a district wide wireless Internet.

St Paul
Incumbent telecommunications providers are starting to offer higher speed connections now that St Paul is looking into a municipal network. (http://tinyurl.com/6bypur)  

Thief River Falls
Local Entrepreneur of the Year uses online marketing such as MySpace and FaceBook to promote bar and hotel to younger market. (http://tinyurl.com/686dkf)  

Wadena
Wadena has partnered with Minnesota State Community & Technical College, Wadena Campus to offer a series of Internet training classes, “Internet 101 Being a Better Internet User” and “Open for Business, Internet marketing 101”. Tri-County Hospital in Wadena has completed the installation of a fiber optic line to their satellite clinic in Henning. (http://tinyurl.com/5pncbo)  

Waseca
The Waseca Municipal Airport now provides wireless access to the Internet. (http://tinyurl.com/58n3po)  

Winona
The Light Speed project at group home and support system provider, Home and Community Options, Inc, is going well. eFile has been implemented in 8 sites. IP Video with two-way audio has been working. Training is nearly complete. The remote monitoring system is progressing. (http://tinyurl.com/6bltan)  

(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.)

Geoff Daily and Michael Curri on economic impacts of broadband

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I just watched an interesting videocast from a fellow Minnesotan. Geoff Daily (GD) of App-Rising interviewed Michael Curri (MC) founder of Strategic Networks Group, an organization that helps community leaders understand the economic impacts of broadband. It’s about 20 minutes long – and easy to watch. I encourage you to check it out – but here are my highlights:

MC brought up a good point that while most people recognize the benefits of broadband, community leaders have to make the case that broadband deserves investment as much as other needs, such as roads or security.

GD offered MC the opportunity to quantify broadband investment. MC works on a community level, when working with communities but typically the results are 10 fold ROI on GDP.

To optimize benefits you need to look at your own community needs because 70-80 percent of growth comes from growth in existing business. Who’s using it? Who’s building it? Where do you want to be 5-10 years down the road? Then you need to build and invest accordingly.

It can take 2-3 years to realize return on investment. The first two years people do work faster but after a couple years the increased technology spurs innovation and more effective work methods.

GD also asked a good question about the impact of ultra fast connections versus slower broadband. MC noted that in 3 FTTH communities they worked with – the greatest difference was reliability in fiber.

I enjoyed hearing the anecdotes on how broadband has changed specific businesses – because to me the success is built upon all of those stories of businesses increasing revenue by 20 percent or hiring two new staff members.