The 10 second catch-up: with financial support from Blandin Foundation and Iron Range Resources, a dozen or so communities on the Iron Range have been working on an area-wide FTTH (FiberNet) network for a few years. There have been ups and downs. To move forward each participating community each community has recently been asked to contribute financially to the project. Last week Hibbing, the biggest city in the area decided to discontinue their participation in the project. This week the Joint Powers Authority has told the other communities that the project as developed would not work without Hibbing.

Gary Fields has followed the project for a long time but got more involved this winter as a project consultant. Gary was kind enough to meet me this morning (at his house in my childhood neighborhood) to talk about the project and the lessons learned. I think his insights are very helpful for any community looking into a municipal network. (Actually his insights are good for anyone approaching a local government where lobbyists from existing vendors might have opposing views on a plan or project.) Also while I think there is certainly an air of finality to this decision, I suspect seeds have been planted on the Iron Range that will eventually give birth to better broadband in some permutation.

Special thanks go to my daughter Lily for getting up early to be the camera girl. The good news is that we got a tripod; the bad news is that Gary and I appear to be a little boxed in – but we’re getting better!