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!
Ann and Gary, thanks for the good information.
This points out how important local leadership is to implementing any kind of community project. Most local network success stories have strong elements of community champions leading the way in educating elected officials and overcoming the efforts of incumbent lobbyists to dominate the story line.
As I have watched the Iron Range FiberNet project over the past couple years, the absence of a highly visible local champion always seemed to me to be a missing element.
I give huge credit to the Monticello community team that has been working on their initiative. They have a strong community consensus that big broadband is a critical infrastructure that comes out loud and clear from local leadership and from citizens. I was struck by the community comments in reaction to the Star Tribune article about the need for improvements in the competitive telecom environment in Monticello.
As a result of their efforts, Monticello will have at least one FTTH and possibly two in the next 18 months. This wisdom of that redundant investment rather than a shared open access model is a topic for another discussion!
By: Bill Coleman on August 1, 2008
at 2:13 pm
Thanks for the update and reflections! I find it hard to argue against those who will say anything. Sometimes I feel like I have lost my mind when I hear some of the claims regarding who needs what speeds and who should decide who needs them.
By: christopher mitchell on August 4, 2008
at 2:19 pm
i hope this project works out… i live in hibbing out in the country and i cant get any form of high speed internet except sat. which im leary about going with as i have heard some bad things from some people but im sick of dialup being my only option. saddly though that is what im stuck with as qwest says i have “old” style phone lines that dont support dsl but that we should be getting upgraded anytime… that was what i was told over 3 years ago….
By: angelo on August 28, 2008
at 5:36 pm
[...] Waasa Township and Bassett Township. If that list sounds familiar, you may be remembering the old Iron Range FiberNet communities. As you may recall the FiberNet included about a dozen communities that were determined to get [...]
By: More on the Lake County ARRA project « Blandin on Broadband on September 17, 2010
at 8:05 pm