Comments on: Update (Obit?) on Iron Range FiberNet

By: More on the Lake County ARRA project « Blandin on Broadband

More on the Lake County ARRA project « Blandin on Broadband — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 20:05:24 +0000

[...] 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: angelo

angelo — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:36:55 +0000

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: christopher mitchell

christopher mitchell — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:19:39 +0000

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: Bill Coleman

Bill Coleman — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:13:01 +0000

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!