Monthly Archives: March 2009

Value Statement from the Minnesota Broadband Task Force

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blog_taskforceI’ve heard from a few people who plan to attend the Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force on Friday, which is great news. The more the merrier!

I’m looking forward to hearing from the health care folks on the agenda. I notice that the task force also plans to talk about their value statements – they have given me permission to share the notes from previous discussions on value statements here. It’s a work in progress.

In my opinion the discussions the task force has had on the value statements have been the most interesting conversations they have had. There are some value statements that everyone can agree to quickly – there are others that are open for greater discussion. There are 2 topics so far that have been particularly sticky:

  1. Broadband should be treated as a utility and available to every home, government entity, institution and business in the state, regardless of location, regardless of cost to bring it to the site. The Internet is used as a means, and sometimes the only means, of business, communication, and government services. Minnesota currently denies many citizens access simply on the basis of location and this Task Force needs to address that. “Almost everywhere” is not good enough.
  2. Competition (We value market competition and not sole source providers to achieve affordability and choice of services)

There are a couple of other issues that seem to be open for greater discussion but from what I’ve heard – these are the potentially hot topics.

I’ve also included the task force’s notes on their criteria for selecting broadband projects for the stimulus funding. (You can get a list of potential projects on the Urban Users’ blog.) This too was an interesting conversation last month; I think because the underlying basis for the criteria relates so directly to the value statements. (This document is also a work in progress.)

Moose Lake Community Broadband Network

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I asked some of the graduated Broadband Get Broadband communities for broadband success stories. Bill Carlson was good enough to send me an update and history of broadband in Moose Lake…

In the year 2000, Moose Lake was experiencing a local digital divide. There was high-speed broadband connectivity in the public library, the school, the hospital and in the Minnesota state facilities, but only dial-up was available to the local government and the local residents. The community made a concerted effort to explore the option of building a locally owned Community Broadband Network, which would allow the flexibility of providing Internet services tailored to the changing needs of Moose Lake. A resolution was passed by the Moose Lake City Council to allow the Moose Lake Water & Light Commission to enter into the broadband business. They were directed to use the same model that was so successful with the electrical utility – provide the City of Moose Lake with an affordable and reliable service.

A T1 line with Internet service was brought into the City Hall and a fiber optic line was installed by the linemen to connect the city hall with the water& light building. The city administration and utilities business office now had high-speed broadband services. A small fiber loop was constructed at the same time to bring high-speed broadband services to the downtown business. The local businesses that required large data transfer joined the network but the high installation costs prohibited the small business to join. The partnership between the public and private sectors made the monthly T1 charges affordable.

The city realized that a fixed wireless system was the best option to meet the needs of the rest of the community. The completion of this portion of the network allowed all the local government buildings, including the Emergency Response Center to have broadband Internet connections. The rates and the installs costs were affordable to small businesses. Before a marketing plan and customer services could be implemented, Mediacom begin offering Internet services to their customers and Quest was offering DSL services to the community.

The only hope for the community broadband network was to find a niche service that only they could provide. The one possibility was to add Wi-Fi radios to the city campground and the highway corridor which transverse the community. The network was part of a “Linking-Up North” project that was to promote Moose Lake as a place for travelers to stop and check their e-mails and hopefully do some shopping. The Wi-Fi portion was designed to allow for 15 minutes of free use and username/password for extended use. Many of the users felt they were entitled to extended free service, so it became somewhat of a public relations nightmare. Free extended service is currently offered to .patrons of the public library, a local coffee shop and guests at the motels. No plans are in the works to expand the Wi-Fi system at this time.

The areas surrounding the City of Moose Lake begin showing the most interest in signing up for broadband services. Tower and install agreements have been made with Moose Lake Township, Minnesota State Park and the Mercy Hospital and Health Care Center to bring public broadband services to their locations.

The current demand on the capacity and speed of the community network has prompted the Water & Light Commission to build a fiber optic backbone which extends the length of the city. Public Safety has always been a priority of the community and this added bandwidth will allow the monitoring of the electrical distribution system, the back-up electrical generators, the community surveillance cameras and emergency management and notification communications system. Community server/software and GIS mapping projects are also in the development stages. The fiber optic cable also passes by an area that is slated for economic development.

The neighboring communities of Barnum, Kettle River, Sturgeon Lake and Willow River have contracted on a trial basis with the Water & Light Commission to receive wireless broadband services. The links are currently being made and customers are being hook-up.

The major problem from the beginning continues today, the communities inability to hire a person to provide technical and customer services. The community network has to rely on individual’s willingness to help out with the everyday problems and to outsource contract with companies for technical support. The effort today is focused on seeking funds from the Recovery Act Broadband Initiatives to make the Community Broadband Network sustainable and continue to grow in unserved and underserved areas without becoming a financial burden on the local taxpayers and Water & Light Customers.

Internet Security – On the Media

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I happened to catch Public Radio’s On the Media yesterday. They had a whole show on Internet Security. I do not spend a whole lot of time thinking about Internet security – and when I do it’s at a very local level. How do I keep my computer safe? This show talked about the security of the Internet on a much higher level. It made me think back to some of the Ultra High-Speed Broadband meetings; Gopal Khanna Commissioner of OET always seemed to mention security as one of his priorities for a broadband policy. Other didn’t necessarily jump on that – but I was glad to hear that someone – especially he was thinking about it.

On the Media took a look at what would be needed to either redesign a whole new Internet or Internets and what would be needed to brace up the one we have. Building a new Internet would be too difficult – because the environment is so different. The Internet we have was built while no one was looking. There weren’t any regulations or even much vendor input. That wouldn’t happen today.

They also talked a little bit about efforts to secure at least the networks used by top military professionals. Apparently they had secured the network but ran into troubles when users used a jump drive to move items from unsecured locations to the secured servers. The Soviet Union had developed a virus that would look for jump drives, infect them and then gain access to the secured network.

The military fixed the problems and cemented up all of the USB ports on their computers to prevent it from happening in the future. I think it demonstrated one of the biggest challenges to security – it affects usability. On a day to day basis, I think most users will choose ease of use – so we need some folks considering the security for us. Just imagine if the Internet quit working today – we’d be in trouble.

AT&T to spend $17 billion

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AT&T is poised to spend $17-18 billion this year according to their investment plans. That’s pretty much on track with last year’s plans.

In the wireless world it’s steady as she goes with plans to improve existing coverage and potentially enter 20 new markets. The ETA for LTE (long-term evolution) is 2011. No word on the 700 MHz spectrum acquired in 2008.

In the wired it’s also steady as she goes. The plan is to increase coverage of U-Verse from 17 million homes today to 30 million by 2011. They’re working on making the backbone better.

This announcement was made the day after the FCC/NTIA/USDA meeting on the stimulus package. I have noted before that unfortunately I think that the promise of stimulus funding put a lot of projects in a holding pattern over the last 3 months. I hope this is the start of plans moving forward.

Grandmas going online in Hoffman

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Tired of policy, I have been looking for successful broadband stories in Minnesota- big or small. If you have any, please send ‘em my way. For example, I spoke yesterday to a Grandma who is using a blog and Skype to keep up with grandson in the army.

I am a blog helper for the Horizons Project, an initiative to reduce poverty in several Minnesota towns. Joanne Holl is a Horizons blogger from Hoffman, Minnesota. She was looking for help in adding pictures to her blog and we got talking. I learned that Joanne has her own blog – Grandma Jo’s blog. Her grandson started it for her. All of her family seems to have a blog – mostly to stay in touch with her grandson, who is in the army. Last weekend 5 family members, including her grandson, were talking via Skype.

It’s hard to quantify the ROI on that kind of application – but what a difference for Joanne’s quality of life. (Multiple that by the number of people who have friends and family stationed overseas – and that is some value.)

Joanne’s story led me to learn two new things. First, Joanne told me that Runestone (her local provider) is digging up the ground in her area for fiber. Runestone is 4 years into a 10 year plan to deploy FTTH in the 9 communities they serve. They started with the rural areas because their goal is to provide high speed to all of their areas. The rural areas have the oldest lines and need the upgrade more than towns – so they come first.

Runestoen is a co-op. They started 50 years ago when the large national providers weren’t interested in coming to their area to provide phone service. They figure that by spring their percentage of homes with fiber will surpass Sweden and by summer with surpass Taiwan – according to the rates recently reported by the FTTH Council.

I also learned about the Military’s social networking tool. About two years ago, the military turned off access to YouTube and Facebook. It turns out that the military had been working on upgraded (and I’m sure much more secure) tools for their purposes.

iLink is a social networking tool for the army. Remember how the army built the Internet? Well it looks like they’re doing some amazing things with social networking too. It’s a little off topic so I’m just going to paste two paragraphs from an article I found in ReadWriteWeb – but if you have any interest in the science of information – read the article – it’s very cool!

iLink specifically was the part of the overall CALO project that focused on social search and message routing within social networks. It was also used to develop a system for FAQ generation within a network – they call this technology “FAQtory”. With this technology implemented on a social network, FAQs are continuously generated and revised by the community using a Wikipedia-like model, as opposed to being static creations made by the site’s authors. But it’s not basic as a simple user-generated FAQ system – instead, iLink’s FAQtory technology allows for incremental bits of information – even those that don’t qualify as answers to the question. As the members contribute these bits of information, the learning system in iLink monitors how users are attempt to resolve queries and is then capable of drafting off of the social network’s learning. Essentially, the technology actually enables the social network to discover and amplify its own capabilities
…

Today, iLink is being used in the military communities to help recognize “who knows what” within a community, connect members to each other, and point members to valuable content, discussions, and others who share their same interests. Those connections between members and resources are made with iLink’s machine-based learning to model the users and the content in order to facilitate the information sharing.

Ultra High-Speed Task Force meeting March 20

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The agenda is out for the Task Force meeting next Friday. I’ll be there taking notes. It seems as if more folks are chiming in with public comments; so if you’ve got something to say you should come on down.

Friday, March 20, 2009
9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Video Conference Locations – See below

9:30 – 9:50 Opening comments; review meeting agenda; Approve meeting minutes from February 20th meeting; Stimulus package update

9:50 – 10:00 Public comments, other correspondence and website comments

10:00 – 12:00 Includes break Health Care Panel – Mary Ellen Wells, Moderator

  • Stuart Speedie, Professor, U of M Medical School, Health Informatics
  • Karen Welle, Asst Director, MN Dept of Health, Office of Rural Health & Primary Care
  • Maureen Ideker, Rice Memorial Hospital, Chief Nursing Officer
  • Steve Mulder, Hutchinson Area Health Care Director of Quality and Clinical Services
  • Joe Schindler, MN Hospital Association
  • Mark Schmidt, SISU Chief Information Officer

12:00 – 12:30 Break for Lunch

12:30 – 1:30 Includes Q&A Economic Development Factors Related to Broadband Penetration

  • Bob Isaacson, Director of Analysis and Research for the Dept of Employment and Economic Development (DEED)

1:30 – 2:15 Discuss and Progress on the Task Force Values

2:15 – 2:30 Break

2:30 – 2:45 Writing assignment

2:45 – 3:00 Plans for upcoming meetings (reference Planning Calendar)

  • Greater MN meetings
  • April meeting topics
    • High Tech & Business User Panel – Mike O’Connor, Steve Cawley, John Stanoch
    • Rey Ramsey – “One Economy” speaker – Dick Sjoberg
    • Bernadine Joselyn – Blandin Foundation
  • May meeting – working session

3:00 Adjourn

Info on Remote Locations

Friday, March 20, 2009
9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
COMET/METNET help desk @ 888-345-1727 or Lee Sutton @ 507-317-1031 (cell)

  1. Inver Hills Community College – Inver Grove Heights
    2500 East 80th Street, Inver Grove Heights, MN 55076
    (HH-203 Heritage Hall) – New room location
    Driving Directions: http://www.inverhills.edu/maps/index.aspx
    Campus Map: http://www.inverhills.edu/Maps/MapsCampus.aspx
  2. NEAT – Northeast Duluth
    Lake Superior College, 2101 Trinity Road, Duluth, MN 55811
    (E2042)
    Driving Directions: http://www.lsc.cc.mn.us/CampusMaps/driving.cfm
    http://www.lsc.cc.mn.us/CampusMaps/LSCMap08.pdf
    Room Map: http://www.lsc.cc.mn.us/CampusMaps/Maps1.pdf 
  3. NETS – Northwest Crookston
    University of Minnesota – Crookston, 2900 University Ave, Crookston, MN 56716
    (SCC-106 Sahlstrom Conference Center)
    Driving Directions: http://www.umcrookston.edu/info/tours/images/inset3.gif
    Campus Map: http://www.umcrookston.edu/info/tours/documents/UMC_Campus_Map_Fall_2006.pdf 
  4. CMDLN – Central St. Cloud
    St. Cloud State University, 720 4th Avenue South, St. Cloud, MN 56301
    (CH-106 Centennial Hall)
    Driving Directions and Campus Map: http://www.stcloudstate.edu/campusmap/default.asp?d=mapParking

Broadband lessons from Europe and Asia

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The New York Times is running a report “looking at the lessons for the United States from broadband deployment in other countries.” The series started when they looked at “why theirs is faster”, yesterday it was “why theirs is cheaper” and today they are looking at fiber.

The articles are quick and good. The comments are great too. Here’s a quick synopsis…

I’m going to start with today’s article because I like it best. The question is – Why does the rest of the world have more fiber than the US. Quoting from the article,

The short answer is that broadband deployment in those countries was spurred by a combination of heavy government involvement, subsidies and lower corporate profits that may be tough for the economic and political system in the United States to accept. Those countries have also tried to encourage demand for broadband by paying schools, hospitals and other institutions to use high-speed Internet services.

They go on to detail the role the government has had in Europe and Japan. Then they talk more specifically about what could be done in the US – use the stimulus money to reach rural areas, work to promote broadband with consumers, use the Universal Service Funds for broadband and be prepared to spend more taxpayer money on broadband in those areas where you can’t create a business case to attract commercial providers.

So faster… the first reason they give for faster speeds in many counties is urban density and DSL. In short Europe tends to have a high population density and DSL is faster when the connections are shorter.

Also European providers exaggerate their speeds. (The article was kinder with how they phrased that.)

American providers are catching up with Verizon’s FiOS service, AT&T’s U-Verse service, and the promise of Docsis, however the prices are rising as fast as the broadband speeds.

So cheaper… the first reason again is population density. It’s cheaper to build out to urban areas than suburban or rural areas.

Next, there’s competition. In big countries, the phone companies have been forced to open up their infrastructure to other Internet providers. The US started down that road but kind of gave it up in 2003 because providers were having a tough time making money. So competition has turned into phone versus cable.

The downside of forcing a company to share infrastructure is that it’s not a big motivator for upgrading infrastructure.

Upcoming broadband events

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Maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to escape winter for a while but a few upcoming conferences have caught my eye…

Alcatel-Lucent FREEDOM To CONNECT 2009: The Emerging Internet Economy
March 30-31, 2009
Silver Spring, Maryland
Here’s the blurb from their web site:

F2C 2009 presents the people of the Internet who:
• enable economic growth,
• strengthen democracy,
• facilitate creativity and innovation,
• make the Earth greener, and
• lower the barriers that divide people.

F2C 2009 will tell the story of:
• on-line, network-enabled industry and culture, new jobs and sustainable growth
• Burlington VT, where muni fiber enables business, artistic endeavor, and new telemedicine
• how Lafayette LA’s community came together as it built its muni fiber network
• the twin cities of Cedar Falls and Waterloo, Iowa, where one twin has a muni net, and the other doesn’t
• how municipal CIOs are planning for Seattle, Portland and San Francisco municipal fiber networks
• city nets, wired and wireless, that didn’t work — what went wrong and what that teaches
• what Obama’s infrastructure and economic recovery plans mean for tomorrow’s network

Broadband Properties 2009
April 27-29, 2009
Dallas, TX

Here’s the blurb from their web site:
Over the past four years, the Summit has become widely recognized as the best source of marketing ideas and strategies for Fiber-to-the-Home.
Our theme this year is, New Business Models for Today’s Fiber Communities
We invite you to join over 1,000 property owners, developers, telcos, cable companies and numerous industry leaders at this premier event, which is now rapidly taking shape.

Broadband Policy Summit V: Building out America
June 18-19, 2009
Arlington VA

And from their web site…

Broadband Policy Summit V, Washington’s preeminent broadband communications policy forum, promises more than ever to be the place to learn how to position your company and clients to thrive in this new broadband environment.

At BPS V, the nation’s top public and private sector voices will share their insights on:
• Who has the ear of the Obama administration, and what will they say?
• Who’s running the Congress, and what’s important to them?
• How will a new cabinet-level Chief Technology Officer affect the market?
• What’s the future for network management?
• Will broadband deployment surge or suffer in the new political-economic climate?
• Who will challenge the cable/telcom broadband duopoly?
• Will the Obama administration change the balance between competition and consolidation?
• What’s next for the TV white spaces? For the D Block and the national public safety network?
• What will be the new shape of the Universal Service program? Who wins, and who loses?
Don’t miss this opportunity to participate in critical

Leadership and the stimulus money

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The scaffolding is emerging for the broadband stimulus funding – starting with the webcast yesterday between NTIA, USDA FCC and others.

All signs point to an emphasis on local involvement. The stimulus bill mentions getting support from states. The Daily Yonder just ran a story that talked about a report on USDA RUS grants in 4 communities. They found that local involvement played a larger role in forecasting success with a project. So it would make sense for the RUS to get local involvement.

I have seen several groups forming to get ready for funding or at least a proposal for funding.

Illinois has built a stimulus web site – not just for broadband but to explore opportunities for all stimulus projects.

The American Library Association is publishing tips on how libraries can prepare to request funding.

I know that in Minnesota, a Facebook group and email list have emerged to discuss opportunities. I’d be interested in learning about any other groups (especially in Minnesota) that are actively getting folks to get their broadband ducks in order to submit some proposals. And as Bernadine Joselyn points out in an earlier comment, “The Blandin Foundation is thinking about ways to jump start these conversations, especially across communities. Send us your ideas.”

You can see what kind of funding is going to become available in Minnesota.

No to fiber in Jackson MN

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Thanks to John Shepard for sending me a heads up on the latest in Jackson Minnesota.

Apparently Windom had approached Jackson about extending their FTTH network to residents in Jackson. (Jackson has municipally owned and operated cable TV – but looking at their web site it doesn’t appear as if Internet service is part of that offering.) The estimated cost to connect with Windom was $4 million.

Last month, the City Commissioners unanimously agreed to not explore a fiber optic system for the city of Jackson. Cost seemed to be the major factor. Apparently citizens were unhappy about a recent $2 increase and the FTTH could possibly double that bill.

On a related note, the Mayor asked the Commission to look at fiber to the Industrial Park. The Mayor is afraid of losing businesses to relocate without fiber. Again cost has been a concern. The Industrial Park is currently served by Qwest. Form the notes, it’s a little difficult for me to tell if the Industrial Park has a T1 or whether you can get a T1 from the Industrial Park. They are going to check with Qwest to see if there any plans to upgrade offerings.

So there’s a scope of things in Jackson. I was speaking to a group in St Paul called NetSquared. They were asking about broadband in rural areas. One of the things we discussed was the cost and the feeling in some areas of by some people that at this point we don’t need more broadband. I think Jackson exemplifies that mindset.

This hasn’t gone to a public vote – but the feeling is that people won’t want to pay for enhanced service. And at the same time the Mayor is afraid of losing a competitive edge because of they lack fiber. They’re at a crossroads, we’re all at a crossroads. Do we make the investment for tomorrow or do we work on today’s budget?

Federal Broadband Stimulus Webcast

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Today, there was a webcast of federal officials discussing the broadband stimulus funding programs. The USDA, NTIA and FCC participated in this joint meeting. Over 2300 people were online viewing this meeting in real time.

The officials provided an update of program details and timing while launching the public comment period. The 90 minute program is available on demand if you would like to take in this full discussion. If you want to understand the details of the broadband stimulus legislation, I suggest that you take a look here.

Here are some of the details:

NTIA: Their goals are to: 1) Close the broadband gap; 2) Stimulate investment; 3) Create jobs; 4) Serve public entities; and 5) Increase public understanding of broadband applications. They stressed a connection to the other stimulus goals of transportation, smart grid, e-health, etc. There is a focus on the undefined terms of “unserved” and “underserved”.

NTIA has over $4 billion dollars for broadband. Of that amount, up to $350 million will be used specifically for broadband mapping (no details on how that will be done), $200 million for public computer centers; $250 million for innovative broadband projects. The balance of over $3 billion will be available for available for telecommunications infrastructure. Applicants can include state governments, other political subdivisions, non-profits and foundations. NTIA can award funds directly to private sector providers if they choose.

The timing on NTIA funding is tentative, but they anticipate three funding rounds. Their first funding announcement (NOFA – Notice of Funds Available) will be sometime between April and June, 2009, with the other cycles in the fall 2009 and spring 2010. All grants will be competitive; each state must receive one grant. Key criteria: Affordability, Speed of Service, Service for health care, education and small business.

The USDA funds are on about the same timetable. They have $2 billion dollars to allocate through loans and grants. Their priorities are rural (areas with 75% rural) without adequate broadband to support job creation. They also have a priority to increase competition by supporting projects that enable multiple providers and serve areas with high percentages of people with no access to broadband.

Both programs call for high levels of monitoring to ensure program standards. Applicants can apply to both NTIA and USDA. Collaborative projects are encouraged.

The FCC is responsible for developing a national broadband plan and they are beginning to get that organized. Their first report to Congress is due in May 2009.

Monticello Update Court of Appeals Hearing Held March 4

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Earlier this week the appellate court met in Monticello to hear oral presentations. Lynne Dahl Fleming was good enough to send me an update. Well, the update really consisted of – it happened. Now it’s up to the court to rule on the issue, which they need to do in the next 90 days.

What I didn’t realize, since my law knowledge mostly consists of several seasons of Boston Legal, is that the Court of Appeals opinions can either be published or unpublished. If it’s unpublished they are not intended to be used as precedent and can be cited in arguments before the courts of the state only in limited circumstances. Opinions are published for cases in which when the decision establishes a new rule of law, provides important procedural guidelines in interpreting statutes and/or involves significant legal issues. The appellate judges in this case did not state whether the opinion would be published or unpublished but did say that they will provide an opinion within 90 days.

There have been a lot of lessons learned through the Monticello ordeal. Lynne said it best when she said, “I feel most sorry for all of those Monticello citizens who voted YES (74%) at the referendum. Now they too have to wait for FiberNet services which should have been available to residents by this time had the lawsuit not been presented by Bridgewater/TDS Telecom.”

Should mapping precede stimulus distribution?

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Some of the stimulus broadband money specifically targets mapping broadband access but apparently there’s a push to hold onto the rest of the stimulus funding until the mapping is complete. (Thanks to Coralie Wilson for sending me a great article – Policy questions may affect broadband payouts.)

Is waiting for mapping the right thing to do?

The advantage of mapping first is that mapping tells you which areas are un-served and under-served. So you can then target the funds to deploy broadband in those areas.

The advantage assumes that the maps are good and quick. It also assumes (I think) that the info is used immediately or the maps are maintained. To be most useful, I think those maps have to include information on broadband use as well as availability. All providers have to submit all data and the info they submit has to be verified somehow. In Minnesota, Connect Minnesota uses Ookla speed tests provided by residents (you can take the test here) to balance the provide info. The accuracy of those tests has been debated. But overshadowing the accuracy issue is the barrier of getting enough folks to take the test. (OK – that can be a chicken-egg debate, the tests aren’t accurate so why take them versus, let’s take them and see how accurate we think they are in the aggregate.)

So while in theory I like the idea of getting a picture of what’s out there – in practice I think we need to balance the time and cost associated with it. But is but don’t stop the presses for it.

The disadvantage of waiting on maps is – as I just said – the time and costs. To do them right is expensive and their shelf life is pretty short – unless you bear the cost of maintenance. But I think the biggest issue is the time. The primary goal of the stimulus funding is jobs – local jobs. I heard on the news that we have the highest unemployment rate (8.1 percent) since 1949!

So maybe we can take a look at what areas need the jobs. What are our poorest communities? Where is unemployment highest? I’m going to go out on a limb and say those are the areas that are un-served and under-served. Those are the markets that broadband providers have decided not to enter.

How can we get those local people working on broadband – by that I mean – how can we get them jobs that build the infrastructure or demand? Is there a provider that wants to go into that area? Is there a provider that could enhance services in that area? Great – but maybe there ought to be referendum sort of vote to let people show their confidence in that company. (OK – that’s not practical, but it might weed out the deadbeats.) There are some local providers that are amazing and with the stimulus funding they can be more amazing – hopefully in new areas. If the municipality wants to provide service, that’s great too.

So maybe some communities get their first broadband provider – and that great. Maybe some get competition – that’s great too.

The area is already served? Well, maybe they need some training to help local folks use the broadband. One cure for unemployment is entrepreneurship – access to broadband opens up a huge set of new applications and audiences.

I know that the RUS has been criticized for how they have doled out money in the past. Their definition of rural has sounded pretty suburban at times. I don’t know that a map is going to satisfy their critics. And then the NTIA money has been broadened to include “under-served and advanced networks” so that un-served isn’t a priority.

A national policy would help direct some of the money, more importantly I think that would help get more money dedicated to broadband but I think that’s something we need to strive for before Phase II funding.

Ground Swell for Muni Networks

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Thanks to JC Shepard for sending me the link to Rural Broadband’s Struggles in the Wall St Journal. Ironically I had been reading and watching stories on municipal networks so this is a perfect fit.

Along the theme from yesterday, the Wall St article shows a great video from the frontlines of the un-served and under-served areas – this time in Vermont.

The video features a woman who pays $60 for satellite because it is slightly better than dialup and all that’s available, as she says it’s difficult to run a small business without broadband. I love/hate the story of how she launches warm cups of water to melt the snow on the satellite dish after a blizzard to get the connection going again. I think in Minnesota we can feel her pain – I imagine some of us more acutely than others.

It also features a mom (and nonprofit director) going to the library– because dialup in her home is insufficient. I know this hit home for JC. I can’t even imagine having to drag my kids to the library to do homework. Heck, it’s tough enough to get them to do it from home. Now imagine fitting in a trip to the library – during library hours – with other afterschool activities – ouch!

It’s frustrating to watch these anecdotes. I can’t imagine living them. These people need broadband – but the commercial providers have deemed these areas to be unprofitable. I’m not saying they’re wrong – but as the WSJ article points out this makes these areas a prime spot for the stimulus funds. (And there are plenty of Minnesota-based communities that fit this description too!!)

I read another article this morning that demonstrates the need for universal broadband access on a macro level (Does American Need Universal Broadband?). In it the author talks about how many businesses assume a critical mass of customers have broadband and now provide services under that assumption. (Think software upgrade and patches from Microsoft – for example.)

If broadband was universal, the government could take advantage too – saving taxpayer dollars. (Some would say that they already provide services that are not accessible to dialup users.)

Increasing broadband is becoming a necessity – or at least a common good, which should open the door to municipalities providing the services. Which leads to the end of my morning – watching an archive of a web cast called Broadband Networks That Pay Off – Generating Cost Saving and Return on Investment (ROI) with Municipal Broadband Applications.

The video was for municipalities who were considering a muni network. They talked about the need to build a business case – to start by talking to as many people as possible who might have an interest or need in the network.

There was a lot of focus on the good the broadband can bring to the community and the potential savings for a municipality to provide their own services. The top reasons webinar attendees had for looking into a network was public safety, followed by public service.

I know municipal networks can be a sensitive issue – but I think in un-served and under-served areas municipalities can provide a service where the market will not otherwise bring adequate services.

Five days on the digital dirt road in North Carolina

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Thanks to Bernadine Joselyn for sending me info on Digital Dirt Road in North Carolina.

InterentforEveryone is an organization that strive to “to shed light on the millions of Americans who live without regular Internet access or lack the training or equipment to get online.” Their members include the American Library Association, Google, American Distance Education Consortium, Free Press, The Main Street Project, Twin Cities Media Alliance and loads of others.

They have been trekking through the road less traveled in North Carolina talking to folks without broadband. They have posted videos from their conversations online. Sadly most of the people featured can’t see themselves from the comfort of their own home – but the stories are powerful.

I love the idea of coupling this with some of the mapping projects. The maps are important but there are gaps that can’t really be addressed with a map. Hearing that 92 percent of a state is covered with broadband is great – until you talk to the other 8 percent. As the videos indicate – those people want and need broadband.

It would be great to see some of the stories of Minnesota’s digital dirt road – or snow trail as the case might be.

Bernadine’s great idea is to roll some stories into the Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force’s plan to visit rural Minnesota this summer.