The MN Sun newspapers recently looked at the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Task Force report from the perspective of Dakota County. There were two Task Force members who had direct connections to Dakota County (Eagan-based Thomson Reuters Chief Operating Officer Rick King and Eagan Communications Director Tom Garrison).
But more interesting than the connections were the comparisons. As you may recall, the report promotes download at speeds that reach 10-20 megabits per second (mpbs) and upload speeds that reach 5-10 mbps by 2015. The article points out the even in Eagan, a city that is considered well wired, the average resident has access to those download speeds, but not those upload speeds. The hope is that such an increase in broadband would put Minnesota goal in the top five nationally in both average upload and download speed and in the top 15 compared to other states and countries.
Dakota County is working on efforts to improve broadband access for its businesses and residents. The article highlights a few projects, including a fun video I mentioned in an earlier post and work of the Eagan Technology Working Group.
I had to contrast the broadband view posted by Dakota County with the editorial in the St Cloud Times that really indicated that the Task Force was aiming too high. It’s interesting to see the different views – and speaks to the challenge of ubiquitous broadband coverage.
