Monthly Archives: January 2011

Bernadine Joselyn’s presentation at the Humphrey Institute Telecommunications Seminar

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Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend the Telecommunications Seminar hosted by Humphrey Institute earlier this week – but Bernadine Joselyn was kind enough to share the notes from her presentation…

Remarks by Bernadine Joselyn before the Telecommunications Seminar hosted by Humphrey Institute, January 26, 2011

It is an honor to be here.

When Steve [Kelley] called to offer me the opportunity to present today, he made the observation that policy discussions around telecommunications traditionally have been dominated by providers. Community voices are largely absent. …..

As fundamental as it is to our lives, technology is not an issue around which it is easy for people to find and express their collective voice. So Steve asked if I would bring into the discussion a community perspective. What I have to offer is informed by the work I get to do at Blandin Foundation as director for PP&E. I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Steve for his service to the foundation as a member of Blandin’s Broadband Strategy Board.

Our mission at Blandin is to strengthen rural Minnesota communities. We seek to be a voice for rural, and to help rural people be their own voice.

We work in this broadband space because we recognize that broadband is really important to the future of rural places. Communities have just gotta be plugged in to play.

The basis of our approach is the conviction that leadership matters. Leadership is about aligning passion and responsibility. Recognizing that it’s up to us to help ourselves, and that, as we like to say in our Blandin Community Leadership Program, leadership is one of those things that you have to do yourself, but you can’t do alone.

So I want to bring the “community voice” into the room by letting community leaders speak for themselves through three short stories about how people worked together to bring the benefits of broadband to their communities. The people we’ll hear from are among the many leaders and community champions with whom we are privileged to work in implementing the MIRC project – a $4.8 million federal stimulus grant to increase sustained broadband adoption in rural Minnesota.

This is our MIRC partnership….. (see map)

The MIRC project is designed to catalyze the creation of a “culture of use” among the 11 participating communities. As the words imply this is culture change work. It requires lots of community leadership, and lots of collaboration. Facilitating and supporting those invisible but critical capacities in people is what we hope will make this work sustainable over time. Our work is conducted within an economic development framework developed by the Intelligent Community Forum.

This Intelligent Community framework – which we think is a very helpful tool — is built of 5 pillars: broadband development, workforce, digital inclusion, innovation, and marketing and advocacy. The community efforts we are helping to nurture address all of these areas. If you build it they will come,” is simply not true about broadband. Just look at our scary and growing digital divide.
It takes a village to build and use a network.

And so to the stories….

The film was commissioned by BF and filmed by Tom Livingstone, an independent film maker out of Duluth.

Minnesota makes some Top 10 Akamai rankings

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Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on the latest Akamai report on broadband speed in the US and beyond. Here are a few facts as highlighted on their press release:

Internet Penetration
In the third quarter of 2010, over 533 million unique IP addresses, from 235 countries/regions, connected to the Akamai network. This represents 6.6% more IP addresses than the second quarter of 2010, and 20% more than the same quarter a year ago.

Global Connection Speeds
Globally, the average connection speed once again increased, both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, reaching nearly 2 Mbps. Taiwan’s 24% quarterly growth was the most significant among the top 10 countries/regions, enabling it to achieve an average connection speed of 5 Mbps. In examining the average peak speeds around the world, only four countries/regions had speeds of 30 Mbps or more – South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Romania.

Fastest U.S. States
The overall average connection speed for the U.S. as a whole in the third quarter of 2010 was 5.0 Mbps. Delaware continued to maintain its standing as the state with the fastest average connection speed. The overall average peak connection speed in the U.S. during the third quarter was 20 Mbps. In looking at high broadband adoption in the U.S. during the third quarter, trending was mostly positive. Quarterly increases in high broadband adoption of 10% or more were seen in 23 states and the District of Columbia, with New Mexico topping the list at 60% growth. In reviewing year-over-year changes in U.S. broadband adoption, four states (Alaska, Minnesota, Montana, and Alabama) grew more than 100% year-over-year, with Alaska’s massive 191% growth leading the way.

And here’s some of the Minnesota-specific information that always catches my eye.

The good news is that Minnesota actually made the top 10 list a few places. Akamai does not give an exhaustive list of state rankings, only the highlights, so it’s nice when Minnesota makes the list. Also it means a step closer to the Minnesota broadband goal to be one of the top five states in terms of broadband speed – if you want to look at averaged speed measured. (And since Minnesota stresses ubiquity, I think we can glean that averaged speed is important to us.)

Also St Paul made the list of Average Measured Connection Speed, Top United States Cities by Speed



Challenges of a Community Network – Sibley County

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Sibley County’s quest to consider a countywide, county-supported fiber optic network hit a bump in the road. As you may recall they held a meeting earlier this month where they discussed borrowing $63 million and repaying the bonds with revenue from the service. The stakeholders were given until the end of February to make some decisions about moving forward.

I’ve said before that no one follows the state of community broadband networks closer than Chris Mitchell at the Institute for Local Self Reliance. He is a great advocate of municipal/community broadband networks. Chris has recently published letters from Frontier Communications and Mark Erickson, the Winthrop City Administrator that offer a point-counterpoint views of the project.

Frontier Communications currently provides connectivity in the area. They are skeptical of the county’s business plan. Mark Erickson’s letter addresses Frontier’s concerns. You can read the letters in their entirety on the MuniNetworks web site.

I suspect that this issue will be discussed at the TISP meeting in February.

Net Neutrality 2.0?

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On Tuesday, Senator Al Franken and (D-Minn) and Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) introduced a bill, called the Internet Freedom, Broadband Promotion, and Consumer Protection Act of 2011. According to Senator Franken’s web site…

“Net neutrality is one of the most important issues facing our country today,” said Sen. Franken. “The recent FCC ruling on net neutrality does not do nearly enough to protect consumers, and this bill is designed to maintain a free and open Internet. This isn’t just about speech, it’s also about entrepreneurship and innovation, and it’s about our economy.”

According to the text of the bill draft, the goal is…

To preserve the free and open nature of the Internet, expand the benefits of broadband, and promote universally available and affordable broadband service.

The bill isn’t long, but here are some of the highlights (I’ve modified to ease readability) …

(12) The United States needs clear Federal policy that preserves the historically free and open nature of the Internet, expands the benefits of broadband, and promotes universally available and affordable broadband service that does not chill in novation or speech within the content, applications, and services available online.

(13) The Federal policy to ensure that the Internet remains free and open must apply equally to all broadband Internet access services, regardless of whether those services use wire, radio, or some combination of those means to reach the end user.

Here are some of the proposed dos

‘(2) Broadband Internet access service providers shall not require end users to purchase voice grade telephone service, commercial mobile radio voice services, or multichannel-video programming distribution services or other specialized services as a condition on the purchase of any broadband Internet access service.

(3) All charges, practices, classifications, and regulations for and in connection with broadband Internet access service shall be just and reasonable.

And some of the proposed don’ts

(1) block, interfere with, or degrade an end user’s ability to access, use, send, post, receive, or offer lawful content (including fair use), applications, or services of the user’s choice;

(2) block, interfere with, or degrade an end user’s ability to connect and use the end user’s choice of legal devices that do not harm the network;

(3) prevent or interfere with competition among network, applications, service or content providers;

(4) engage in discrimination against any lawful Internet content, application, service, or service provider with respect to network management practices, network performance characteristics, or commercial terms and conditions;

(5) give preference to affiliated content, applications, or services with respect to network management practices, network performance characteristics, or commercial terms and conditions;

(6) charge a content, application, or service provider for access to the broadband Internet access service providers’ end users based on differing levels of quality of service or prioritized delivery of Internet protocol packets;

(7) prioritize among or between content, applications, and services, or among or between different types of content, applications, and services unless the end user requests to have such prioritization;

(8) install or utilize network features, functions, or capabilities that prevent or interfere with compliance with the requirements of this section; or

9) refuse to interconnect on just and reasonable terms and conditions.

And the network management

(4) LIMITATION.—A network management practice may not be considered to be a reasonable network management if the broadband Internet access service provider charges content, applications, or other online service providers for differing levels of quality of service or prioritized delivery of Internet Protocol packets.

Finally MISC

There’s a clause about making practices known and a section on exemptions.

There’s also a clause stipulating that anyone qualifying for USF will have to provide stand-alone internet services.

There are some teeth, which means anyone found guilty of not adhering to the law can be found liable for damages.

There is an effort to study the impact of the proposed law one year after enactment.

MN Broadband Story of Success in Process: Remote Classes in Windom

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I just got off the phone with Greg Warner from the WECC (Windom Education and Collaborative Center) about an exciting project that involves ultra high-speed broadband, a diverse population and great classes at the University of Minnesota. Before I get into the details I wanted to mention that it’s a story in process. They are hoping to start class on Tuesday but are missing one piece of equipment a Polycom HDX 8000. It’s on order; they thought they’d receive it two weeks ago. They really need in Monday. Just thought I’d mention it in case someone had a loaner for them. Also – the classes have room for a couple more students. I wanted to offer those heads up, just in case. Now on with the story.

Windom has become an increasingly ethnically diverse community with many folks coming to work at the meat packing plants. Seeing the change in the air, WECC and Intercultural Communities Uniting (ICU) sought ways to welcome new residents. Talking to  new residents, they learned that folks were interested in using their language skills in entrepreneurial efforts. With funding from Blue Cross, Blue Shield – Healthy Together program, they began offering Interpreter training , training on how to become a good interpreter. They had 48 people go to the series of classes. It was very successful.

The University of Minnesota has been working with the legislature to create a registry of qualified interpreters. Great for quality assurance, a potential barrier for interpreters. To qualify for the registry, students are required to have college credits in the field. Windom is a long way away from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus where the classes are held. The cost of the classes and time to attend would have been a great barrier to many of the people in Windom. But Windom has great broadband and an innovative spirit.

So they have been working with the U of M to allow students in Windom to access their interpreting classes online through the University of MN College of Continuing Education, Translation and Interpreting Program. The local Windom students will attend the classes at the BARC (Business Arts & Recreation Center) where they have the fast broadband connection and telepresence equipment. It will be the next best thing to being there. To add to the appeal, the classes are offered at half price and the community will be offering scholarships. The class starts on Tuesday, assuming the necessary equipment arrives in time.

So far 13 students have signed up for the class; two spaces remain open if you are interested. While I called them Windom students, the truth is they come from various parts the region. They are primarily native speakers of a language other than English. They speak a range of languages: Spanish, Hmong, Laos and several African languages. They will be taking a series of three 3-credit classes through the program. Then they will qualify for the registry. Also they may go on to specialize in medical or court interpreting. Many go on to become consultants.

It’s a great economic benefit to the students – but equally valuable opportunity for the community where interpreters are often required. The legislature is looking at mandating that anyone who spends government money on an interpreter choose from the registry. Without this opportunity to take classes online, most folks would need to look towards the Twin Cities to get a register interpreter. This will save travel time and provide a boost to the local economy and continue the effort to be welcoming in the community.

This is a pilot program for Windom and for the University of Minnesota. It may open the door for similar programs in the future where they may offer training in rural areas. It sounds as if there have been some growing pains with a student body selected from the region and some U of M rules (tougher to get signatures from students who aren’t on campus) – but working through them should benefit both parties – and certainly will make a difference to the 13 (or more) students and their families.

An added bonus – once the equipment is installed at the BARC, it will open the door to more programs – educational, recreations, business and more. Local business people can attend classes all over the world. Students can tour areas across the world and visit with students like themselves in all settings.

Who should subsidize rural access?

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According to AT&T it shouldn’t be them anymore. Steve Alexander details the situation with long distance subsidies and the questionable future of ongoing subsidies in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The Cliff Notes version is that AT&T and other companies pay a fee each time one of their customers makes a long distance call to someone in Minnesota. It goes to provide subsidies to companies who offered telephone service to rural areas, because rural areas are (or were) more expensive to serve.

That is still happening but the world outside these transactions has changed. Wireless providers and Internet phone services (for example Skype) do not pay the same fee. So I can understand AT&T’s perspective. The rural companies are concerned, however because they have built businesses based on consideration of these access fees. I can understand their perspective as well.

Added into the issues, I think is that neither AT&T nor the local rural telephone companies are planning for pure voice telephone service anymore. Both are in the telecommunications industry and that can mean, voice, data and video. For years the access fee has been “Macgyvered” to work – but the strain is showing. But this isn’t the only time and place that something like this has come up. The latest Net Neutrality iterations left that same Macgyvered door open by barring wireline-based broadband providers from “unreasonable discrimination” against Web traffic, but not imposing that same rule on mobile broadband providers.

So while I’m sure that AT&T would like to get this solved sooner rather than later, I think we need to take the time to look at the larger picture. If only there were a plan – such as a National Broadband Plan! And indeed the National Broadband Plan that came out last March does recognize that right now one of the issues with telecommunications policy is that not all providers are classified equally and we are still making decisions based on policies that were written before the advent of the Internet – and so there are loopholes and misfits that are not going push the US into a leadership position in terms of telecommunications.

The last line of the Star Tribune caught by eye; it’s a quote from Lee Selwyn, president of Economics and Technology, a telecom policy consulting firm in Boston…

“Rural telephone companies should get a subsidy if they can demonstrate they require it, but they shouldn’t automatically be entitled to it.”

I might change “telephone companies” to communities – but I think if the goal is to be a world leaders (and that is the stated goal of the Minnesota Broadband Bill and at least implied in the National Broadband Plan) the solution does involve looking at what it will take to deploy and maintain service (voice, data, video) to the far corners of the state and country. (I stress maintain here.) Then we need to develop policies that help reach that goal whether through telephone lines, wireless, cable, fiber…

Smart Grid in Chattanooga

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To make a long story short, I’ve been thinking about Smart Grid because I’ve been working with MNREM (a MIRC partner) on how renewable energy businesses can use broadband. So a recent article in Wired caught my eye. Here’s the quick look from the article…

Chattanooga, Tennessee, utility EPB hit two milestones in the last two weeks of 2010: It completed the final touches on one of the fastest internet pipelines in the world, and it activated the first automated switches on its electricity network. The combination constitutes the backbone for a Department of Energy–funded smart grid network that’s expected to save the utility and area businesses tens of millions of dollars annually.

Smart Grid got a lot of attention in the National Broadband Plan – but a lot of folks ask me what Smart Grid is. Wikipedia has a definition (which I have to say has been called out as not impartial)…

A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using two-way digital communications to control appliances at consumers’ homes; this saves energy, reduces costs and increases reliability and transparency.

EPB will provide usage information to businesses to help them make smart decisions about use – for example maybe they will be running some appliances only in off hours. But the network – with the automated switches – will also be able to do some self-repair or monitoring.

In fact, Wired reports…

Power outages cost businesses in EPB’s 600-square-mile territory about $100 million a year — a number that’s expected to decline 40 percent within the next 18 months due to the installation of automated switches. In addition, the utility’s planned projects will save $3 million a year through automated meter reading and allow it to roll out demand-response services.

I think that the possibilities should be motivating more of us to look at Chattanooga’s plans.

Countywide FTTH – TISP meeting Feb 17

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Here’s the latest from the Telecommunications and Information Society Policy Forum…

SAVE THE DATE

FEBRUARY 17, 4:00 to 5:30 pm

PREVIEW OF COUNTY WIDE FTTH PROJECTS IN MINNESOTA

• COOK COUNTY/ARROWHEAD ELECTRIC
• LAKE COUNTY
• SIBLEY COUNTY

JOIN US TO HEAR FROM THE LEADERS OF THOSE PROJECTS!

I’m hoping to go and will take notes if I do.

Staples looks at fiber

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The Blandin Foundation is helping Staples look at FTTH by providing $25,000 for a $50,000 feasibility study. The other $25,000 is coming from the Staples Broadband Collaborative, which consists of Central Lakes College, City of Staples/Staples EDA, Lakewood Health System, National Joint Powers Alliance, the Staples Motely School District and West Central Telephone Association.

According to the Staples World, the study will include market analysis, engineering and estimate costs of laying fiber throughout the town.

I got a quick update on the story from John Schultz, his company U-reka Broadband will be doing the feasibility study…

We had our kick-off meeting on Thursday. It is great to see a community with so many champions for improving broadband. Of course there has been a lot of thought around broadband in the community but they seem specifically excited to now focus on the feasibility study.

Telecommunications Legislation from League of MN Cities

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The League of MN Cities does a great job of advocating for and educating Minnesota Cities. So when they post about how Broadband and Cable Franchising Developments May Impact Cities, I listen.

They posted on the latest broadband news – but that really means pointing folks to the latest Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force Report, which has been discussed here. (That’s not to minimize the impact of the benchmarks that the report sets!)

The LMC also gives an update on statewide cable franchising. I will borrow from their update…

The League has learned that Qwest, the national telecommunications service provider, is looking into seeking legislation to eliminate local franchising in favor of state franchising. Several city cable franchise administrators indicated that colleagues in other states that have reported this. Qwest officials apparently are especially interested in this legislative change as its merger with CenturyLink moves closer to final approval across the 14 states where Qwest is the major telecommunications service provider.

No legislation has yet been introduced in Minnesota to grant Qwest or any other company new statewide franchises to offer cable TV services. Still, local cable commissions and franchise administrators are reminding legislators that cities have supported competitive cable franchising at the local level and that state law already prohibits exclusive local cable TV franchises.

Last session, with the support of the League and the Minnesota Association of Community Telecommunications Administrators, the Legislature enacted a new law clarifying that cities are authorized to grant a competitive local franchise to a telecommunications service provider to serve customers in the area where the provider currently offers local phone services within the city—even if that service area is different than the one where the incumbent cable TV franchisee is operating. In addition, the League previously provided the Legislature with a list of at least 50 cities where two competitive cable franchisees offer video programming service.

There are about 600 cities in the state that already franchise cable service operators.

ICF Top Seven are Announced

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Last night the Intelligent Community Forum met in Hawaii to announce their Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year. I’ve talked a lot about the Intelligent Community Forum in the past. Their ICF approach is a lynchpin in Blandin Foundation’s Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities project. A quick blurb on the Top Seven from the ICF press release may serve as a quick reminder…

The ICF’s Top Seven are communities that provide a model of economic and social development in the 21st Century using information and communications technology to power growth, address social challenges and preserve and promote culture. The Top Seven announcement is the second stage of ICF’s annual Intelligent Community of the Year awards cycle.

Minnesota had one community (Dakota County) that made it to the ICF’s Smart 21 list; unfortunately no Minnesota communities made the shorter Top Seven list – but there are three US communities so that’s a good sign. Here is the list – with brief descriptions:

  • Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. In 1969, the US government cited Chattanooga as the city with America’s dirtiest air. In response, the City Council joined with local companies and physicians to create a pollution control board that led to $10m in private-sector air-quality investments. When heavy manufacturing declined in the 70’s and 80’s, the same spirit of partnership and the support of local foundations led to a decade of transformative downtown revitalization projects. To spark economic revival the business, academic and governmental leadership pressed forward on multiple fronts, such as higher standards for secondary education with integrated career training. The city-owned electric utility built a fiber network that will collect billions of data points and provide real-time management that will significantly boost the grid’s reliability and performance.
  • Dublin, Ohio, USA. In Dublin, the average resident is between 35 and 45 years of age and eighty percent have a university degree. A strategic planning exercise led Dublin (a 2010 Top Seven community) to install underground conduits to encourage fiber-optic deployment. This became DubLink, a public-private fiber network for business, government and schools, which spurred aggressive roll-out of e-government services from digital filing of taxes to Dublin TV online video channels. An all-Dublin wireless network has extended coverage to provide cost-saving service automation to the city and a platform for service providers to reach customers. Dublin also uses the availability of dark fiber to attract employers like OhioHealth and the Online Computer Library Center, and drives innovation in partnership with a nonprofit that has accelerated the growth of 50 local companies. The surge of entrepreneurship has created an economy in which, despite a number of very large companies, the average Dublin business employs just seven people.
  • Eindhoven, Netherlands. Eindhoven (a 2009 and 2010 Top Seven community) is a metro area containing the cities of Eindhoven, Helmond and Veldhoven, which has long been the industrial heart of the Netherlands. Recent decades have not been kind to manufacturing in developed nations, but Eindhoven has kept its edge through a model public-private program called “Brainport.” This has turned the region into an open innovation platform. Executing a strategy approved by its member organizations, Brainport works to identify their strengths, weaknesses, needs and gaps, then develops joint projects using ICT to meet social challenges, sharpen citizen skills and business competitiveness, and create business opportunities that keep the income in the region. This consistent effort has added 55,000 jobs to the economy in the past 10 years, lowered unemployment below the Dutch average in most years, nearly quadrupled high-tech start-ups since 2000, and helped the region weather the financial crisis.
  • Issy-les-Moulineaux, France. Issy-les-Moulineaux (a 2005, 2007 and 2009 Top Seven community) became the industrial zone of Paris in the 20th Century only to suffer de-industrialization in the post-war years. Beginning in 1980, a visionary mayor determined to make his city home to innovative, ICT-based companies employing a high-quality, knowledge-based workforce. His strategy focused on creating an ICT-centric ecosystem that leading-edge companies would find attractive. Issy implemented e-government, outsourced its IT requirements and worked with new telecom carriers in advance of liberalization to bring business and residents local choice in communications as soon as a new telecom law took effect in 1998. The strategy was a success with business, with 60% of employers now in ICT and digital media, and also with the public, an overwhelming majority of whom believe that the Internet has changed their lives for the better. With 1,500 employers providing 70,000 jobs today, Issy now has more career positions than residents.
  • Riverside, California, USA. Located 60 miles from Los Angeles and Palm Springs, Riverside is a bedroom community and university town, home to four colleges and universities. It is also an agricultural community and a warehousing and transportation hub. But none of these industries has provided Riverside with sustainable growth. Today, the city is building a tech-based economy that seizes the opportunities of the broadband revolution. A nonprofit, Smart Riverside, focuses on technology initiatives, and a CEO Forum of local tech companies has produced a plan for tech-based transformation. The community has partnered with its universities to develop tech parks, incubators, business accelerators and mentoring programs. Carriers have deployed fiber and wireless networks reaching 80% of the city. A $1.6 billion revitalization program begun in 2006 is improving traffic flow, replacing aging water, sewer and electric infrastructure, and improving police, fire, parks and libraries.
  • Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Since its founding as a mill town in the 1800s, Stratford has been a crossroads where agriculture, industry and culture meet. It has been the home to Canada’s largest furniture industry but also a railroad town and contributor to southern Ontario’s growth as a workshop of the automotive industry. Since 1952, it has also been home to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, the largest employer in town and generates C$135m in local economic activity. Stratford, however, has had to take major steps to create a 21st Century economy. A city-owned company has laid 60 km of optical fiber and used it as the backbone of a public WiFi network. The University of Waterloo has opened a Stratford campus offering a Masters of Business Entrepreneurship and Technology program. This has given rise to the Stratford Institute, a think tank focusing on digital media. Broadband and IT have also addressed the challenges of rural healthcare. Eighty percent of Stratford’s family physicians are on a broadband e-health portal for health records, administration and after-hours care, which has helped ease the region’s shortage of family practitioners.
  • Windsor-Essex, Ontario, Canada. Located directly across the river from the US automotive capital of Detroit, Windsor shares its pain. Automobile assembly, research and technology contribute C$30bn to the local economy but are in structural decline greatly accelerated by the current recession. Working in partnership with Essex County government, Windsor is crafting a new, more robust economy to take its place and avoid future pain. Assets include strong tourism and agriculture industries (including many wineries), the presence of the University of Windsor and national and provincial government support. A cooperative fiber network, WEDnet, meets the needs of governmental, institutional and educational facilities throughout the region and Windsor-Essex is partnering with other communities to extend broadband to people in underserved rural areas. Government has collaborated with business to create a software technology alliance to attract entrepreneurs, mentor existing businesses and share resources for growth.

Reading through the list it’s interesting to see how many communities used broadband as a bootstrap to pull themselves out of one situation or another. I think it’s heartening to see the impact that broadband can have on an economy that has hit or predicted a speed bump.

Some answers and predictions on the Qwest/Century Link Merger

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Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on the latest news on the Qwest-Century-Link merger. As you might imagine it has been a big part of their Q.Marketplace Meeting (the annual meeting for indirect sales agents who are part of Qwest’s Business Partner Program). Here’s the word on what they are hearing there…

Ancell [Chris Ancell, Qwest’s executive vice president of BMG] told Q.Marketplace attendees that the merger is on track to be completed in the first half as planned. He said, from a regulatory standpoint, approvals from four states and the FCC remain, but are expected within 90 days. From an operations standpoint, the two companies have been talking and planning for integration, going so far as to decide what people will have what roles in the combined company. Those decisions have been made in most divisions through the first three tiers of management with layers four, five and, in some cases, six yet to go.

Another update…

Stephanie Comfort, executive vice president and chief strategy officer for Qwest, said the acquisition was in large part about driving scale, but she also said each of the companies separately identified the same top three areas for growth: managed services/cloud services, video and wireless.

And some fast reported facts on the new company:

  • They will have revenue of $18.68 billion.
  • They will have 48,000 employees.
  • They will have 184,000 route miles of fiber.

Yet to be decided or at least announced is which brand will support the new business. It sounds as if they’ll use both for a while.

Redwood County looking at broadband

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It’s nice to see that the Minnesota Broadband Task Force reports continue to have an impact in the field. The Redwood Falls Gazette reports that Redwood County saw the results of the Minnesota Broadband report last year and didn’t like what they saw. They were listed as one of the 10 underserved counties in Minnesota. As the paper reports…

That was a position the county did not want to be in, especially as it looked for ways to improve its economic climate.

The availability of broadband is deemed a necessity in today’s economy, and being on the underserved end of the equation means people looking for a place to live, bring their business or expand are going to look someplace else.

They have decided to take a step toward better broadband. They will be working with Bill Coleman as part of the Blandin Foudnation’s Community Broadband Resources program. Bill will be working with Redwood Falls to create and lead a group to promote and facilitate broadband throughout the county.

Comcast must provide Internet-only option

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Thanks to Ann Higgins from League of Minnesota Cities for the heads up on the latest on the FCC’s draft approval of the Comcast/NBC Universal joint venture. Apparently…

The cable company will be required to deliver standalone Internet access for at least three years at a monthly base price of $49.95 and a minimum speed of 6 Mbps downstream.

So that’s good news for three years. The issue is affordable service after the three year period.

Updated on Sibley County FTTH – cities must decide

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Last week stakeholders in Sibley County met to discuss their next steps towards a community fiber network. Dave Peters from MPR’s Ground Level was there to report back. He described the project succinctly…

It’s an ambitious plan that would require the community to borrow $63 million and then pay off those bonds with revenue from the service. The county-owned operation would offer the usual cable-phone-Internet triple plays, and backers are promising that right out of the gate it would be at a speed of 20 megabits per second, upload and download. That’s quite a bit faster than what area residents get now via DSL or cable or wireless.

The stakeholders have until the end of February to decide whether they are in or out…

The next month or so will show how much buy-in there is. By the end of February, the 10 governments — Sibley and Renville counties and the cities of Gaylord, Arlington, Winthrop, Fairfax, Henderson, Gibbon, Green Isle and New Auburn — will each decide whether they want to create a joint powers board. Not all will have to opt in, but, Winthrop city administrator Mark Erickson noted that if Sibley County doesn’t join, it will be tough to continue to include all the farms in the project.

(The inclusion of neighboring farms has been an issue in the past.)

The next step would be a market research survey – asking every house and business if they would be interested in fiber. That sort of buy in is required to make the project financially feasible, they have determined. Also it primes the pump for getting the super majority required for a referendum to allow the community network for provide telephone services.

Regular readers will know that the super majority (65%) required has been a sticking point for communities in the past. It is an old law but until passed a community can provide data and video services – but not telephone. In a world where customers want the triple play (voice, video, data) missing one piece can be the difference between success and failure.

After that they may be looking at $63 million in bonding.

So we might say the process sounds more like a modem connecting than the whirr of fiber – but it’s going. Frontier Communications, which provides some service in Sibley, feels that their plans are ambitious. I suspect that we may hear more from them as the project gets to the market survey and telecommunications referendum stages.

But the good news as Dave Peters puts it in we’re inching forward.