Comments for Blandin on Broadband

Comment on What Lake County Residents are Seeing by Christopher Mitchell (@communitynets)

Christopher Mitchell (@communitynets) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:49:01 +0000

This is nothing more than cable companies trying to disrupt a project that will connect many rural communities. The cable companies aren’t interested in taking their old infrastructure to provide access across the county and don’t want the County to build modern networks because the cable companies would actually have to invest in modern connections in the towns they presently monopolize.

These companies have become complacent due to lack of competition and now they fear it, even though their advantages of scale and secrecy (they don’t have to publish their budgets) still give them an advantage over the county.

The private sector will not connect Lake County with a modern network anytime soon and won’t provide competition in the towns that have cable. If the County wants to do it, let them.

Comment on Computer Refurbishing bus to tour rural Minnesota by Ann Treacy

Ann Treacy — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:18:29 +0000

Just wanted to post a quick update on the tour from PCs for People…

Right now, we are planning a Fairmont distribution on February 17th and a distribution event in Alexandria on March 3rd. After these, we are targeting Marshall for a mid-March date and Crookston and/or Cambridge soon after depending on how quickly we can source computers.

Comment on Coops get a nod for advancing broadband in rural areas by Ann Treacy

Ann Treacy — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:26:51 +0000

Ben,

Wow! That is nice service. I’m very jealous. I think there are some serious opportunities for rural areas that want to step ahead of other communities (rural, suburban and urban) to become *the* place to relocate a business or draw from for a remote workforce.

Good, smart people, reasonably priced real estate and genuine, ultra-fast broadband. Sounds like a recipe for success to me.

Thanks! Ann

Comment on Coops get a nod for advancing broadband in rural areas by Ben Winchester

Ben Winchester — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:17:26 +0000

Thanks for the Article highlight Federated in Morris. I just jumped ship from my cable provider, as Federated came out with a standard 20meg internet downstream AND upstream (synchronous) in January. From my small town of Hancock I am getting speeds I though you had to be in South Korea to get!

Comment on Coops get a nod for advancing broadband in rural areas by Ann Treacy

Ann Treacy — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 23:45:38 +0000

Chris,

The B4RN site is very interesting. Who is spearheading it? Is it a local government entity or an ad hoc group of farmers? I really like the idea of getting the stakeholders to invest early and get involved with labor when helpful/reasonable?

I’d love to learn more. Thx! Ann

Comment on Coops get a nod for advancing broadband in rural areas by chrisconder

chrisconder — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:13:33 +0000

Yup, same thing happening in the UK, farmers are JFDI for themselves. Google B4RN if you want to know more. They are breaking the chains from the monopoly that is throttling the country and building their own networks.
Power to the People.
chris

Comment on Up to 1000 Mbps broadband available in Lakefield by Ann Treacy

Ann Treacy — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:10:26 +0000

Henry,

I went to the source (John Schultz of U-reka Broadband, http://u-rekabroadband.com/ an early project partner on the SMBS project) for more info. Here’s his response…

“Henry is right, but the 1000 Mbps is important to those Anchor Institution customers who really need that type of WLAN connectivity.

The good news on the residential and small business side is that we have the infrastructure in place when the “Internet” catches up to these last mile networks.”

Thx! Ann

Comment on Up to 1000 Mbps broadband available in Lakefield by Henry A. Mckelvey

Henry A. Mckelvey — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:16:40 +0000

1000Mbps is great, but is that on network or off network? I ask because if on network the ISP can supply content such as IPTV, Streaming Video on Demand and other on-net features. If off network then it becomes a waste of bandwidth because there is very little out there to serve content at that speed. With 50Mbps most people are doing ok as far as Internet use. In any event enjoy.

Comment on SW Minnesota: the Ups & Downs of ARRA by Ann Treacy

Ann Treacy — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:53:22 +0000

John – thanks for the update! I hope that they are able to regroup and create a plan that will work.

Comment on SW Minnesota: the Ups & Downs of ARRA by JC

JC — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:33:41 +0000

I did speak to somebody with Woodstock TelCo. Their roadblocks are the same as many other similar projects. Its not lights out yet, simply a prudent re-assessment of costs. There’s a lot of wide open spaces out here to fill the gap.