Blandin on Broadband

Update on Sibley County FTTH feasibility study

Ann Treacy — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:23:32 +0000

Thanks to Chris Mitchell (from the Institute for Local Self Reliance) for the detailed update on Sibley County’s feasibility study. (Blandin Foundation is helping Sibley County with a grant to perform their feasibility study.)

According to Chris, there are public meetings happening throughout the area to discuss the potential project. Chris picked up on a couple of themes at the meetings. First – the conflict between serving a whole community and serving the most potentially profitable areas of a community. In rural areas that often means deciding whether or not to serve farms and homes outside city limits…

Winthrop’s City Administrator, Mark Erickson, is committed to serving the farms though. There is little doubt that the project could succeed financially by serving only the towns, which harbor some 80% of the population. But Erickson recognizes that the towns depend on the farmers and that everyone will benefit more from the network if it is universally available.

Chris also points out…

A common theme across all these networks is that the cities really do not want to get involved but are compelled to take responsibility because they have no future without broadband. Economic development and quality of life are very much linked to broadband access

It sounds as if the feasibility study should be completed in early fall.

More on Carver County’s ARRA-funded broadband project

Ann Treacy — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 22:51:04 +0000

A couple of weeks ago, Carver County got the good word on their ARRA application. Here’s a quick reminder on their project…

Carver County – This nearly $6 million award will allow the County of Carver to offer affordable middle-mile broadband service in south central Minnesota. The project plans to connect schools, libraries, and community colleges, including the Waconia Library and the South Metro campus of the Dunwoody College of Technology, to improve educational services, distance learning, and remote teaching. The project also proposes to construct 121 miles of new fiber that will be open to as many as nine last-mile providers in the region in order to improve commercial broadband availability and adoption. As many as 57,600 people stand to benefit as do 2,700 businesses.

The Sun Patriot recently provided more information on Carver County and their plans…

“The grant means we can leverage local funding to build a much needed fiber ring for county government and then use federal funds to add connections to the ring to benefit the greatest possible number of other public entities,” [Carver County Board Chair James] Ische said. “In addition, the redundant ring makes it possible for the private sector to offer last-mile broadband service to residents and businesses throughout the county. Even those in the rural areas will have access and be able to reap the benefits of high-speed broadband services.”

The fiber ring will be nearly 89 miles long, run directly through every city in the county, and have an additional 32 miles in lateral connections. The 121 miles of new fiber will be open to as many as nine private last-mile providers in the region to improve commercial broadband availability and adoption. Instead of connecting nine sites as it was originally proposed, the fiber ring will initially connect to 55 sites that represent 86 “anchor institutions.”

Referred to as the Carver County Open Fiber Initiative (CCOFI), the anchor institutions represent a far-reaching collection of city, county and township governments, schools, fire departments, public safety towers, law enforcement agencies, community support organizations, and healthcare providers. All six school districts with buildings in Carver County will be connected to the ring through connections to a total of 28 public school buildings. The public will be able to access high-speed Internet at all six county libraries and at the Workforce Service Center.

Carver County will own the ring and will manage and support the fiber network deployed to the other public anchor institutions. The county will not support private sector businesses or residents who connect to the ring. That will be left up to the private companies. They will have equal opportunity to deploy last-mile infrastructure to the ring and provide network management to private businesses and residents.

FCC looks at International Broadband Stats

Ann Treacy — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:27:49 +0000

The FCC recently released their inaugural International Broadband Data Report. It’s concise snapshot of where broadband stands in a wide range of countries. I’ve pulled out the bare bones facts – access, subscriptions, future speeds goals and brief notes on their national strategies – but the report includes a great deal more – including detailed information on providers in each country and their offerings, status of regulations and competition, as well as topography. (Someone at the Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force last week mentioned the need to look at topography when comparing International broadband stats!)

The one thing the report doesn’t include is US numbers! So I’ve added US numbers from the Strategy Analytics: Global Household Broadband Penetration Rankings (2008) as found in the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Recommendations (pg 43).

	% Households with broadband[i]	Subscriptions per 100 people	Speed Goal	National Strategy
Australia	52	25	100 Mbps to 90% by 2018 12 Mbps to remaining 10%	In 2009, created a company to create national, wholesale FTTP.
Austria	54	22		In 2008, assessed gaps and opportunities.
Belgium	60	38		In 2009, plans for mapping, regulation, tax incentives, public-private partnerships
Bulgaria	15	28		In 2009, plan to invest in smaller towns and build public-private partnerships
Canada	88	30		In 2009, invested in developing plan for rural areas and invested in rural projects
Chile	28	8		In 2008, invest government subsidies to reach rural areas.
Cyprus	33	12	Ubiquity	Focusing on providing terrestrial wireless or satellite connections to rural communities
Czech Republic	36	18	50% adoption by 2010
Denmark	74	37	512 kbps to all by 2010	In 2001, decided on a market-based approach, ensuring that regulations are technology-neutral and using egovernment services as “drivers” to broadband.
Estonia	54	24	Ubiquity by 2015	Create a 4,125 mile fiber-optic cable network offering speeds of up to 100 Mbps with a public-private partnership.
Finland	66	30	1 Mbps to all by 2010 100 Mbps to all by 2015	In 2009, made broadband connectivity a fundamental right for every person in the country
France	57	29	Ubiquity by 2010	In 2008, deputized “universal broadband providers” to promote ubiquity and public-private FTTP.
Germany	55	29	1 Mbps to all by 2010 50 Mbps to 75% by 2014	In 2009, plan to offer short and long term financial incentives to providers. Also reallocating spectrum.
Greece	22	17		In 2009, public-private partnership to build a national fiber-optic network to Athens and 50 other cities with speeds of up to 100 Mbps for nearly 650,000 users by the end of 2010 and to be expanded to over 2 million households over the next seven years
Hong Kong	70	28		Starting in1998, vision of building on Hong Kong’s position as a “world digital city.”
Hungary	42	17		In 2005, spread of broadband communication in the private and public sectors.
Iceland	83	33		In 2004, set targets for e-government, e-business, education, environment, security, health care and social services
Ireland	43[1]	21		In 2009, creates public-private partnership to provide to unserved areas 1.2 Mbps and a minimum upload speed of 200 kpbs
Italy	31	20	2 Mbps for all by 2010	In 2006, announced public-private partnership plan.
Japan	58	24		In 2006, released roadmap for a comprehensive review of its competition rules.
Korea	73	32	1 Gbps for all by 2012	In 2006, had plan for ubiquitous 1 Mbps, upgraded to 1 Gbps in 2009.
Latvia	40	6		In 2005, 2005, started using state and EU to cover up to 35% of the total costs for the expansion of broadband in rural areas.
Lithuania	43	18	Broadband to 98% of SME by 2010	In 2002, planned a non-profit organization, to develop rural broadband access and training
Luxembourg	61	31
Malta	55	24	Broadband to 80 percent by 2010	In 2008, goals included access, 75% digital literacy and 101 broadband access centers throughout Malta.
Netherlands	74	38		In 2002, established independent national platform for the provision of aid and incentives to the social sectors for the “better and smarter” use of broadband.
Norway	73	35
Poland	38	11	Broadband to 90% by 2013 Broadband to all businesses by 2013	In 2009, announced plans to direct $397 million for broadband expansion
Portugal	39	17		In 2009, announced an US$1.1 billion credit line for the rollout of next-generation broadband networks in the country.
Romania	13	12		In 2009, called for the installation of 500 hotspots all over the country.
Singapore	86	22	1 Gbps to all by 2012	In 2006, began deploying a seamless next generation broadband network with both a wireline and a wireless part.
Slovakia	35	13		In 2004, set broadband goals including legislative changes, efficient use of spectrum, completing a digital television transition by 2012
Slovenia	50	21		In 2007, committed the government of Slovenia to an investment of $20.4 million in 2009
Spain	45	21	1 Mbps to all by 2011	In 2009, announced that Spanish citizens will have a legal right starting in 2011 to buy broadband Internet service of at least 1 Mbps at a regulated price wherever they live.
Sweden	71	36	100 Mbps to 40% by 2015 100 Mbps to all by 2020
Taiwan	66	22	Ubiquity	In 2005, offered computer equipment and Internet access to households in rural and mountainous areas and established “digital opportunity centers” in 168 rural townships
United Kingdom	62	29	2 Mbps to all by 2012.	Ofcom has also worked to encourage investment and competition in “super-fast broadband.
United States	60		100 Mbps (50 Mbps up) to 100 million homes by 2020 4 Mbps to all by 2020

[1] Percent of broadband by household wasn’t available for Ireland; this rate is actually access per 100 people.

[i]The report seems to recognize the recent upgraded definition of broadband as actual download (i.e., to the customer) speeds of at least 4 Mbps and actual upload (i.e., from the customer) speeds of at least 1 Mbps.

New wireless provider coming to Minneapolis

Ann Treacy — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:53:48 +0000

I don’t have a ton of info on this but according to the Minneapolis St Paul Business Journal…

LightSquared, a high-speed wireless broadband startup backed by hedge fund Harbinger Capital, expects to expand its network into Minneapolis next year.

According to the LightSquared web site…

LightSquared is a new nationwide 4G-LTE open wireless broadband network that will use a unique combination of satellite and terrestrial technology to revolutionize wireless communications in the United States. As the country’s first wholesale-only wireless broadband network, LightSquared will provide broadband wireless capacity to a diverse group of partners, including retailers; wireline and wireless communication service providers; cable operators; device manufacturers; web players; content providers; and many others.

Mobile computer lab in Lac qui Parle

Bill Coleman — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 22:10:54 +0000

Last week, I was fortunate to participate in the ribbon cutting for the Lac qui Parle Computer Commuter mobile computer lab. There was a great crowd to tour the bus and try the new laptops before listening to the presentations, highlighted by Congressman Collin Peterson, chair of the House Agriculture Committee.

Pam Lehmann, EDA Coordinator, thanked all of the project partners, including Blandin Foundation which provided financial support in addition to that provided by the TDF Foundation of Washington DC. The project leaders will establish a schedule for the mobile lab with regular stops in at least six communities around the county. Mary Quick, the Computer Community coordinator will provide computer classes and one to one assistance to anyone who wants help in learning how to use the computers.

MN ARRA broadband awards so far

Ann Treacy — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:38:56 +0000

There are two more rounds of ARRA broadband to be announced – one is scheduled for next week, the next the end of September. In the meantime I’ve gathered a list of the Minnesota-based and Minnesota-touched awards announced so far. I’ve included brief descriptions of each project. I thought I’d share it as a cheat sheet we could all use.

I’ll paste the table of info below – but I know tables and blogs don’t’ always mix – so there’s a prettier version in Word too.

Grantee	Amount	Description
Infrastructure Projects:
Arvig Telephone Company	$5,048,168	Bring high speed DSL service to unserved establishments within its rural service territory in Crow Wing County, MN.
Carver County	$6,000,000	Affordable middle-mile broadband service in south central Minnesota to connect schools, libraries, and community colleges.
City of Windom	$12,800,000	SWMBG will build FTTP (Fiber to the Premise) infrastructure to eight rural communities in Southwestern Minnesota.
Enventis Telecom	$16,800,000	Affordable middle-mile broadband service in Minnesota by connecting 70 community institutions to broadband, including connecting the Mayo Clinic to 12 rural health care facilities in southern Minnesota.
Farmers Mutual Telephone Company	$9,652,956	Bring FTTP technology to Lac qui Parle County.
Federated Telephone Cooperative	$1,300,000	Build a FTTP system to deploy voice, video, and data services to rural Appleton, Minnesota.
Federated Telephone Cooperative.	$2,987,000	Bring a FTTP voice, video, and data network to the Rural Morris, Minnesota exchange.
Halstad Telephone Company	$6,555,000	Install FTTP to 1,069 underserved locations in 5 towns and surrounding rural/farm areas in Norman and Polk Counties in Minnesota
Minnesota Valley Television Improvement Corporation	$1,125,552	Continue building out its broadband internet network to unserved and underserved areas of west central and south central Minnesota.
Northeast Service Cooperative	$43,498,220	The Northeast Service Cooperative, in partnership with state and local agencies, schools and health care organizations, will implement a middle mile project to make dark fiber, wavelength services available to private sector providers in rural areas of northeast Minnesota.
Sjoberg’s, Inc.	$866,000	FTTP in Roseau, Thief River Falls, and the hamlet of Fox, serving approximately 656 people stand to benefit, as do roughly 15 businesses and 3 community institutions
Wikstrom Telephone Company, Incorporated	$7,398,600	Deploy FTTP in 6 communities in Kittson, Marshall and Roseau Counties.
Winnebago Cooperative Telecom Association	$3,100,000 *Winnebago received $19.6 million but only 16% will go MN	Expand the existing portions of its fiber network by providing FTTP to rural portions of about 21 communities in Iowa and Minnesota.
Woodstock Telephone Co Inc	$15,184,424	Expand its fiber network into neighboring rural communities by providing FTTP in 15 communities located within 3 counties in Southwest Minnesota.
Zayo Bandwidth, LLC	$13,382,593	The Connect Anoka County Community Broadband Network will make high-speed broadband services available to governments, businesses, community anchor institutions, and local Internet service providers in Anoka County and parts of Isanti and Ramsey Counties
15 Projects	$145,698,513
Public Computer Center Projects:
Leech Lake Reservation Business Committee	$1,722,371	Create seven new public computer centers and upgrade 10 existing facilities on three Ojibwe and Chippewa Indian reservations in Minnesota. They will provide training and support to youth, parents and small businesses.
Regents of the University of Minnesota	$2,862,333	Establish one new public computer center and improve 10 existing computer centers in Minneapolis and St Paul. They will offer computer and workforce training to vulnerable populations, including African-Americans and Hmong and Somali immigrants.
Broadband Adoption Programs:
C.K. Blandin Foundation	$4,858,219	Blandin Foundation and partners will bring a network of resources and support to rural Minnesota individuals and communities – especially those unemployed and seeking employment, small businesses, coalitions of government entities, and local leaders.
3 Projects	$9,442,923	.

Multi-State Projects with a presence in Minnesota
Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc.	$14,988,657	Discounted broadband services and specialized computers, online technology training, public access to videophones at anchor institutions for the deaf and hearing impaired community. The project is primary based in South Dakota.
Connected Nation, Inc.	$1,700,000	Expand existing broadband maps to reach more providers, give information at a more detailed level, and investigate broadband adoption in Minnesota
Merit Network	$69,639,291	Develop 1172 miles of middle mile fiber to serve anchors, public safety, homes and businesses in the Upper Peninsula and Northern Lower Peninsula. Paths out of the region will reach the Duluth area
Mission Economic Development Agency	$3,724,128	The Latino Microenterprise Tech Net will create a public computer center in Minneapolis, where they will offer computer training and adult basic education in English and Spanish.
One Economy Corporation	$28,519,482	Publishes a portal of Twin Cities and national resources focusing on jobs, school, housing, money and health. Their Digital Connectors program will bring a mentor/community service project to the Twin Cities where youth will learn about broadband and pass on their knowledge to the community
University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development*	$62,540,162	Create an ultra-fast national network to colleges, universities, libraries, health care facilities and public safety entities, including some based in Minnesota
6 Projects	$181,111,720
Total:
23 Projects	$336,253,156

Social Media, not just for kids anymore

Ann Treacy — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:29:30 +0000

According to Pew Internet & American Life…

Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older has nearly doubled—from 22% to 42% over the past year.

Consistently reports are showing that age is a factor in broadband adoption – so it’s exciting to see any increase in use in that demographic. Although just as the definition of broadband is important – so is the definition of age. Lots of readers might not think of 50 as a cut off for old, older or elderly. Still it’s nice to see the increase. Here’s Pew’s take on it…

However, even though older adults may be among the most resistant to broadband, there is evidence that once these users get a taste of high-speed access, they often come to rely on the internet as an everyday utility in their lives. While the rates of broadband adoption among the oldest users are low, the frequency of use among those who do have high-speed access is relatively close to the usage levels of younger users.

And here are some of the other quick numbers from the report that were interesting…

Half (47%) of internet users ages 50-64 and one in four (26%) users age 65 and older now use social networking sites.

One in ten (11%) online adults ages 50-64 and one in twenty (5%) online adults ages 65 and older now say they use Twitter or another service to share updates about themselves or see updates about others.

Email and online news are still more appealing to older users, but social media sites attract many repeat visitors.

Or in the spirit of promoting social media, here’s the latest version of Social Media Revolution 2. Thanks to John Shepard for the heads up on the latest iteration. I posted the original clip last winter; it was fun to see the updates and advanced adoption since then.

Lake County update on network plans

Ann Treacy — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 20:02:55 +0000

There’s good news and bad news is Lake County. The bad news is that they still haven’t received ARRA broadband funding. The good news is that they’re still in the hopper.

According to the Lake County News-Chronicle, they remain optimistic…

“I don’t look at it as a rejection,” said Paul Bergman, Lake County commissioner. “There’s still money left. Somebody has to be the last project funded.”

The quick description of their project is…

The county broadband project is expected to cost $70 million and would bring service to every home in Lake and parts of St. Louis County currently served with electric service. The “last-mile” project, meaning service to homes from a central system, is what much of the federal money is tied to.

If the ARRA funding doesn’t work out, municipal financing through revenue bonds may be an option. As the article points out, there will be some improvements in the areas through another ARRA-funded project…

The Northeast Service Cooperative is in the engineering phase of the project to bring broadband to agencies such as medical facilities, counties and schools throughout northeastern Minnesota.

But we keep our fingers crossed for Lake County and the other Minnesota projects waiting to hear the good word.

More info on ARRA awardee Woodstock Telephone

Ann Treacy — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:53:04 +0000

I have a few local Minnesota broadband stories to share this afternoon. I thought about grouping them – but I know it’s easier for folks to find them later if I keep it to one topic per post. I hope folks won’t mind the overload on a Friday afternoon.

First – thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on a recent article about Woodstock Telephone. I didn’t know much about them except that they were awarded $15 million in ARRA funding earlier this month and I welcomed the opportunity to learn more.

The article is really more of a case study written by Tellabs, which provides the Multiservice Access Platform (MSAP) that allows Woodstock to take fiber all the way to customers’ desktops. If you are interested in technical details – this case study is for you. But even if you aren’t interested in the nitty gritty the study paints of picture of what it’s like to be or have a small independent broadband provider…

Woodstock Telephone Co., where Knuth is owner and president, decided that FTTH was essential for staying ahead of both his customers’ bandwidth needs and the competition. With 1,300 access lines serving an operating territory of 450 square miles in southwestern Minnesota, the independent operating company provides Internet and voice services to subscribers in 5 neighboring communities and the surrounding rural areas.

Knuth said many of his customers are farmers who use the Internet for applications such as checking commodity prices, buying equipment, plowing their fields along GPSdefined grids and using software to measure crop yields in real time.

So it sounds as if the upgrade has been done like patchwork over the last few years. They upgrade when replacements are required. They upgrade equipment on a more planned basis – but as they could, including a few miles of fiber with each upgrade.

They ARRA grant will help them be more organized, systematic and obviously quicker with their upgrade. Their plan (taken from the ARRA award announcement) is…

Woodstock Telephone Company will use this more than $15.1 million award to expand its fiber network into neighboring rural communities by providing Fiber-to-the-Premise (FTTP) for over 3600 premises in 15 communities located within 3 counties in Southwest Minnesota. This expanded fiber network will provide bandwidth of over 20megabytes per second for advanced voice and data services. More than 8,000 people stand to benefit, as do approximately 180 businesses and nearly 50 community institutions. In addition to the jobs this project will create upfront, it will help drive economic development and create jobs for decades to come.

Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force Meeting August 26 – full notes

Ann Treacy — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:03:40 +0000

It felt like the first day or school today for the Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force at their first meeting since being appointed a week ago. There were a couple of sophomores who were there to help lead the pack – but otherwise it was freshman orientation. Introductions went well, there was some discussion of rules (open meeting et al), the outgoing class president had some suggestions, they worked our some logistics (next meeting is September 23) and then they talked about what they needed to do to get a passing grade (meet the Legislative objections for an annual report) and what they could do for an A.

I tried to take full notes and have posted them pretty mush asis below.

Commissioner Glenn Wilson started -
We are hoping that you will help meet the goals of the legislature, which is fairly general, please also will focus on ways to help meet those goals. How can we have an impact on how we can improve? And remember the goals are minimums.

Help us draw consensus – help think more broadly so that we have good coverage.

Introductions:
Joanne Johnson – With Frontier for 10 years, before that Onvoy, before that Collin Peterson handling telecommunications issues. I learned a lot about rural constituencies. Our territory is some metro, southern suburbs around Burnsville, otherwise 58 exchanges throughout the state, in nearly every county. Hope to learn where the broadband gaps are. Then we can find out why they’re there. There will be different reasons.

Peter Lindstrom – Two hats: one is VP of Public Affairs with MHTA. The other Mayor of Falcon Heights. Looking forward to being able to answer a question that came up at the recent meeting with Sen Klobuchar. If you were Glinda the Good Witch and make bb happen what would you do?

Pete Royer – Little Crow Telemeida Network K12 networks in rural areas. We have a wide base of schools. Been dealing with technology here since 1989. We were set up to teach classes over video; we still have several foreign language classes online.

We’ve been dealing with broadband since 1987. Our network is currently a Gig between campuses and 70 Mbps Internet connections for the school districts.

John Schultz – U-reka Broadband we do work with strategic planning and implementation of broadband networks. We had $35 million in ARRA funding for successful programs in MN and Western WI. We work with Windom, Troy WI, and Lac qui Parle. Have a Public Computer Center grant with Northern Tribal Communities.

Have worked at all levels in telephone, TV, telecommunications in the area. My interest is in building network access. I am interested in the 6 percent that are not served. There are ways that cities and providers can work together.

Andy Schriner – Director of Public Affairs for Qwest. Worked for West Publishing. Primary interest is reaching the 6 percent and how can we build demand for broadband. We need to reach out to low income communities, which don’t seem to adopt.

Lois Langer Thompson – Director of Hennepin County Library. Started as a children’s librarian. We have 1700 computers with Internet access. My interest is in how we can partner. We need work together (public and private).

Shirley Walz – work at Thomson Reuters, started when it was West Publishing. Interest in broadband goes back to 2006 while working with a MHTA committee. During that time I spoke with a lot of people. Got further in involved with the last Task Force. I too am interested adoption and the final 6 percent. I teach community education at Woodbury and Cottage Grove. The classes are always full. Folks are interest in email. Can’t get broadband at home in Hastings (5 miles outside city limits).

Bob Bass – President of AT&T in Minnesota. New to Minnesota: 12 years in AT&T but 2 years in MN. Also worked for State of Nevada. Has climbed poles, done sales – pretty much everything in the industry. We’re focusing wireless in MN. It will take a combination of technologies to reach the final 6 percent. We’re watching the 3G evolution.

Brent Christensen – on the last Task Force. I want to see us continue where the last TF left. I’m president of MN Telecom Alliance (MTA). Was the GM of Christensen Communications. I have a tech background. My night job is the Medelia School Broadband and involved with economic development in Medelia. We’ve starting an online school this fall.

Mike Martin – ED of MNCAA for 25 years. There are 25 businesses serving 600 communities with cable and other services. The regulatory picture for different providers (telecom, cable) is getting blurrier and blurrier. In fact some MTA members are also MCCA members. I’m an active board member at a camp up near BWCA. Our focus is reaching the final 6 percent. We never had this problem with video. Also interested in studies brought up by the Task Force.

Cindy Kevern — Director of information services for Anoka County. Worked for county government for 30 years; worked in IT for more than 20 years. We worry about connectivity between buildings. And I realized that if we can’t get broadband between buildings, then what are residents? When working on ARRA grant we learned that folks would not choose Anoka again because of the poor connectivity. The 6 percent isn’t all rural. We need to come up with solutions.

Todd Kruse – Grew up in Iowa. Worked in politics. Then worked for Frontier working in government –corporate relations. In 1998, I left to join a business focused on corporate public affairs. Now I represent consumers. Spent a lot of time in Europe. Moved back to MN in 2004 and set up my own consulting. We have software tool and sell it via Go-To-Meeting. At night I write a weekly column and teach in MNSCU. We have a system called D2L (Desire to Learn), which his out online teaching program. I teach a blended class. Live in IGH.

David Lind – born and raised in MN. I represent healthcare organizations. We are lucky to have great healthcare companies. Spent 30 years managing technology in 5 different industries. There are solutions that are accessible. We can look at where we were, are and need to go. The day of the e-visit is here. The gating factor to telemedicine is the network. As demands continue to increase (such as digital imaging) we have to re-architected our network and are working on Healthcare w/o Boundaries – any access, anywhere, anytime, any device. Lake cabin in Northern MN. I’m looking forward to 4G.

Mike Reardon – work for City of St Paul, been in government entire career. I work closely with Comcast. I am representing MACTA. I represent municipal perspective. There’s a lot of meat in the original TF report. It will be nice to work to get this going. Affordability is a big issue.

Ken Wolf, vice-chair – Worked at Control Data from 1960-1988. I saw their rise and got downsized. In 19764-80 we had a network of computers around the world. The all fed data into a central computer in Bloomington – for monthly financial reports. Was a City Councilmember in Burnsville. Was in House of Reps from 1993-2003. Worked at the Department of Commerce but job shifted to MN PUC. Now retired and saw this opportunity. We are blessed here because so many people can change providers.

Lisa (on the phone) is with Connected Nation will be helping to get numbers together.

Other attendees: Ann Higgins, Diane Wells, Alberto Quintela

Rick King – Advice for the new Task Force

Legislators were supporters and they are interested. It’s gotten more heated and more to the foreground.

What we did –

Pre-work – we started a group to look at broadband in 2004. We started thinking about the State in 2006.
Law April 2008
TF started in August 2008
Comprehensive report came out in November 2009
Legislative Action happened in April 2010
- State goals were set
- Annual Report requested
- On-going council created

The Legislature members are interested in this. Cultivating interest with Legislators will be helpful. There will be changes after the election

How we did it

23 diverse people met 18 times for a full day over 16 months
The art of the possible
Agreed to without dissention or votes (we worked on agreement, not votes)
Listening and collaborative spirit developed
Took the show on the road

We looked for commonalities, not differences and that helped. We found that there were many intersections of agreements. Then we could sand down some of the sharp differences. Some differences we found weren’t worth the time and some were just too big to handle – but we could agree on a lot.

What we learned

You can do things by consensus
Trust is key
Partnerships
Early values work helped
Social time (meals and drinks)
Where there is a will (and declared direction), there is a way
Lobbyist and media help

Partnership is the model. The industries have spent $8 billion on broadband in MN; compared to millions spent from ARRA. We can’t forget about the partners who have already invested. That’s how we got to 94 percent coverage – not 80.

The value work we did at the onset did frustrate some people at the beginning – but it was valuable.

Lobbyists are like staff to leadership because they don’t have staff. Many people in the room have good contacts and you may need to exercise those contacts. Broadband is a big issues lately with the FCC visits, editorials in the papers.

Make sure you think about the new Task Force vs the return members. There may be items you want to revisit. For the returners – you have to be open to the new voices. For the new folks – you may have to listen to the voices that have been there.

Questions

How much did politics play into the process? (Say for example with Connected Nation.)

There wasn’t much political influence on the TF members or report. The Legislative Chairs and Governor wanted to hear what we had to say. There were some issues having business folks dealing with government rules – such as open meeting and data practices. Not that there were problems – but it is a different set of rules.

The State had Connected Nation do mapping. Then there was more money and the State again selected Connected Nation as a potential partner although they could have selected a Minnesota-based partner. The Task Force was not involved. It’s wasn’t in the charter and so we didn’t do it. We spoke about some of the ARRA applications but we recognized that chiming in on the ARRA applications wasn’t our job. The State (and the Task Force) was happy with their experience with Connected Nation. Connected Nation data isn’t perfect – but it’s the best we have.

Who is Connected Nation?

They provide broadband maps to States. The providers give their data to CN and CN uses the info in aggregate to build maps. They also had residents do speed tests.

There were attempts to bring in politics to the Task Force but we focused on the mission.

What is Lisa’s roll? (Lisa was on the phone from Connected Nation.)

Lisa Araya(?) will be working with State of MN on mapping project. We will speak more at future meetings. We want to be able to support your efforts moving forward. I don’t live in MN but will be in the state at future meetings. There will be a Minnesotan resident on the project soon.

There is more money coming in via NTIA and we are hoping to hire someone through Connected Nation that will be able to work with the Task Force.

BREAK

Logistics – Discussion of Report

[Ann's note: these are pretty stream of consciousness - I tried to follow as best I could. Roughly each line represents a change in speaker. ]

Don’t we have very specific charges? We’re advising commissioner on report. So job one is the benchmarking.

Connected Nation: One of us will be at the next meeting. And we will be able to share information.

We have a change in Administration so that may complicate matters – but we can still ask the Commissioner what he wants. Our lives are made easier by the fact that Connected Nation is responsible for statistics. But the legislature calls for “the task force shall, by Jan 1 of each year issue a status report to the commissioner or commerce on the attainment of the Minnesota broadband goals and recommendations for achieving these goals.”

Shirley will be able to gather statistics for the Task Force using resources used before – that will help us keep consistent.

Our goal is top 5 or top 15 – it would be nice to have consensus on where we stand and where we are going.

How did we come up with top 15 in nation?

There was a lot of talk about how Minnesota doesn’t just compete with Wisconsin anymore – we also compete with Germany. So while MN isn’t a nation, it does make sense to compare ourselves with international standing.

The charge is to report on goals that are met – but it’s not just statistics. We should go beyond that. The Commissioner seems hopeful that we will go beyond the goals.

We will create a list of the types of topics we want to investigate – the Commissioner can choose what he wants for the official report – and we can decide about what else we want to pursue.

One thing we could do is track the $140 million coming to MN through ARRA – when they money comes in. We could get information on Blandin’s project. Bernadine mentioned that 75 percent of homes have computers; and of those 91 percent have access. We should get that report. [Ann’s note: that report isn’t out quite yet.]

It would be nice to get data from previous reports. There’s room for growth with the folks who don’t have computers. Age and income have been big determiners in whether folks have computers.

Why do we care of people take advantage of broadband?

There’s a sociological group of Tech-Nos, folks who knowingly opt out of using technology. One father spent 40 years in telecommunications – but he opts not to get online.

Iin terms of adoption, I wonder what the demographics are.

Minnesota is 14th or 23 for Internet/broadband use. Some folks think that if we had access, we would use it. But some folks believe that people are choosing not to get online. We need to know why we’re ranking lower – is it because we don’t have access or is it because we don’t it or is it because we don’t know how to use it?

You could grow adoption by simply offer training and being available for questions. It will drive adoption.

What is the goal of the legislature? I thought it was economic competitiveness? That’s clear cut. If the goal is social engineering – that’s another issue. If we’re talking accessibility then 100 percent is good. But if we’re talking about getting computers to folks – that’s different.

We need to go back to the report – it asserts that the ranking show that we are competitive – when it comes to telemedicine. We don’t want to force folks to do what they don’t’ want to do – We want to remove barriers.

So maybe we need to skim off the Tech-Nos from our numbers or goals.

There’s a class of folks who don’t want to pay for broadband. One barrier is that it’s too hard to transition from dialup to broadband if you are not tech savvy.

To be a successful citizen you need to be online: to become a citizen, to get a job, to file for unemployment you need to get online. We need to move and transition folks to understanding how/why to use a computer.

Our goals talk only about accessibility – not adoption. Actually the OECD goal is ranking 15th addresses penetration.

We spoke a lot about speed vs adoption but ubiquity became a top goal with the TF overall.

Speed can correlate – but it can be driven by wanting faster speeds with increased adoption.

1994 the state of MN had one Internet connection, a 56K to Chicago; 16 years later look at us.

In the 1990’s that schools needed more than one computer. But schools then thought that a computer lab would solve everything – but really as Randy Young noted back then “if you have a bad school and put computers in it, you still have a bad school.”

We may need to look at the 6 percent – that’s using an old definition. We might need to understand why folks are happy to stay with dialup. At one time we had to convince folks to use electricity, it’s similar here too.

It does make sense for us to look at adoption – perhaps starting with household computer ownership.

Maybe our first step is to figure out what our benchmark is going to be and mean. Maybe we need to talk about what is access, availability, adoption – find some real base numbers for the state. Then next year we can talk about how to make improvements.

We need to look at the 2015 goal; and we need to look at applications. We need to decide whether our 2015 goals will hold steady. Technology changes – and that opens the door to increasing the speed goals.

That was the theory for setting the speed range. We wanted bandwidth to meet the needs of the users – be it telemedicine, online learning, video gaming… The whole point is to make sure that in Minnesota people would not have a broadband barrier – that’s why we included the ranking goals.

So we need to find reliable data to measure our core measures: speed, availability, penetration.

We feel that there is background narrative that needs to go with numbers.

Why is there a difference between downloading and uploading?

It is a technical issue. You have a finite capacity for traffic to travel. You can move more data down because more people want that. But you can get symmetrical connections and more applications will require that in the future – or at least they will require faster upload speeds – not necessarily symmetrical speeds.

I came into past meetings thinking symmetrical was important – but was convinced that asymmetrical is fine so long as both directions serve the need of the customer.

As an academic, the rankings (pg 42) seem to favor places with high population density. We should look at that so that we can look at anomalies. The Netherlands is not like the US.

But Canada and Australia might be exceptions.

We should look at what folks who are doing well are doing. The TF just ran out of time on that issue.

The government doesn’t need to provide a computer – but a partnership with someone who can might help. Some states have jumped ahead with government intervention.

In Australia they have a national broadband network – but parliament is hung up on that and Finland made broadband a right.

We discussed early that there are folks who don’t have computers – but still if they want to interact with businesses or government agencies, they need to get online. So people need to have access. If we force folks to fill out forms online (such as unemployment) then we need to provide access to those form – via libraries, schools or other.

Do we want Legislators to come in?

It would be nice to know what their expectations are.

The first report will be the shortest.

Can we start using broadband in the meeting? It would be nice to videoconference folks into the meeting –not just a phone. Will we have a web site?

Videoconference is tough because we don’t have a budget. If we set up videoconference in one area, we have to set it up in multiple areas to adhere to open meeting laws.

Web site – no budget so that again makes it tough. The last site is hosted on Thomson Reuters. We could look into using that. We’ll need to ask the Commissioner. But possibly we can post on the Department web site.

Maybe we shouldn’t post news and info because of filtering/selection issues. But we can share articles in other ways.

We need to be sensitive to open meeting rules. At the next meeting Alberto Quintela will go over decisions made last time on how to adhere to open meeting laws.

Where can we meet? MTA would work – and there’s free parking. Anoka would work too – maybe we can have Diane collect info and we can pick places. St Paul Central might work.

Next Meeting: 9 am – 3 pm on September 23

Sub-groups worked really well last time and are something we may want to use again.

Do we want presentations? Yes. Especially if we start in January. Next month we’ll have folks from Connected Nation.

It might make sense to include an open forum for public comments.

Maybe we could schedule some field trips. Not necessarily to International Falls – but more local trips to see what folks are doing.

Or maybe we could go to International Falls.

But if I go to International Falls I don’t even want to think about broadband.

Well let’s wait to decide and maybe let’s shoot for field trips in 2011 after the first report has been written.