The Twin Cities got a quick mention on DSL Reports this week (Comcast, Qwest Annoyed With Twin Cities Wi-Fi Plans). The quick take is that incumbents are starting to offer great bandwidth speeds but the Cities are saying it’s just not enough. (It isn’t mentioned in this article but I think people if not the Cities themselves are also saying, it’s too expensive.)

The picture looks similar to one painted in other communities. The city gets involved with broadband – often out of frustration with current choices. The incumbents may or may not come to the table – but let’s just say in many cases, they don’t become part of the solution.

The incumbents counter public efforts by providing better broadband that often does not meet the speeds being sought by the local governments yet it better than what’s currently offered. The incumbents might also talk about how it is too expensive for the city to offer broadband or they claim that it is illegal for the city to offer broadband.

The Pioneer Press recently ran an article on boosting broadband in the school that exemplifies this situation. St. Paul Public Schools is upgrading their 1.5 megabit-per-second lines to 10-megabit-per-second service. (First – the Schools have been running on a T1. Criminy I may have taken that order in the mid-90s. I can’t believe they are just upgrading now!)

The city and schools are happy for the upgrade but recognize that it too will soon be outdated. The incumbents (Comcast and Qwest) say that’s more bandwidth than anyone needs. Well, except in Japan where the service is 10 times as fast!

So the cities (St Paul and Egan in this case) are on the hunt for a better solution. The incumbents feel that the cities should talk to them. They claim they can up the speeds as soon as there is demand. St Paul will be looking first at a provider that can meet the needs of the city and then will consider needs of residents – if incumbents have met the need so be it. If not we might be looking at a new provider in town in St Paul.