Monthly Archives: May 2008

Minnesota Broadband Task Force: Looking for a Few Good People

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I also mentioned this in the eNews edition yesterday – but it seemed important enough to mention here too…

About two weeks ago, the Broadband Study Bill was signed, calling for the creation of a Broadband Task Force. So I am very heartened to see how quickly the Broadband Task Force is getting off the ground.

The Secretary of State’s office just posted a notice of vacancies on their web site. The application deadline is Tuesday, May 27, and the Governor may appoint the members of the Task Force as early as June 6. Not too shabby.

I would encourage folks on the frontline – especially in rural areas to apply for the post. Having real voices from practitioners on the board will greatly increase the value of the final report.

Towards that end, I know that the Blandin Foundation will be working with our Strategy Broad members to help them apply.

Broadband or Internet news from towns around Minnesota

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Yesterday we sent out the Blandin eNews. It always includes highlights of the last month from the blog. But it also includes broadband news from around the state, which I wanted to share here too.

Clearwater
With support from the Blandin Foundation, the Clearwater Economic Development Authority is assessing their community’s telecommunications environment as they are not sure if their existing services are meeting the current and future needs of their community. (http://tinyurl.com/6k92zp)

Cook County
Cook County Higher Education and the Northeast Entrepreneur Fund held a class for business owners on Web Site Magic. (http://tinyurl.com/57hjp7)

Duluth
The Duluth Public Library is reopening with an expanded computer lab of 14 computers with Internet access. (http://tinyurl.com/5bmxwa)

Iron Range
Gary Fields (who has worked with the Blandin Foundation on broadband projects) and Tim Nulty (who led the lauded effort in Burlington VT) have been hired by Iron Range Community Fibernet to make presentations to the 11 FiberNet communities to talk about their plans to develop a financial plan and move forward to design and implement fiber to the home (FTTH). (http://tinyurl.com/6pokcp)

Itasca State Park
State parks across the nation are installing WiFi. In Minnesota the effort is starting in Itasca State Park. (http://tinyurl.com/5muaxd)

Marshall
Staff members at the Prairieland Genealogical Society and the History Center at Southwest Minnesota State University are embracing technology both as a way to store information on genealogy records and a way to reach patrons. (http://tinyurl.com/6k25a5)

Minneapolis
WiFi is up and running throughout Minneapolis but the speeds are not consistent. Buying a WiFi booster from US Internet will help users get better speeds. (http://tinyurl.com/5qxbcq)

Monticello
Progress continues on FTTH in Monticello as reported by the Monticello Fiber Optic Committee in Mid April. (http://tinyurl.com/6jx4e5)

New Ulm
A young entrepreneur in New Ulm makes a living by selling hand-sewn bags online using a web site called Etsy, which specializes in handmade items. (http://tinyurl.com/55qybx)

North Dakota
Candidates in North Dakota are already taking the campaigns to the Internet with Facebook and MySpace pages. (http://tinyurl.com/6coowe)

Red Wing
The Red Wing City Council and the Red Wing Port Authority approved Lookout Point Communications to conduct a FTTH feasibility study for Red Wing (a recipient of Blandin Foundation Get Broadband funds).

Staples
Lakewood Health Systems (a Blandin Foundation Light Speed funded program) is researching a telemonitoring purchase option. Their report on patients who currently avail of some remote monitoring services indicates that the advantages are clear. (http://tinyurl.com/6g9z2t)

Twin Cities
Comcast announces big broadband service in the Twin Cities. With the new service, subscribers will be able to download at speeds of up to 50 megabits per second and upload at speeds of 5 megabits per second. (http://tinyurl.com/5pnyqw)

Waseca
The Waseca County Public Library offered a free class called Senior Surf Day, designed to teach the ins and outs of modern technology. (http://tinyurl.com/5gvmsa)

Willmar
Kandiyohi County Economic Development Commission (a recipient of Blandin Foundation Get Broadband funds) recently approved payment to Bonnema Surveys Inc. to create a web-based mapping system for all the high-speed Internet coverage areas in Kandiyohi County (http://tinyurl.com/65sp79)

Winona
Home and Community Options Inc (a Blandin Foundation Light Speed funded program) is pleased with the response of care facility staff regarding training to use e-file system and with installation of remote monitoring systems. Unfortunately cold weather has slowed the actual installation of fiber. (http://tinyurl.com/5649h7)

Broadband Discussion on Radio Program in Cook County Minnesota

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Last week (or so), Blandin on Broadband blogger Bill Coleman was on WTIP radio as part of a discussion on broadband. (WTIP is based in Cook County.) The conversation also included Danna Asche (Blandin Broadband Strategy Board Member) and Jack McDonald, from Boreal Access (a North Shore ISP).

The radio program is archived online.

The program addresses broadband from the perspective of the general public. So it starts with a discussion of what is broadband and why should we want it. Continue reading →

New Report: Explaining International Broadband Leadership

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The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation recently published a new study on why the US is falling behind international counterparts, as indicated by the OECD ranking report, where the US ranks 15th for broadband penetration.

Here’s their list of recommendations – as noted in their executive summary:
To encourage the development of broadband infrastructure (supply) in the United States, we recommend that U.S. policymakers take the following steps:

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    1. Enact more favorable tax policies to encourage investment in broadband networks, such as accelerated depreciation and exempting broadband services from federal, state, and local taxation.
    2. Continue to make more spectrum, including “white spaces,” available for next-generation wireless data networks.
    3. Expand the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service Broadband Program and target the program to places that currently do not have non-satellite broadband available.
    4. Reform the federal Universal Service Fund program to extend support for rural broadband to all carriers, and consider providing the funding through a reverse auction mechanism.
    5. Fund a national program to co-fund state-level broadband support programs, such as Connect Kentucky or North Carolina e-NC Authority.
    6. Promote the widespread use of a national, user-generated, Internet-based broadband mapping system that would track location, speed, and price of broadband.
    7. State and local governments should take action to make it easier for providers to deploy broadband services, including making it easier to access rights-of-way.

To encourage the growth of consumer demand for broadband, we recommend that U.S. policymakers take these steps:

  1.  
    1. Support initiatives around the nation to encourage broadband usage and digital literacy.
    2. Fund a revitalized Technology Opportunities Program, with a particular focus on the development of nationally scalable Web-based projects that address particular social needs, including law enforcement, health care, education, and access for persons with disabilities.
    3. Exempt broadband Internet access from federal, state, and local taxes.
    4. Support new applications, including putting more public content online, improving e-government, and supporting telework, telemedicine, and online learning programs.
      By adopting these recommendations, U.S. policymakers would give broadband providers the economic incentives to invest in broadband infrastructure both in rural and urban areas of the country and give consumers the incentives to subscribe to broadband, particularly higher speed broadband.

I have to say that I *love* the second part of the list. I just think the best way to increase broadband penetration is to increase demand. Yes we still would certainly need the incentives to build out to more remote areas – but with customers on the other end that incentive might only be necessary for the build-out, not the operation and maintenance.

That’s not to say that I don’t think policy is valuable too. The report indicates that nations that make broadband a priority and put resources into broadband fare better than those who don’t. It seems obvious but a report never hurts to punctuate the point.

The reports also goes on to suggest that it makes sense to see what other countries of done, consider options that have worked in statewide programs (naming Kentucky and North Carolina) but to realize that one size does not fit all.

CISCO – Healthcare BizTech Forum – St. Cloud

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I learned Wednesday that health care technology purchases account for over 30% of CISCO’s business revenue. CISCO and its partners provide technology tools that track people, information and equipment, enabling better health care management, and hopefully, better and more affordable health care. The day focused on four related topics – security and compliance, wireless technologies, unified communications and RFID technologies.

Security and compliance – Keeping ahead of HIPPA regulations and electronic payment requirements was a major concern of providers. The key to success is to put a plan in place and to systematically pursue that plan. The emphasis was to show strong and credible efforts to meet the regulations and to address any shortcomings.

Wireless technologies – Vendors were displaying cool “star trek” communicators that allowed hands-free communications throughout the hospital, allowing staff to contact specific people or teams of people, depending on the need.

RFID – These devices enable the hospital to track people, equipment and devices so that they are in the right place at the right time. These devices, tied to GPS technologies, allow staff to be able to find what they need, when they need it.

Unified communications – Bringing all of these systems together is a critical task so that information is not lost or does not have to be re-entered into multiple systems.

I was a bit disappointed that there was very little discussion about home health care devices and practices. Maybe at their next seminar!

The Economics of Rural FTTH

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A couple of days ago I relayed that the current administrators of the Burlington (VT) fiber project felt “that Burlington Telecom will not be breaking even by June as earlier projected by previous general manager, Tim Nulty.”

Tim Nutly spoke at the Broadband Properties conference yesterday (as reported by Telephony Online). He talked about the economics of providing FTTH in rural areas.

I have to admit that I don’t know the costs involved firsthand, so I thought his explanation (and specificity) was very helpful:

Fiber triple-play deployment costs generally come in three categories: the hub, the hook-up and the pass. Building a hub is actually less expensive in rural areas because real estate costs are lower there, Nulty said. “Building a hub in a cow pasture is cheaper than doing it downtown.” Hooking up rural houses is more expensive, but not much, he said, partly because fiber costs have come down considerably. Vermont spends about $1600 per home connecting subscribers in the city and about $1800 per home in rural areas.

The biggest cost gap is in passing homes, since there’s so much more space between homes in rural areas (though rural areas have more aerial, pole-based networks, which are easier and less costly than the underground networks in cities and suburbs.) Vermont towns contain more than 100 houses per square mile, but its rural areas can contain about 12 houses per square mile. As a result, Vermont spends about $250 per home in the city on this part of the project and $1100 per home in rural areas.

However, passing homes is a small part of the overall cost of fiber deployment, Nulty said. And rural areas see higher service take rates because there’s less competition there. In rural towns due to get municipal fiber, Vermont is seeing 50% of the market presubscribe for its services, and Nulty expects that rate to reach 75% or 80% by the time funds are secured.

Happy Birthday World Wide Web

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I just finished listening to a fun radio program (on RTE 1) on the birthday of the WWW. I think they (and now I) were a day late but I thought I’d celebrate the day regardless.

On April 30, 1993, Cern put the web in the public domain, which put everyone on the same page for sharing a protocol rather than having the Internet host multiple proprietary protocols. (Here’s a fun article on the birthday: The World Wide Web Turns 15 (again).)

I’m tempted to write about how the WWW has changed the world – but I think we can all come up with our own ways. What I think is interesting is the move to put the WWW in the public domain. I think that moved really changed today’s business model – information is still valuable – but made more valuable when it’s shared then kept secret.

The Internet would not be as useful without the WWW, the WWW would not be as useful without Google, and Google has opened their code to others to create tools to make Google more useful.

The businesses that succeed today are the ones build upon the new model, they build upon innovations of others and they don’t protect their Intellectual Property in the same way. I think they retain market share and market placement through value added service (be it better technology, better service, better promotion.)

There may be an opportunity for Internet and broadband providers to buy into this new model. It seems as if providers who will do well in the long run will find a way to take on the new business model and work with others to create a better plan for providing broadband. Maybe that new plan with be an Open Network plan – maybe it will be something completely new.

So that’s a long way of saying – happy birthday world wide web!