A couple of Blandin on Broadband friends were on KFAI today to talk about broadband issues especially in Minnesota – or maybe for Minnesotans.

Christopher Mitchell from ILSR
Eric Lampland from Lookout Point
Peter Fleck from Digital Inclusion Funds and Extension Services

I took some super quick notes – but you can listen to the archive online, which is even better.

Promoting municipally owned networks. Folks who own the network make the rules to a great extent. In light of that maybe Minneapolis should have built itself. If they had gone with Earthlink (which was a contender for the network built by US Internet) they could be in trouble today. Earthlink is dropping citywide networks. There was a fun call from someone in DC who works with networks on a national basis.

Promoting wired over wireless because of the greater bandwidth available. Aerial fiber is a good way to go – in Vermont they are going with aerial fiber. Fiber is cheaper and more available in other countries and we’re getting left in the dust.

Focusing on economic development makes a lot of sense. Broadband is akin to the highway or the phone in that way.

Need symmetrical access. Increasingly people need to upload info as much or as often as they need to download info. There is a discrepancy in the service available – often residential connections are asymmetrical.

We also need to look at not just improving existing connections but getting more people online and if we can get communities to take on that goal that would be a start. Minneapolis started down this road with their wireless and getting new people connected was a big goal. Through Digital Inclusion Fund they are giving out money to help bridge the gap.