The Minnesota Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force is meeting on Friday. As I mentioned last month – they’re really into the actual writing by this point. Last month they worked on materials their colleagues had submitted for the final report. This month they’re going to tackle contentious issues as defined by the members.
Each Task Force member was asked to highlight portions of the work they saw last month that they think represent the most contentious issues. They also pulled out the paragraphs with which they most agreed and disagreed.
On Friday they will discuss three of these issues:
- Role of Government
- Speed
- How to Pay for It/Affordability
I read the contentious issues and points of agreement and disagreement. Role of Government seemed like the most mentioned issue – and some of the other issues seemed to stem from that basic starting point. I expect that municipal networks will be a hot topic – but Universal Service Funds, creating an ongoing Broadband state entity, government as a customer could come up as well.
I think speed will be a tricky issue. I think speed is on a short list of things that the legislators have requested by name – but I also know that the FCC is working on a new definition of speed. It’s unfortunate that the FCC is not expected to have their work completed before November. I suspect that the Connect Minnesota maps will come up during the discussion. Many people mentioned they work as a potentially contentious issue.
Finally there’s How to Pay for It/affordability. To me those are two issues so I’m interested to see what happens there. Are we talking about affordability for individual customers (business or residential) or affordability at a state level?
If you have strong feelings on these issues, Friday would be a good time to speak up. They entertain public comments at the beginning of the meeting (9:45). (See agenda.) They are meeting at Thomson Reuters in Egan; but there are also remote locations if that’s too far.