Monthly Archives: September 2009

3-6 million unserved by broadband

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Thanks to Ann Higgins for sending me a recent article from Broadcast & Cable that says that – according to the FCC – three to six million people in the US are unserved by broadband. That’s not the bad news – the bad news is that we don’t have enough money to change that; he current Universal Service and stimulus grants and simply not enough.

The other bad news is that the FCC has used the FCC definition of broadband to reach that conclusion so broadband is defined by 768 kbps (download speeds).

The FCC also found that even where basic and high speed broadband is available, advertised speeds lag actual speeds by 50% and perhaps more during peak periods. They are funding that the 80/20 rule applies to congestion; 80 percent of the traffic is coming from 20 percent of the users. In fact it seems that one percent of the users are responsible for 20 percent of the traffic. Those are the folks fondly known as broadband hogs. The providers want to find a way to manage or charge those folks differently.

This is an interesting time for that report to come out when Net Neutrality has been building steam in the last few weeks. The providers maintain that Net Neutrality may infringe on their right to network management. The FCC seems super pro Net Neutrality so as I said, very interesting.

The article and report go on to say that one third of the folks who have access to broadband do not subscribe. A less controversial stand is to say that we need to work on getting these folks on board with broadband. The FCC has commissioned a survey to determine the barriers. (Is it cost of access, training, cost of a computer, disinterest?)

Converting the unconnected third would be a great boon to the business plans of providers and would therefore help to offset the cost of upgrading broadband connectivity. But more importantly, it would help bridge the digital divide – as more government and commercial service move to an online-only model it becomes more and more important to get people using technology or I’m afraid they will become the unserved in many facets of their life.

Blandin’s free webinar series

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Please help spread the word. A Webinar Series: Realizing Our Broadband Future, is being offered this fall by the Blandin Foundation – Broadband Initiative, prior to the annual Blandin Foundation Broadband Conference.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009, 8:00-9:30AM
A Futurist’s View of Rural Minnesota

Tuesday, October 20, 2009, 8:00-9:30AM
Broadband Best Practices in Greater Minnesota

Tuesday, November 3, 8:00-9:30AM
Telling a Story with Social Media

Wednesday, November 18 – Thursday, November 19, 2009
Blandin Foundation’s 2009 Broadband Conference Continue reading →

The Lake County Fiber Network story

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The Lake County Fiber Network project is an initiative to connect homes and businesses (schools, hospitals, everyone) in Lake County with a fiber optic cable to provide telephone, high-speed internet and television services.

The federal stimulus funding actually stimulated the effort in Lake County. Local providers were talking about it taking 10-15 years to build out a fiber network. So the county decided to take action. They engaged each local unit of government in Lake County to support them in an effort to apply for the BIP for low interest loans and grants.

The County realized that while they want and need the service; they didn’t want to be the actual providers. So, they will not operate the network; they wanted contract with a third party to operate the network. They had talked with providers but again found out that fiber was not in their short or midterm strategic plans. This point was highlighted at a Two Harbor City Council meeting in which a Frontier representative said that if the project went through he would give away service for free for two years.

Lake County will be working with National Public Broadband, Inc., NPB a non-profit company comprised of a team of people who have already built and operated publicly-owned networks. NBP started with a market study that indicated that the market is there to provide service. Specifically,

  1. People want faster Internet and higher quality communications. Recognition that fiber is critical infrastructure.
  2. People want service close to home and they want to be able to talk to someone pretty local to get their issues resolved.
  3. People want less expensive connectivity for communications.

Lake County applied for ARRA stimulus funding; they requested $11,050,770 in grants and $22,436,409 in loans. Here’s the summary from the application:

The Project will be the first rural county fiber network in the U.S. to fully serve every home and institution that is currently served by wired telephone or electrical service. The advanced services offered will be priced lower than the very limited services currently available. The Project will be a public-private partnership between Lake County and National Public Broadband, a non-profit org.

If funding is achieved as expected in 2009, construction could begin in 2010 with full scale operation available in 2011.

Chris Swanson has been very active through the process and was kind enough to share some simple advice for communities who are considering their broadband future:

Communities need to figure out creative ways to get high end telecommunications infrastructure into their communities for the delivery of Internet to each home and business. Otherwise like the railroad, highways or electricity if it passes you town and doesn’t stop it will leave you behind.

Broadband Task Force to meet on Friday Oct 2

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blog_taskforceThey are getting so close to producing a final report. Having attended most of these meetings I have to tell you that it’s fun to watch as they get down to the brass tacks of the issues. They will be meeting on Friday. Here’s the meeting info and agenda:

9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m Friday, October 2, 2009. Location: Thomson Reuters D4 – Special Events Room 610 Opperman Drive Eagan, MN 55123
Agendas and meeting dates available at www.ultra-highspeed-mn.org  

9:30 – 9:45 – Opening comments; review meeting agenda
Approve meeting minutes from September 18th meeting

9:45 – 10:00 – Public comment

10:00 – 10:30 – Ongoing Council – sub-group report
• Approve recommendations
• [Mike O’Connor, Steve Cawley, Mary Ellen Wells, John Stanoch]

10:30 – 11:00 – Recommendation #2 – Policies and actions necessary to achieve ubiquitous broadband – sub-group report
• Review survey results and approve recommendations
• [Mike O’Connor, Brent Christensen, JoAnne Johnson, Diane Wells, Peg Werner, Mary Ellen Wells, Carlos Seoane]

1:00 – 11:15 – Break

11:15 – 11:45 – Recommendation #5 – Evaluation and recommendation of security, vulnerability, and redundancy actions necessary to ensure reliability – sub-group report
• Provide updates since September meeting; finalize and agree on recommendations if possible (if not, agree on what has to happen to come to agreement)
• [Mike O’Connor, Steve Cawley, Craig Taylor, Jack Ries/Gopal Khanna, Shirley Walz]

11:45 – 12:30 – Recommendation #7 – Economic development opportunities & Recommendation #8 – Evaluation of how broadband access can benefit organizations and institutions
• Approve recommendations

12:30 – 1:00 – Break for Lunch

1:00 – 1:30 – Discuss sections of version 5 of the report
• Review and approve Connected Nation language (existing language on page 25)
• [Brent Christensen, Mike O’Connor, Diane Wells for any new/changed language]
• Source for penetration and speed measurements
• Expectations for raisings concerns or issues with existing content
• Agree on final report review process; discuss how full review of version 6 will work at the October 16th meeting

1:45 – 2:45 – Recommendation #4 – Evaluation of strategies, financing, financial incentives used in other states/countries to support broadband development and Recommendation #6 – Cost estimate – sub-group report
• Review sub-group recommendations
[John Gibbs, Dan McElroy, John Stanoch, Dick Sjoberg, Diane Wells]

2:45 – 3:00 – Plans for Upcoming Meetings
• October 16th and 30th at Thomson Reuters
• Report release on November 6th
o Press conference and joint legislative hearing
• November 9th breakfast event
• Blandin Conference in Duluth November 19th 10:45-11:35 a.m. – Panel

3:00 – Closing comments, adjourn meeting

Minnesota Broadband Task Force Draft Recommendations

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BBTF_draftDo you know what I like best about the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force? Their transparency!

Over the weekend they sent me the latest draft recommendations for their report, which should be coming out in November. It’s not the whole report but the recommendations are there – and the introduction. I encourage you to read it. If you don’t have time to read the whole thing – read the Letter from Chair.

I summarized the recommendations for someone last week so I thought I’d post that here too. My goal was not to pinpoint potential sticky issues – but to provide a fairly high level abstract. So for a more careful reading again I encourage you to read the report. If you have any questions or comments you could send them to the Task Force or show up to the meeting on Friday (Oct 2, 2009).

I think they’re at a stage where they’re really finalizing the report. And I don’t think there are any red flags here. But I also think that if you agree or especially if you disagree the best time to say it is now before it goes to print.

Here’s a summary: Continue reading →

Wireless gets better for Alexandria, MN

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Good news for Alexandria or anyone who makes the drive down 94 through Alex. According to the Alexandria Echo Press, AT&T has expanded its 3G mobile broadband network in Alexandria, which should improve voice quality and data speeds for the area.

The increased coverage should be most beneficial to iPhone and Blackberry users, who should now be able to use a wider range of interactive applications. According to comments posted to the Each Press site, people are anxious to see this work.

Anoka County looking at better broadband

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According to the Star Tribune, Anoka County is looking into improved broadband access. It sounds as if they are considering seeking federal money – but before they go down that road or any other they are wisely doing a market survey. They have sent surveys to 900 Anoka County residents and have planned three public meetings scheduled for 7:00 pm on September 29, October 1, and October 8; the first meeting is at Spring Lake Park High School.

You can get more info on all three meetings on Connect Anoka County web site. In fact they have a lot of useful information. They have their questionnaire online. So if you’re from the area you can chime in; if you’re not from Anoka you might borrow their form for your area.

Back to the article, I have to include my favorite quote in the article from Commissioner Robyn West. She is on the Minnesota Ultra High Speed Task Force. Many of the members of the Task Force are long standing super geeks. (I type that with admiration.) I’m going to say that Robyn was probably not a lifelong super geek, so it has been interesting to hear her take on things; I think she values the investment of broadband more after a year with the Task Force – as demonstrated in the quote.

“When I got on the High Speed Task Force, my attitude was: ‘You want high-speed broadband, you move where they have it.’ But this generation that we have raised, they’re already doing a majority of their business on the Internet. They buy things, sell things, bank on the Internet, take classes on the Internet.

If there’s a way to pave the way and improve broadband service for the people of Anoka County, we’d like to be on track to prepare the next generation.”

US Broadband Coalition initial report

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Yesterday the US Broadband Coalition released its initial report on a National Broadband Strategy. There’s not a ton of changes since I read the draft – but now that it’s out there I could probably comment more.

I think the report is, as they stated themselves, “a wealth of new ideas, many of them worthy of serious consideration and further discussion.” They didn’t focus on reach consensus or recommending specific policies.

Here’s a quick list of items that seem to come up:

  • Wired and wireless access will have a place
  • Promoting adoption and use of broadband is essential
  • Encourage innovation at all levels
  • Mapping and metrics are important

I think the report does a nice job of detailing contentious and potentially contentious issues. And it was successful at bringing some strange dinner guests to the same table. It will be valuable for policymakers who aren’t reading up on broadband every day. I think there is agreement on the need to bring everyone up to speed. The debate seems to come in when you specific what speed and how.

As someone who does read about broadband every day, I’m eager to see a report that does suggest some recommendations that will lead to consensus or at least a good push forward. I just read in MinnPost about Aneesh Chopra (US Chief Technology Officer) and his fears that we are in danger of losing our competitive edge. He referred to a report called the Atlantic Century; it ranks global innovation-based competitiveness of 36 countries. In overall score the US ranked 6th; it’s ranking in other areas was lower.

So I grow impatient waiting for the National Broadband Policy – but I’m worried too that as we hem and haw over how to reach our goals while keeping everyone happy that the rest of the world will be leaving us in the dust.

FCC seeks comments on broadband adoption on tribal lands

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Thanks to Amalia Deloney for the heads up on the FCC’s request for comments that strive to identify and/or remedy barriers to broadband deployment and adoption on Tribal lands. The FCC is looking for comments. Comments are due Nov 9, 2009; reply comments are due December 9, 2009.

Northfield’s fiber plan

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Griff Wigley was kind enough to post an update on Northfield’s plan for their fiber future (in the post comments). They decided that the ARRA stimulus funding did not make sense. Here’s the update he quoted:

It was reported that Northfield had greater opportunities to fund a FTTP network by pursuing a low interest loan rather than applying for federal stimulus dollars. Staff was asked to research alternative financing options and report back to Council. This discussion item will update the Council on the financing options that were researched.

Minority Serving Institutions Technical Assistance and Capacity Building Conference: 2009

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I have had the privilege of attending and presenting the MSI Conference in Dallas, TX for the last two days. Minority Serving Institutions include Hispanic, African American and Tribal Colleges and today focuses on how they can participate in the BTOP program in future rounds. Due to the work we have been doing with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (LLBO) Jackie Vanasse of LLBO and myself were asked to present the process and project that LLBO submitted for Round 1 funding.
In addition we heard from many highly-educated PhD. level experts in the social sciences and project management and how it relates to these projects.
It is sad to see the poor service that these areas around the MSI’s have for broadband access and great to see the success that bringing broadband to these areas can have. William Reed from Technology for All spoke about how their wireless network in Houston not only increased access to free internet services but it also drove the adoption of commercial broadband services.
I heard a new term from Blanco Gordo, PhD. of the Center for Latino Policy Research from the University of California, Berkley-“Digital Destitution” which is beyond the idea of digital divide but instead areas that have persons desperate for those services.
All of us in Minnesota as we work on our applications and begin thinking about round two we need to consider the lack of services and “digital destitution” that we still might be facing in our own backyard.

More ARRA applications

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With the help of Diane Wells, I have found more ARRA applications that propose service in Minnesota. I’m not sure why they didn’t come up when I searched for “MN” but they didn’t.

These “new” applications seem to fall into a couple of categories:

  • Broadband adoption strategies that might include training or tools to encourage more people to go online
  • New devices that expand the reach of existing broadband infrastructure or otherwise make it easier for providers to reach more people
  • Network providers that plan to reach remote areas – often through wireless or satellite options

Minnesota has a list of about 80 applications to look at once you add in these multistate applications.

Geoff Daily has written a good post about the herculean task the state now have providing feedback on these applications before they have been vetted by the NTIA. It is disconcerting. How much state time will be wasted giving out these federal funds? Not that it wouldn’t be valuable to have their input much later in the process – but I don’t think it’s time well spent to have them review applications that may or may not meet basic criteria required by the NTIA and RUS.

Ultra High-Speed Broadband Task Force September 18

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OK I was about 15 minutes late but I will try to catch up. The September Task Force meeting was at Thomson Reuters. There were Public Comment Son Connected Nation made by Peter Fleck, sadly I missed his comments but he was kind enough to send them to me:

Good morning. My name is Peter Fleck. I sit on the Digital Inclusion Fund Committee with the City of Minneapolis and I write the PF Hyper blog which among other things, covers the US Internet Wi-Fi deployment for Minneapolis. I’m here today to comment on the broadband mapping process.

My understanding is that we have allowed the companies that have not provided the needed broadband coverage in our state to steer the broadband mapping process itself because of a stated need for confidentiality. That need is questionable. And it puts the state in a position where if the maps show there is no problem with broadband coverage, then we won’t need legislation, regulation, or any other policies and it creates the risk that the telecom industry can continue to provide inadequate coverage to underserved areas — usually areas of low-density and low-income. And because of the inadequacy of these maps, eventually we will have to undertake broadband mapping again at taxpayer expense. To me, this is an irresponsible use of public money.

As my colleague Christopher Mitchell wrote at the MuniNetworks blog, this is like asking the Minnesota Vikings to create a nonprofit to study whether a new football stadium for the Minnesota Vikings is a good idea.

As a citizen and resident of Minnesota, I would like this Task Force to let Gov. Pawlenty and the Commissioners at the Department of Employment and Economic Development know how I feel. I don’t like my money spent in this way. I believe that ubiquitous ultra high-speed broadband at an affordable price will benefit everyone in Minnesota and that it’s unlikely that this mapping process will bring us any closer to goal.

Thank you.

Questions from the Task Force:

Want to point out that Qwest does not fund Connected Nation
Yes but won’t providers all benefit from the provider input at a high level.

How much does the City of Minneapolis pay US Internet? Maybe $1.2 million – and possibly getting about $50,000 worth of services
Yes, that’s too much.
Is there another mapping option?
The University of Minnesota put in an application to do mapping but could not handle confidentially required by feds so DEED went with Connected Nation. Maybe the state could contain info but hire someone to work with it.

Final Broadband Mapping Report from Brent Legg, Connected Nation

(See a PDF of the Connected Nation presentation) Continue reading →

Open Wireless Network?

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The St Cloud Times featured a story on NewCore, a company that has a plan to help stretch broadband into more remote areas. Rather than try to rephrase and potential misrepresent something I’m going to borrow heavily from the St Cloud story:

NewCore invested $5 million in infrastructure so rural telephone companies, local entrepreneurs and others can offer wireless through NewCore’s equipment. The infrastructure is actually computer equipment that — once connected to a cell phone tower or radio transmitter owned by one of its customers — allows people to use the Internet and make cell phone calls.

But it doesn’t connect directly with wireless users. Rather, companies and entrepreneurs buy the ability to use NewCore’s infrastructure so they can offer Internet and cell phone service to consumers.

NewCore is taking something usually found through large companies and making it available to any provider. Often the equipment is too expensive for small or rural companies to buy, Kangas said. And wireless Internet and cell phone coverage through larger companies can be spotty in rural areas, he said, because bigger businesses often focus on the nation’s top 50 markets.

So far NewCore has signed five deals with customers. Three are with Central Minnesota companies — Albany Mutual Telephone Association, Benton Cooperative Telephone Co. and Palmer Wireless. The other two are companies people will recognize, Kangas said, but NewCore can’t name them until finalizing contract details.

It sounds like an open source wireless network to me. What’s nice is this is the kind of innovation that broadband technology can spur. The company plans to have 3-40 employees in the next year and the average salary is $50,000 to $90,000. So it’s a win-win story. People create good jobs providing broadband to remote areas.

I don’t know what speed we’re talking about here – but it seems to me that for unserved areas wireless broadband is a great deal and for underserved areas, wireless broadband might be just the competition the incumbents need to bump up their own service.

Foley school promotes broadband

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benton_schoolThanks to Nancy Hoffman, the Benton County Economic Development Director for the heads up on a great program in the local school. The Benton Broadband committee felt in order to get broadband to areas that do not have it, they should create demand. The Foley Superintendent and the Benton Telephone Cooperative decided to offer families a rebate if they would use their services. Below is a excerpt from the letter that went out to students’ families:

Learning has never stopped at the schoolhouse door at 3 pm and that is truer now than ever before with the on-line resources for your children and family available at your fingertips through Foley’s web page at http://www.foley.k12.mn.us.

But with dial up, you can be drumming your fingers waiting for these resources to appear on your computer screen. That is why Benton Cooperative Telephone has teamed up with Foley Schools to help your family enter the on-line world of broadband access. Benton Cooperative Telephone will rebate you up to $25 if you sign up for broadband access and your student(s) participate in an activity at Foley Public Schools including our Food Service Program. To claim the rebate, submit the coupon on page 8 with your receipt from Foley Public Schools which indicates you have paid an activity or food service fee.

I love this idea. It will be interesting to see how successful the plan is – but I know in our house a good way to effect change is with a letter from the school. Also, it’s a plan that would be easy to replicate in other areas – in case there are readers out there who are interested in boosting broadband demand in their areas.