According to the Northland Press…

Leaders from Crosslake met with Representative Larry Howes on July 16 to discuss concerns with the national broadband plan being proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

It sounds as if the biggest concern is the potential for a rural/urban divide brought about by the National Broadband goal to have 100 Mbps to at least 100 million Americans by the year 2020 – but leaving a backdoor open to lower speeds with another goal of ubiquitous coverage of at least 4 Mbps.

It’s a debate that came up recently in an earlier post about the FCC’s broadband report, where their list of least served counties in Minnesota was so drastically different from Connect Minnesota’s list, cited in the Minnesota Ultra High Speed Broadband Task Force report. That leads into a distinct difference in the reports (the State recommendations and the National Broadband Plan) that also came up at the meeting in Crosslake.

The National Broadband Plan calls for faster broadband speeds for the majority, where the Minnesota speeds are lower (20Mbps up and 10 Mbps down by 2015) but focus on ubiquitous coverage.

Here’s what was mentioned in the Northland Press about the topic…

Randy Young, past President of Minnesota Telecom Alliance, told representatives at the meeting that it would be difficult for rural towns to attract businesses if they cannot assure high-quality, sustainable broadband access.

In 2010, Minnesota established broadband goals of 20 Megabyte download and 10 Megabyte upload to all Minnesotans by 2015.

Young praised the state legislature for recognizing the need for service for the entire state, not just the urban portions, “The FCC plan will make rural Minnesotans, and all rural Americans, second class citizens in the broadband world,” he said