Here’s the news from our latest newsletter. It’s mostly a compilation of Minnesota-related stories from the blog in the last month – but sometimes it’s nice to have it compiled.

Minnesota Broadband Advisory Task Force September Meeting
Connected Nation demonstrated their new, interactive maps for members of the Task Force; they also showed the statewide broadband report from Iowa as a starting place for developing a statewide report for Minnesota, which is due January 2011. Task Force members were assigned topics to write about for the new report. http://tinyurl.com/34c4bt2

ARRA Update
It seems as if the final ARRA awards have been announced. Minnesota received more than $240 million http://tinyurl.com/2cos88f. In the last month several Minnesota awards have been announced. Lake County received $66 million. http://tinyurl.com/37n43z7 Cook County received $16 million through the Arrowhead Electric Cooperative. http://tinyurl.com/383qf37 Wilkin County is part of a $9 million award primarily focused on North Dakota. http://tinyurl.com/383qf37 The Northeast Service Cooperative (in conjunction with Blandin Foundation) received $200,000 for technical assistance and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe received almost $50,000 from the same program. http://tinyurl.com/3454xgy

Update on Blandin’s ARRA-Funded Project
Earlier this year, Blandin received $4.7 million for Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities (MIRC). The 11 MIRC demonstration communities have been working on identifying projects to fund for the past 5 months. Most of them have posted RFPs in their community and they are receiving innovative proposals for broadband adoption programs. http://tinyurl.com/2e2fwqm

Blandin Broadband Conference October 13-14
Broadband 2010: Cultivating the Culture of Use, is less than 2 weeks away. http://tinyurl.com/37fo3lo Attendees will hear from experts, researchers, students and folks in the field who are creating programs to help boost broadband use in their communities. There will be time and space for attendees to ask questions, tell their stories and follow up on the work of the Minnesota Ultra High-Speed Broadband Taskforce to answer the question, “Where are we now – one year later?”

World Broadband Plan
The International Telecommunications Union presented a world broadband plan to the United Nations. It suggests that for every 10 percent increase in broadband penetration we can expect an average of 1.3 percent additional growth in national gross domestic product (GDP). http://tinyurl.com/33cthan

Blandin Broadband Strategy Board
The Blandin Broadband Strategy Board met to preview of Jack Geller’s latest survey of broadband in rural Minnesota. Results indicate that adoption is at least as necessary as deployment to expand broadband use. They also discussed the National Broadband Plan and expressed concern about the Universal Service Reform. http://tinyurl.com/25hpwvh

Local Broadband News

Bemidji
Senator Amy Klobuchar published an editorial encouraging broadband expansion and citing reform to the Universal Service Fund as a way to serve rural areas. http://tinyurl.com/38w5th3

Carver County
Carver County will begin work on their ARRA-funded fiber optic ring in early 2011. http://tinyurl.com/38z9kfo

Lac qui Parle
Pam Lehmann, LqP EDA Director, spoke to the Blandin Broadband Strategy Board about their ARRA-funded project. http://tinyurl.com/25hpwvh

Monticello
Monticello gave a Legislative Tour of their fiber facilities. http://tinyurl.com/37vpgno

St Paul
St Paul is attracting technology-focused businesses. http://tinyurl.com/27ryq2w

Twin Cities
Clearwire Wireless enters the Twin Cities market. http://tinyurl.com/362rdht

(Many stories are gathered from local online newspaper. Unfortunately each newspaper has a different policy in regards to archive news and therefore we cannot guarantee access to all articles cited.)

Coleman’s Corner

The final broadband stimulus awards have seemingly grouped communities into three categories. There are the stimulus grantees who are counting down the days until their fiber services are launched. While many of these projects have details to work out, leaders are beginning to imagine the possibilities for their area.

Next are the communities for whom the clock ran out with no grant award from NTIA or RUS. Their teams are reconvening to discuss what’s next. Financial models just got tougher; political commitments will need to be stronger. The circle of prospective partners must get bigger and flexibility increased.

The third group are those who realize that they have missed a great opportunity with the stimulus funds. They are just beginning the exploration about broadband: its importance, their unique local situation, prospective partners and funding alternatives. This final group is surprisingly large.

For me, the most important lesson from the stimulus program is that “luck is preparation meeting opportunity”. My advice is to get prepared!