News from the Blandin on Broadband Blog

Broadband Breakfast Briefing March 30
The Blandin Foundation is sponsoring an opportunity to for state legislators to meet members of the Blandin Broadband Strategy Board and the Minnesota Intelligent Rural Community (MIRC) Coalition to hear their best thinking about the State’s leadership role and the road ahead. The event will take place March 30 from 7:30 to 9:00 am at the Kelly Inn in St Paul. http://tinyurl.com/4pkd2z2

Broadband Maps
Connect Minnesota unveiled new Minnesota broadband maps featuring broadband availability and adoption. http://wp.me/p3if7-1cc Connected Nation also unveiled new national broadband maps. http://wp.me/p3if7-1bR The maps emphasize the gap in rural versus urban availability. http://wp.me/p3if7-1ba

County-wide Minnesota Fiber Projects
In February, TISP introduced a three countywide fiber projects. Each county spoke about the path leading them to invest in broadband. http://wp.me/p3if7-1bO Countywide interest in broadband appears to be a growing trends as reflected in the local news items below.

Local Access Charges
AT&T is asking Minnesota to rethink local access charges. http://wp.me/p3if7-1ae Currently AT&T and other companies pay local access fees when their customers make calls to people in Minnesota. Brent Christensen from the Minnesota Telecom Alliance talks about how those fees help local telephone companies bring broadband to rural areas. http://wp.me/p3if7-1bt The question is whether the policy is keeping up with the technology.

Local Broadband News

Carver County
Carver County is looking for bids for construction on their ARRA-funded fiber network. http://wp.me/p3if7-1bU

Cook County
Cook County learns from Windomnet’s Dan Olsen about Windom’s fiber network. http://wp.me/p3if7-1aI

Dawson
Farmer’s Mutual hosts an open house in Dawson to promote the ARRA-funded fiber network currently being built in Lac qui Parle County. http://wp.me/p3if7-1bZ

Grand Rapids
In an effort to reduce spending, Grand Rapids moves personnel transactions and meeting minutes online. http://wp.me/p3if7-1bA

Lake County
The road to fiber has been bumpy in Lake County. The County let their original fiber partners go http://wp.me/p3if7-1bo, they hired a new firm http://wp.me/p3if7-1c5 and the incumbent provider asks the USDA to investigate their ARRA-funded project. http://wp.me/p3if7-1c9

Minneapolis
Hennepin County Medical Center is recognized for their leadership in Health Information Exchange (HIE) and digitization of the immunization records. http://wp.me/p3if7-1b5

Nobles & Jackson Counties
Businesses in Nobles and Jackson Counties learn to use broadband strategically with a MIRC-sponsored training presented by University of Minnesota Extension. http://wp.me/p3if7-1aW

Okabena
Okabena student wins logo contest and designs the Southwest Minnesota Broadband Services logo. http://wp.me/p3if7-1bK

Redwood County
Redwood County looks at broadband for their area. http://wp.me/p3if7-1bh Already they have made modifications to broadband maps based on experience on the ground. http://wp.me/p3if7-1c2

South Central Minnesota
One resident in South Central Minnesota voices his frustration with living without broadband. http://wp.me/p3if7-1aR

Southwest Minnesota
Southwest Minnesota Broadband Services works with Local Loop to add wireless Internet access to the ARRA-funded fiber network they are building. http://wp.me/p3if7-1bW

(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.)

Events

March 28-30 – Minnesota Telecom Alliance Annual Convention http://tinyurl.com/4696vm6

March 30 – Blandin Broadband Breakfast Briefing – St Paul MN http://tinyurl.com/4pkd2z2

April 14 – Minnesota High Tech Association Spring Conference “INNOVATION IN MINNESOTA – Fueling Our High Tech Economy – Minneapolis MN http://www.mhta.org/spring_conference.php

April 28 – Broadband and Economic Development (Dallas) http://www.bbpmag.com/2011s/11economic-dev.php

Looking for more events? Check out TechDotMN’s calendar http://tech.mn/events/. Many events are based in the Twin Cities but it is a comprehensive list. (If you have an upcoming event, consider submitting it.)

Coleman’s Corner

As we plan our March 30 legislative Broadband Breakfast, we are forced to think of what it is that we want our legislative and executive branch leaders to know about broadband. It is tempting to create an agenda that will gush information like a fire hose across the broad range of broadband-related topics – fiber, wireless, digital inclusion, mapping, network neutrality, applications. But we will have the leaders’ attention for 60 to 90 minutes, not a day or a week.

The Blandin Broadband Strategy Board has adopted a white paper with background information and recommendations that will be released at the Broadband Breakfast. It is brief and to the point about the need for world-class broadband and outlines some steps Minnesota can take to move in that direction. Still, we will struggle over the next weeks to hone our message to one that is understandable, convincing and actionable.
You can help in three important ways. First, send me your ideas about “the most important thing” that you want leaders to know; this will help shape our message. Second, please encourage your legislator to attend this event and let them know that you will be there. Finally, register. http://broadband.blandinfoundation.org/events/events-detail.php?intResourceID=1554