News from the Blandin on Broadband Blog
Governor Dayton Calls for Task Force Applicants
In August, Governor Dayton announced intentions for the Governor’s Task Force on Broadband. The Governor’s goal is “border-to-border high-speed internet and cell phone access throughout Minnesota.” The tasks outlined for the Task Force are ambitious. http://wp.me/p3if7-1nJ Anyone interested in being on the Task Force is invited to submit an application; the application is available today. http://wp.me/p3if7-1oo The deadline for applying is September 27, 2011.
Bond for Broadband?
Minnesota has recognized the need for broadband in reports produced by earlier renditions of the Minnesota Broadband Task Force. Funding options have not yet been offered. Original Task Force Chair Rick King suggests state bonding. http://wp.me/p3if7-1nU
Broadband and the Rural Brain Gain
University of Minnesota Extension Service’s Ben Winchester has reported on the rural Brain Gain – observing that while rural areas may lose college-aged residents, they also see an influx of folks who are slightly older (30-49). Ben has done follow up research on why people moved to rural areas and how they selected new hometowns. Broadband came up in two ways. Broadband helps boost employment opportunities by offering telework options and making it easier to start home-based businesses. Also potential transplants use broadband to find out about prospective towns. Communities with broadband and good promotional web sites have an advantage over other communities. http://wp.me/p3if7-1mO
Fall Broadband Conference – Nov 16-17
This year the Blandin Foundation and Connect Minnesota join forces to provide conference goers a snapshot of policy and progress being made both inside Minnesota’s borders and on the national level at the Policy and Progress: Border to Border Broadband conference held November 16-17 in Duluth, Minnesota. The conference will include a series of webinars leading up to the event and a broadband film fest. http://tinyurl.com/44qgnxg Please watch the Blandin on Broadband blog for more details. http://blandinonbroadband.org/
Local Broadband News
Anoka
Anoka County will be celebrating progress with its ARRA-funded fiber network with a groundbreaking on September 13. http://wp.me/p3if7-1ok
Blaine
A Minnesota hacker receives an 18-year sentence for tormenting his neighbor with online activities. http://wp.me/p3if7-1mV
Cannon Falls
President Obama visits Cannon Falls. Broadband leader, Gary Evans gets an opportunity to highlight broadband success in Minnesota and praise broadband stimulus efforts. http://wp.me/p3if7-1n8
Community Development Director works with local broadband provider to improve broadband in local industrial park. http://wp.me/p3if7-1nD
Carver County
Senators Klobuchar and Franken attend the groundbreaking for the ARRA-funded fiber network in Carver County. http://wp.me/p3if7-1nd
Duluth
Enventis breaks ground on its ARRA-funded middle mile fiber-optic network across greater Minnesota connecting health care facilities, schools, libraries, higher education institutions and public offices. http://wp.me/p3if7-1nx
Eagan
Eagan posts a Request for Proposal, seeking help with fiber optic cabling. http://wp.me/p3if7-1nn
Granite Falls
Minnesota West Community and Technology College collaborates with Minnesota Telecom Alliance (MTA) to offer a Telecommunications Technology Program to address a growing need for professionals trained on new technology. http://wp.me/p3if7-1oe
Jackson
Local leaders are conflicted about what to do with the city’s cable network in light of ARRA-funded fiber coming into the community. http://wp.me/p3if7-1n4
Lac qui Parle County
The LqP Computer Commuter receives Community Pride award at the Minnesota State Fair. http://wp.me/p3if7-1oa
Minnetonka
Lake Minnetonka Communications Commission decides not to fund local efforts for a community fiber network. http://wp.me/p3if7-1mz
Moose Lake
Moose Lake is striving for an improved Community Access/Public Safety Network but is running into slowdowns. http://wp.me/p3if7-1o6
Redwood County
Redwood County is hoping to move forward with a fiber feasibility study. http://tinyurl.com/3o4tman They have been having public meetings on the network for several months. http://wp.me/p3if7-1ng
Southwest Minnesota
The Southwest Minnesota Broadband Services (SMBS) progresses in bringing ARRA-funded fiber to Southwest Minnesota and several local news outlets talk about the advantages. http://wp.me/p3if7-1nP
Stevens County
The Stevens County Economic Improvement Commission, Inc. (SCEIC) is offering free one-year subscriptions to Atomic Training to businesses in Stevens County as part of their MIRC initiative. http://wp.me/p3if7-1o0
Todd County
With the support of Blandin Foundation’s Robust Broadband Networks Feasibility Grant Program, Todd County is moving forward with a fiber feasibility study. http://wp.me/p3if7-1o3
(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
September 13 – Anoka County Fiber Construction Celebration http://wp.me/p3if7-1ok
September 19 – TEDx1000Lakes (Grand Rapids MN) http://tedx1000lakes.com/
September 22 – QR Code: What, How Why? (webinar) http://tinyurl.com/3qvmw5s
October 6-7 – MN Telecom Alliance Fall Conference (Minneapolis) http://tinyurl.com/3jp7qq9
October 13 – Minnesota Association of Community Telecommunications Administrators Annual Conference (Lake Elmo, MN) http://tinyurl.com/25re5wp
November 3 – Tekne Awards (Minneapolis) http://www.tekneawards.org/
November 12 – CityCamp Minnesota (Minneapolis) http://citycamp.govfresh.com/
November 16-17 – Policy & Progress: Border to Border Broadband (Duluth) http://tinyurl.com/44qgnxg
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
Broadband discussions continue across the state. For locations that will benefit from stimulus funds, stakeholders are negotiating agreements with vendors, contractors, federal officials and their project partners. For those who missed the stimulus, their discussions are more preliminary. “What do we have? What do we need? How are we going to get there?” Applications to serve on the new state broadband task force will be online by the time this newsletter is published.
I have noticed an uptick in the number of incumbent telephone providers who are now attending and actively participating in community broadband meetings. They know they face a steep challenge to meet the state broadband goal of 10 – 20 Mb by 2015, especially outside of municipal boundaries. They know the costs of network upgrades, how many prospective customers reside in these rural areas and how much customers are generally going to be willing to pay per month for broadband. They also watch their line counts drop as mobile phones replace land lines in home after home. They know that the traditional business financing and ROI requirements are not going to support significant network investments.
The easy and quick answer is “public-private partnerships”. Easy to say; not so easy to do. Many, many questions emerge. Clearly some form of public financing is required. Past state broadband chair Rick King recently suggested state bonding for broadband and that is a likely answer. But the hard questions still hang there. Will state financed networks be privately owned? Will they be required to be open access? Will deals be financed at the county level, statewide or by traditional exchange boundaries? Who owns the risk for repaying the bonds? Does the financing government have regulatory influence on pricing or quality of service? Will publicly-financed networks be built in areas that already meet the state broadband goal or just in unserved/underserved areas? Will there be any cost-benefit analysis required or is 100% coverage really the standard as it is with wireline telephone service? Does the public sector need to get involved in middle mile networks in areas where those are inadequate to support robust local networks?
Rumor has it that significant state telecommunications laws will be rewritten this next legislative session, presumably before the state broadband task force really has a chance to get up and running. If this is the case, we all know that the process timeline is upside down and that rural broadband access will likely suffer. Legislators crack open these big telecom laws only so often and the legislation written before a task force report is issued is likely to have been written more by telecom lobbyists than rural broadband customers.
This fall, Blandin Foundation will be hosting two webinars on these two important topics – federal and state policy on October 12 and public-private partnerships on October 26. Watch for more information soon!
Bill Coleman helps communities make the connection between telecommunications and economic development. As principal in Community Technology Advisors http://tinyurl.com/3f4dx7g for ten years, he assists community, foundation and corporate clients develop and implement programs of broadband infrastructure investment and technology promotion and training. Bill is working with the Blandin Foundation on the MIRC Initiative http://tinyurl.com/2c6mhh4, Community Broadband Resource Program http://tinyurl.com/cseu7e and other broadband projects.