It’s a business week for broadband in Minnesota. It’s good to see. Last night Kanabec County learned more about their options at meeting with U-reka Broadband, the company selected last May to perform a comprehensive broadband network feasibility study. According to the Kanabec County Times…
A goal of KBI is to improve broadband access across the county in order to meet the State of Minnesota Broadband Task Force 2015 goals. This task force was appointed by Governor Mark Dayton in November 2011. Those goals include “border-to-border” high speed Internet and cell phone access throughout Minnesota by 2015.
Like many predominantly rural counties, Kanabec is noticing a growing chasm in broadband speeds in their area. The cities have considerably faster broadband access that outlying areas. According to the feasibility study unveiled last night…
Kanabec County has a digital divide between the residents of Mora and Ogilvie and the remainder of the rural residents of the county. Only twenty-three percent of the counties residents have access to competitive broadband services and with the improvement of Midcontinent broadband services due in November of 2012 this gap will continue to grow. The incumbent rural providers do not have plans for service improvement that will match the State of Minnesota Broadband Task Force goals and competition is limited within Kanabec County.
The study considered two models…
Two models were considered for this study: 1) A rural Fiber-Wireless Hybrid project which would deliver wireless broadband services in partnership with a private provider to all of Kanabec County and provide a foundation for a future FTTP build and 2) A rural FTTP build utilizing a private provider to deliver voice, video and internet services. Both models were developed and each has a high probability of success; to achieve a cash flow position on the FTTP network a $10.00 monthly fee per subscriber would be required to make the financials of the project viable.
The report details the demand for improved service – both in terms of statistics and based on conversations with key stakeholders in sectors such as healthcare, business, local government and education. It details costs associated with each model. It also outlines current options available through incumbent providers. The Kanabec County Times succinctly posits the next steps…
The Hybrid Fiber-Wireless Network was estimated to cost approximately $7 million. The FTTP Network was estimated to cost approximately $2 million to cover town/city areas and $9 million to cover rural areas.
Next steps for KBI include deciding who, such as Kanabec County or the city of Mora, will be sponsoring the organization and going forward, making decisions about which model they prefer and continuing to develop and investigate partnerships with wireless providers and existing providers like Midcontinent and CenturyLink.
It’s interesting to take a look at the unique assets and challenges in Kanabec, but for other communities considering broadband the report is also a nice peek at what they need to consider in their own community.
I’ve mentioned it before – but not for a while – it’s also nice to see the report invoke the Minnesota Broadband Goals. Because there wasn’t any funding attached to the speed goals set by the state (5-10 Mbps up and 10-20 Mbps down by 2015) it’s easy to think that the goals aren’t having an impact, but clearly they are. Counties are making decisions based on the goals set in 2010.