It’s always nice to see mainstream media help highlight the challenge of broadband in rural Minnesota. If you don’t spend time in rural Minnesota it’s easy to forget or be blind to the problem of areas without broadband access. Some areas have DSL – although most rural DSL connections cannot match the state goal of 10-20 Mbps down and 5-10 Mbps up. Some areas don’t even have DSL. Some have access to wireless options but data caps render wireless impractical for regular use.

Julio Ojeda- Zapata has hit all of these points and more in his recent article in the Pioneer Press that highlights a recent report from the Institute for Local Self Reliance…

While most Twin Cities residents have access to what the institute calls a broadband “minimum standard” with download speeds of at least 10 megabits per second, “fewer than half of Greater Minnesota households have such access,” it said in a recent report.

Minnesota had set of a goal of universal broadband access by 2015, but will fall short.

Supporters of broadband expansion in rural Minnesota did log a victory this year when the Legislature set aside $20 million for such efforts. This, however, fell far short of the $100 million the governor’s broadband task force had recommended. …

Locally spawned Internet providers like Spring Grove Communications, serving as alternatives to national providers like Comcast, are an emerging and promising trend in Minnesota, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

“Rural cooperatives, mostly telephone but also some electric, have invested significantly in fiber optic connections capable of very high speeds,” the group said in its recent report.