Monthly Archives: February 2015

Goodhue County Broadband 2014 Update: anchor tenants’ stronger connection than residential services

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goodhueFor the upcoming weeks I’m working on a County-by-County look at the State of Broadband in MN. My hope is to feature a county a day (in alphabetical order). In November, Connect Minnesota released their final report on broadband availability. Here is how Freeborn County stacked up:

  • Household Density: 24
  • Number of Households: 18,730
  • Percentage serviced (without mobile): 67.62%
  • Percentage serviced (with mobile): 93.54%

Goodhue is clearly one of the few counties where there’s a marked difference in mobile and wireline access. A little bit like Dakota County, I think the government office and anchor tenants are much better served than residents.

There’s a been a push to use broadband in the schools – for professional development. Last summer they got a grant from the Blanidn Foundation to provide online access for teachers to access online professional development. They have been working with neighboring counties (such as Dakota and Washington) to share fiber networks to increase value and redundancy.

In 2013, Mediacom upgraded services in Goodhue.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

Does broadband make motherhood easier?

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A friend shared an article with a note saying, “A good reason to support broadband, allows for more flextime, virtual work, strengthens rural communities where a traffic jam is five cars queued at the stop sign.”

The article (Commuting: the Real Reason Women Don’t Lean In) outlines the difficulties mothers have commuting…

Commuting disproportionately limits and stresses out women compared to men. From restricting job prospects to requiring aviationlike coordinate plotting, daily travel pressures are wearing women down.

They have some numbers to back it up…

It even impacts where you choose to make your life: A study out of the University of Chicago shows that cities with longer commute times have fewer married women in the workforce. In cities where commute times increased between 1980 and 2000, the researchers found that more women dropped out of the labor force. In Minneapolis, which has some of the most easily navigable streets for a major city, 79 percent of women were employed. Compare that with New York City, where the number drops to 49 percent. Neither housing prices nor local wages explains the disparity.

Sure, men still leave earlier in the morning, work later into the evening and have longer trip times. And, as McGuckin points out, part of the stress women feel may be because they take on the burden of making sure everything runs according to plan. But regardless, commuting is shaping — and limiting — workforce diversity (yes, we’re talking to you, companies that don’t allow work-from-home flexibility).

The article strikes me this week because thanks to broadband and job flexibility, I don’t care that my sick teenager decided to go to school at 10 am. And I’m OK with running her to an orthodontist appointment tomorrow. Because if I can get online, I can get my job done. I don’t have to call in sick myself. I was just planning a summer vacation – a road trip, because again I don’t really need to take time off to travel. If I can get online, I can work. It makes parenting much easier. Vacations cheaper. It makes me happier.

I talked to my sister on Sunday. She figured shuffling four kids to their activities was going to take two hours – on a Sunday! But she had her iPad and planned to catch up with work during the inevitable 10-20 minute “breaks” between pickups.

My friend had a great point – broadband and a little work flexibility can have a big impact on quality of life for moms. And you know if mama ain’t happy…

Lt. Governor Tina Smith meets with broadband grant recipients across Minnesota

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I wrote about one of these meetings last week – but as much for the archive as for the news of it I wanted to share DEED’s recent announcement…

This week, Smith along with MN Office of Broadband Development Executive Director Danna MacKenzie traveled to Duluth, Chisholm, Brainerd, Fergus Falls and Luverne for broadband roundtable discussions with grant awardees and key stakeholders.

So nice to have the personal connection – as well obviously for the funding – in local communities. I think the visit from broadband and policy dignitaries can help spread the word and importance of broadband as much as the investment.

Freeborn County Broadband 2014 Update: almost there

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freebornFor the upcoming weeks I’m working on a County-by-County look at the State of Broadband in MN. My hope is to feature a county a day (in alphabetical order). In November, Connect Minnesota released their final report on broadband availability. Here is how Freeborn County stacked up:

  • Household Density: 18.2
  • Number of Households: 13,177
  • Percentage serviced (without mobile): 95.79%
  • Percentage serviced (with mobile): 95.79%

Freeborn is in good shape for broadband coverage although this still have a little further to go for ubiquitous coverage but in November 2013, Connect Minnesota charts showed that only 34 percent of Freeborn County had broadband access. I think that’s hopeful for the counties that are currently at less that 50 percent coverage. I know that Freeborn has been good about getting anchor tenants connecting; Albert Lea city upgraded their network from  3 Mbps to 50 in 2011.  And local politicians have been engaged on the topic.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →

MN Broadband Fund Award: A closer look at Sauk Lake Area (Todd County)

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OBD fund graphicAlmost $20 million in state grants have gone to 17 communities in Minnesota to expand broadband and make the case to legislators (and the general public) that such investments are wise and have a valuable Return on Investment. I wanted to delve into each project a bit to help us follow the money as it gets deployed. (See other awardee posts.)

Arvig (Mainstreet Communications LLC), Sauk Lake area. Awarded $536,702 to build broadband infrastructure to serve 217 unserved premises in the Sauk Lake area, which is located primarily in Todd County (with some project area in rural Stearns County) just north of Sauk Centre. This is an unserved area where no wired broadband infrastructure is available. The full project cost is $1.07 million; the remaining $536,703 (50 percent) will be supplied by a private investment made by Arvig.

Community and Economic Development Impact: It is estimated that 20 percent of the premises to be served are either a business or running a home-based business. In addition, students will gain household Internet connectivity, enabling online homework and other distance learning applications in local school districts.

The Sauk Lake project doesn’t fit as nicely into my county focus as I’d like it to fit but I think I’ll look mostly at Todd County  in terms of stats purely because of the practicality of digging deeper. Todd County has been looking at broadband for as long as I can remember – but in terms of recent history – in 2011, the county spent $20,000 on a feasibility study. In 2012, they held a community meeting to talk more about fiber. With only 26 percent broadband coverage, they clearly ran into hiccups with their momentum.

Just to help track progress, here are some recent stats on Todd County:

On broadband (Connect MN final stats from 2014):

  • Household Density: 10
  • Number of Households: 9.756
  • Percentage serviced (without mobile): 25.69%
  • Percentage serviced (with mobile): 25.69%

Census quick facts (from 2013):

  • Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2009-2013:   $130,000
  • Per capita money income in past 12 months (2013 dollars), 2009-2013:   $22,383
  • Persons below poverty level, percent, 2009-2013:   15.7%
  • Private nonfarm establishments, 2012:   557
  • Private nonfarm employment, 2012:   5623

Ely hoping to get fixed wireless through AT&T

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According to the Ely Echo, AT&T is looking to bring fast wireless to the Ely area…

New technology will allow the combined company to provide high speed internet access where it doesn’t exist in the Ely area.
“This technology will be able to dedicate fixed wireless broadband to local residents,” said Weirtz
Fixed wireless broadband involves a unit the size of a shoebox mounted on the outside of a home. Wireless connections are made through AT&T from the WIFI network in the home.
“This will be at speeds above or beyond 15 to 25 megabit download. We’ll have packages where you can watch Netflix or Hulu without the data caps like you do with wireless,” said Weirtz.
Pricing would be similar to what is currently on the market now where wired broadband is available.
“This will be priced as if you had broadband wired to the home. You call us up and we’ll bring out something like an oversized shoe box mounted on the outside of your home,” said Weirtz.

But they are counting on approval of a merger between AT&T and DirectTV to make that happen…

The Ely area would benefit if the FCC approves a merger between A&T and DirectTV.
AT&T Minnesota president Paul Weirtz recently spoke with the Ely Echo about the proposal.
“Our space in Minnesota is primarily wireless space,” said Weirtz. “Since 2010 AT&T has spent more than $525 million building our 4GLTE network statewide.”
Weirtz said that project has been in just about every corner of the state, including the new cell tower on the Fernberg Road.
It took a court battle with the Friends of the Boundary Waters to win approval to erect the tower and extend wireless service here.
The company is focused on delivering the latest technology to Minnesota.
“There’s an ongoing capital investment and we’re very proud of that,” said Weirtz.
AT&T currently offers video/TV service in 22 states but is now looking to expand into satellite television.
“With the combined power of the company with DirectTV, we will be able to offer consumers satellite with DirectTV, wireless with AT&T and even more importantly we are going to be providing rural broadband service within four years of the close of the deal,” said Weirtz.

Fillmore County Broadband 2014 Update: middle of the pack

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fillmoreFor the upcoming weeks I’m working on a County-by-County look at the State of Broadband in MN. My hope is to feature a county a day (in alphabetical order). In November, Connect Minnesota released their final report on broadband availability. Here is how Fillmore County stacked up:

  • Household Density: 99
  • Number of Households: 8,545
  • Percentage serviced (without mobile): 69.32%
  • Percentage serviced (with mobile): 69.75%

Fillmore is in middle of the Minnesota broadband pack with almost 70 percentage broadband coverage. In September 2013, we learned that CenturyLink has accepted Connect America Funding to upgrade connectivity in Fillmore County and since that time broadband coverage has gone from less than 7 percent to almost 70. That’s a lot of progress – but more progress is needed if Fillmore is going to meet the 2015 speed goals (10-20 Mpbs down and 5-10 Mbps up).

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage…

How does Minnesota define broadband? Continue reading →

Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board looks at funding for broadband

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According to the Duluth News Tribune…

The Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board is set to vote Tuesday in St. Paul on a $1.5 million grant to expand broadband Internet service to rural areas.

The grant will go to Clinton Township on behalf of Northeast Service Cooperative and Frontier Communications for a $4.34 million project that will bring broadband to 877 homes and 30 town halls and fire halls across 20 townships on the Iron Range.

The board was set to vote on the same project in December but delayed action to see if the project was in conflict with privately funded broadband efforts. IRRRB staff determined that there was no conflict. It’s the agency’s largest effort to expand broadband so far.

Possible federal funding for digital inclusion for ag industry

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It might be a longshot but it seemed like there might be some potential here for broadband adoption projects…

On Monday, February 2, President Obama sent his budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2016 to Capitol Hill. The overall proposed spending number for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for FY 2016 is $23.5 billion in discretionary spending, down from $23.8 billion in actual appropriated discretionary funding for FY 2015.

…

Rural Business and Community Development

We are delighted that the budget includes a significant plus up for the Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program (RMAP), which provides loan capital and technical assistance funding to local and regional organizations that in turn provide microloans and business development technical assistance to rural microentrepreneurs. The budget request includes $2.65 million for microlending and $2 million for grants to support microbusiness training and technical assistance. In FY 2015, Congress did not appropriate discretionary funding for RMAP. We will be strongly supporting the President’s request for RMAP funding for FY 2016.

We are deeply disappointed that the budget request includes cuts to two of the most effective and popular USDA Rural Development programs – the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (also known as ATTRA), which each year provides hundreds of thousands of farmers, extension agents, and other practitioners with technical information and guidance on a wide range of sustainable agriculture topics, and the Value-Added Producer Grants (VAPG) program, which provides competitively awarded grants to create or develop value-added producer-owned businesses. The budget proposes discretionary funds VAPG at $10 million, in addition to the program’s farm bill mandatory funding. This is a decrease of 9 percent from last year’s enacted discretionary level for the program. The budget proposes to cut ATTRA funding by 16 percent, from $2.5 million to $2.1 million.

The budget request includes $10 million for the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) for farm and rural renewable energy systems and energy efficiency improvements. The funding would be divided 50/50 between loans and grants. This proposed discretionary funding would be in addition to the $50 million in mandatory funding provided by the new farm bill on an annual basis. The proposed discretionary level represents a greater than seven-fold increase over the actual FY 2015 level.

The President’s budget request includes $37.9 million in guaranteed loans for local and regional food enterprise development within the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program. This is a reduction of nearly 18 percent from the actual FY 2015 appropriation. By statute, five percent of funding for the guaranteed loan program is dedicated to financing local and regional food enterprises. We will be urging Congress to reject the proposed cut.

How can Minnesota reduce barriers to community broadband networks?

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A couple weeks ago, President Obama asked the FCC to look at reducing state barrier to community networks. (That speech was followed up by the proposed Community Broadband Act.) Earlier this year, broadband consultant Craig Settles released a report called, How to Navigate, Mitigate or Eliminate the Impacts of State Restrictions on Public Broadband. It’s a primer on what needs to be done and why to reduce state barrier to community broadband. Here is what Craig had to say about the barrier in Minnesota…

This state has one of the most straightforward If‐Then laws. Communities have to pass a referendum with at least 65 percent of the vote in order to own and operate a telephone exchange (click here for the law’s wording). “What we have is a psychological   barrier  to broadband that’s built from the fear of being sued more than a real restriction,” said Danna MacKenzie, executive director, Office of Broadband Development for the state of Minnesota. Besides the referendum requirement, which is a surmountable challenge, no one’s considering building telephone exchanges anymore when communities are contemplating broadband networks. Cities can make the case that their network is only for data and avoid the referendum altogether, which Lake County did. MacKenzie said, “Their legal department felt the county was not subject to this particular law. The county took a political hit for bypassing the referendum but has moved past it to begin building the network.”

Monticello partnered with Hiawatha Broadband Communications to jointly own and operate a fiber data network, and Windom built a citywide       network. Lac qui Parle and Sibley counties partnered with a telephone and broadband co‐op, respectively. Scott County built its network infrastructure to address public safety, city facilities and anchor institutions, and then started offering services to businesses.

The referendum actually can be viewed as a positive requirement for communities. Local governments are not accustomed to operating in a competitive environment. To pass referenda, they would have to do extensive needs assessments, consensus building, planning and marketing within the various communities. Ultimately, this can lead to a better broadband strategy and ultimately a better network with a stronger potential for financial sustainability.

And here I have paraphrased his general recommendations for community, states and other interested in pushing down the barriers…

  • Know the laws; some may be misleading
  • Be ready to fight at a moment’s notice should barrier be introduced or discussed at the legislature.
  • Find out who is opposed to removing barriers and work with them.
  • Files comments with the FCC
  • Prepare to lobby.
  • Develop innovative funding strategies
  • Rethink your approach to private public partnerships

Broadband Roundtable discussion on MN Broadband Fund held in Chisholm

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According to the Hibbing Daily Tribune…

Lt. Gov. Tina Smith hosted a roundtable discussion Tuesday at Delta Airlines in Chisholm as part of a statewide tour to discuss the importance of high-speed broadband access.

She was not alone…

Joining Smith at the roundtable were Executive Director of the State Office of Broadband Development Dana Mackenzie; Executive Director of Development for Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) Steve Peterson; Regional Vice President of Mediacom Bill Jensen; Vice President of Operations for Century Link Tyler Middleton; Chief Technology Officer for Northeast Service Cooperative Lyle MacVey; Director of Customer Engagement for Delta Airlines Bobbie van Schoohoven; Director of Customer Care for Delta Dental Theresa Nystrom; and Owner of Voyagaire Lodge and Houseboats Jim Janssen.

In part they were there to discuss the recent Minnesota Broadband Funds, which includes $2.33 million in grants awarded to benefit broadband Internet projects on the Iron Range. Here is a reminder on that project…

Mediacom, Pintar Road. Awarded $137,848 to provide broadband services to 122 unserved homes and businesses on the southwest edge of the city limits of Hibbing. The full cost of this project is $275,697; the remaining $137,849 in matching funds (50 percent) will be provided by a private investment made by Mediacom.

The project is expeted to be complete by the end of the year.

The FCC is leaning toward calling broadband a utility

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It’s all I can do to keep up with broadband happenings in Minnesota these days – but I had to at least capture at the highest level recent events at the FCC.

According to Minnesota Public Radio…

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler laid out his proposal in a first-person essay Wednesday in Wired. He proposes using the FCC’s authority to regulate the Internet as a utility, writing:

“I am proposing that the FCC use its Title II authority to implement and enforce open internet protections.

“Using this authority, I am submitting to my colleagues the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC. These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. I propose to fully apply—for the first time ever—those bright-line rules to mobile broadband. My proposal assures the rights of internet users to go where they want, when they want, and the rights of innovators to introduce new products without asking anyone’s permission.”

The Wall Street journal credits President Obama…

In November, the White House’s top economic adviser dropped by the Federal Communications Commission with a heads-up for the agency’s chairman, Tom Wheeler. President Barack Obama was ready to unveil his vision for regulating high-speed Internet traffic.

And his staff…

The prod from Mr. Obama came after an unusual, secretive effort inside the White House, led by two aides who built a case for the principle known as “net neutrality” through dozens of meetings with online activists, Web startups and traditional telecommunications companies.

Acting like a parallel version of the FCC itself, R. David Edelman and Tom Power listened as Etsy Inc., Kickstarter Inc., Yahoo Inc. ’s Tumblr and other companies insisted that utility-like rules were needed to help small companies and entrepreneurs compete online, people involved in the process say.

The Wall Street Journal also outlines folks who might be less than thrilled with the proposal…

The big losers in the White House process were cable and phone companies, which spent years lobbying to gain support for their view that toughened rules would make it harder for them to offer new kinds of services. Executives who tried to go over the two aides’ heads, including by appealing directly to Valerie Jarrett, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, got nowhere.

Nothing is set in stone yet; the FCC is expected to vote on Wheeler’s latest proposal Feb. 26

Aitkin: County last in state for access to broadband: More details from the frontlines

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The Aitkin Age seems to have picked up the Aitkin county broadband profile we worked on a few weeks ago and made it even better! The reporter picked up more on local efforts to promote broadband…

According to Wagner, a group of citizens, interested in broadband, has been meeting in Aitkin County for some time. Recently, they’ve gotten together with representatives of other area counties to form the East Central Regional Broadband Coalition. Besides Aitkin, the counties also include Mille Lacs, Pine and Kanabec.

“It’s hard for a county working on its own to make progress and the coalition makes sense since we’re all in the same boat,” Wagner said.

They’ve held workshops, a conference and informational sessions on the issue, then decided to join an even bigger group, the Central Woodland Broadband Coalition.

“There’s strength in numbers. We hope [Internet] providers will look at the issue,” Wagner said, explaining that the problem seems to be that the population in counties like Aitkin is so spread out, the potential for profit is marginal.

Wagner said members of the original Aitkin County group are interested in reviving the local broadband task force.

“Our state’s history of economic success has shown us how vital a solid infrastructure is to building a strong business climate. Broadband access is an important part of that 21st century infrastructure. Broadband accessibility is an issue that is critical to growing our state’s economy – particularly in Greater Minnesota. As long as there are inequities in access to broadband in Minnesota, we will see those same inequities reflected in our schools, hospitals and businesses,” Gov. Mark Dayton said recently.

And spoke to several providers in the area…

Internet providers are working to address the issue. Mike Martin, executive director of the Minnesota Cable Association said the issue in rural areas like Aitkin is population density. Martin said it’s simply not cost-effective for companies to build the infrastructure needed to offer broadband to areas that are as sparsely populated and spread out as Aitkin County. Homes per mile is an issue along with seasonal residency – a less than “dependable” market for providers.

“I’m not surprised by Blandin’s figures,” Martin said, adding, “Even  with subsidies [like a possible state matching grant of 50 percent] companies still won’t break even when you consider the high cost of construction and maintenance.”

The first to bring dialup Internet to Aitkin County, Mille Lacs Energy Cooperative (MLEC) introduced high speed internet with fixed wireless and satellite broadband as demands changed.

“Today, this is still the only technology available to many people,” said  MLEC Supervisor of Engineering and Technology Stacy Cluff, adding, “To meet customers’ needs today, a fiber network would be ideal but the cost to deploy this is extremely high due to the distance between homes. MLEC has been looking for ways to expand with, without funding, it will be challenging.”

MLEC has applied for grants including the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) in 2009 and, most recently, through the FCC Broadband rural experiments program. To date, Cluff said, MLEC has not been selected to receive a grant.

“Currently, we are working to find faster alternatives to fixed wireless and have begun experimenting with the TV White Space spectrum, which uses old analog TV frequencies. We will continue to look for opportunities that would allow us to start a fiber network but there are many financial challenges to make this happen,” concluded Cluff.

Senior Charter Communications Manager Kimberly Noetzel said, currently, Charter offers residential customers in Aitkin a 60 Mbps Internet connection with a 99.9 percent reliability rating.

Looking for MN libraries to pilot regional scale wireless networks using White Spaces!

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A great opportunity for a library to bring some level of broadband to the community. If you think you and/or your library are interested you can learn more from the Gigabit Libraries Network. (And if you do become a pilot, please let me know!)

WhiteSpace Pilot Issues Open Call to Libraries

30-Jan-15

Posted by: BBC Wires @ 4:27 pm

CHICAGO — Libraries and their communities are being asked to join a national pilot to evaluate new regional scale wireless networks using license-­free TV band frequencies, called TV white spaces or TVWS. These wide-area networks will be installed and tested for their value in supporting disaster preparedness and in daily service of community, civic, educational, economic, cultural and health goals.

Gigabit Libraries Network (GLN) in partnership with Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) announced the open call after the project was named a winner of the Knight News Challenge on Libraries, which awarded a total of $3 million to 22 ideas that provide new tools and approaches to leverage libraries as a platform to build more knowledgeable communities. The challenge is a project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which promotes more informed and engaged communities.

Seeking Innovative Uses for TVWS Equipment in Combination with Wi-Fi Project leaders are seeking libraries, schools, health clinics and other interested community anchor institutions to collaborate in running local pilot projects as part of a national Rield test to explore and develop innovative uses for TVWS equipment in combination with Wi-Fi to support remote Rixed and portable library hotspots at new locations in their communities. The project will also develop “learning tools” to help smooth analysis and adoption by participants.

According to John Gavan of Delta County, CO Public Library, “Our district has been operating a TVWS system supporting two hotspots in the town of Paonia, CO for over a year now. The technology was easy to set up; works extremely well and requires little support. It just runs day in and day out. We used TVWS to support our local festivals, town park events and even a music simulcast with our local radio station. We typically have over 200 associations a day and move an average of 2.5 GB of data a day over the network. It has been transformational for our little town.”

DIY Communications Infrastructure Like Wi-­Fi, TVWS radios use free public spectrum, requiring no third party carriers, fees, licenses or other permissions to use for digital communication. But unlike Wi-Fi, TVWS has long range and penetrative capabilities that can support broadband connections over miles and through obstructions like trees and buildings. Combining these two license-­free wireless technologies creates wide area (in-house) networks as DIY communications infrastructure.

“We’re excited about the opportunity for libraries to lead a national test of what appears to be a powerful new communications technology. With this support from Knight Foundation, established community anchors – libraries – will increase their knowledge, share experience, and expand partnerships to further deploy and evaluate the capabilities and limits of TVWS utilization, adding greatly to the body of knowledge based in practical experience,” notes COSLA Executive Director, Timothy Cherubini.

Creating TVWS-­enabled Satellite Library Wi-­Fi Hotspots The project builds on trials started in 2013 testing these systems for their usability and potential to serve libraries and schools in creative ways. Setting up new TVWS-­enabled “satellite” library Wi-­Fi hotspots can exponentially expand availability and convenience for the some 80 million people who rely entirely or partly on libraries for Internet access. Until now, these people are required to be in or just beside a library in order to gain access.

“It’s difficult to imagine any town, much less an aspiring smart city, not wanting to become knowledgeable about the capabilities and limits of a new free and open spectrum communications resource to increase community security and to enhance delivery of public services,” says GLN Director, Don Means. “If TVWS has even 10 percent of the impact of Wi-Fi, that will be a very big deal.”

Incorporating TVWS/Wi-­Fi into Community Disaster Planning Library facilities have shown to be effective resources during disaster, and almost uniquely in providing access to information and communications technologies (ICT’s). Participants in the Phase Two initiative are being asked to incorporate TVWS/Wi-­Fi into community disaster planning as a redundant and potentially invaluable new communications resource. Each local project is expected to evaluate how, as portable library Wi-­Fi access points, these units could be quickly redeployed, with backup power, to create pop-­‐up hotspots at damaged areas in times of crisis.

“The reality is that after a catastrophic event, the public communications infrastructure WILL be down for two to five days on average, and the community will need temporary connectivity until the public utilities are restored,” says Joe Hillis, Operations Director, Information Technology Disaster Resource Center. “A TVWS network can help bridge the communications gap by allowing temporary Internet hotspots to be deployed around the community at much greater distances than traditional Wi-Fi currently allows.”

Currently US-centric, the Libraries WhiteSpace pilot has begun to attract interest internationally as a cost effective strategy to provide accessible broadband to an estimated 4.4 billion people without Internet. “The prospects for TVWS to play a key role in helping connect the next 4 billion people cannot be overstated. Except for perhaps Wi-Fi itself, no wireless data communications technology has offered so much capability at so little cost. Who better and more trusted than the world’s 320,000 libraries as intermediate end points in telecom infrastructure buildout, to act as test lab and access hub in communities everywhere. The impact of this in America and the rest of the world is incalculable!” said H. Nwana, executive director, dynamic spectrum alliance and former group director for spectrum at UK regulator, Ofcom.

The project will also encourage participants to adopt an iterative prototyping approach towards discovering the widest array of uses and benefits for these new communications tools. Experimenting with these tools is an important focus of the Knight News Challenge on Libraries. The Evolving Role of Libraries “There is a growing demand for libraries to evolve their role and become more dynamic, living platforms, responsive to community needs, ”said John S. Bracken, Knight Foundation vice president for media innovation. “The winners are working to reinvent the ways in which people experience the library and providing citizens with the tools and information they require to contribute and strengthen our democracy.”

Parties wishing to learn more are asked to register an “Initial Statement of Interest” in the WhiteSpace Pilot at http://www.GigLibraries.net for new information as the project unfolds in the weeks ahead.

Faribault County Broadband 2014 Update: issues with maps leave cloudy view of broadband coverage

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faribaultFor the upcoming weeks I’m working on a County-by-County look at the State of Broadband in MN. My hope is to feature a county a day (in alphabetical order). In November, Connect Minnesota released their final report on broadband availability. Here is how Faribault County stacked up:

  • Household Density: 8.6
  • Number of Households: 6,236
  • Percentage serviced (without mobile): 38.06%
  • Percentage serviced (with mobile): 38.06%

Faribault 2A week ago Bill Eckles, CEO of BVCOMM, sent me a very helpful email explaining the situation in Faribault County. The numbers collected by Connect MN are not reflective of the reality in Faribault County. I’ll share Bill’s note and map of coverage to explain the situation in Faribault but on behalf of the other counties where something similar may have happened…

BEVCOMM is the incumbent service provider in most of Faribault County. I hate to say it but the maps for Faribault County are wrong. Somewhere an update was missed either on our end or something didn’t’ get to Connect Minnesota. I’m not sure if it is because the underserved is considered 10mbps down and 6mbps up. Until recently our fastest DSL speed we advertised was 20mbsp down and 5 mbps up. We have since changed the upload on that plan to 6mbps to fit into the State of Minnesota’s definition.

Every community we serve in Faribault County is capable of these speeds on DSL. There is much of the rural outside of city limits which is capable of this speed. The broadband map shows less than 50% of Faribault County is capable of getting the 10/6 speeds. If you just consider the communities they alone account for 68% of the households. When you factor in the areas in the rural we should easily be over 70% capable of 10/6.

Also within the communities of Blue Earth, Wells and Winnebago roughly 30% of those homes are connected on our FTTH product where today we are offering speeds up to 90mbps down and 30mbps up. By the end of the year we will be offering a gig.

We are continuing to build out those communities working towards 100% FTTH. We are doing a FTTH build in Minnesota Lake starting this year. We have parts of the county outside of city limits where we have built FTTH.

My hope is that these county-specific posts will help policy makers and county residents understand where they stand in terms of broadband access. Assuming it might get forwarded to folks who don’t eat and sleep broadband I wanted to provide a little background on broadband to help set the stage… Continue reading →