I know we put out word a few weeks ago that now was the time to act to get the House to put broadband back in their budget.

People acted. It made a difference!!

The House put broadband back in the budget, unfortunately they number is not what has been recommended, which is going to leave a lot of areas unserved.

It looks like it’s time again. Conference committees are starting. Decisions will be made. If you think broadband funding is important. I think now is another really good time to be a squeaky wheel!

The Minnesota High Tech Association is getting focused and reports that now is the time if you want to get focused too…

There are less than two weeks left in the 2015 Legislative Session, with the conference committee beginning to meet today on the Jobs and Economic Development Finance omnibus bill.

We need your help encouraging lawmakers to support additional funding for the Office of Broadband Development and the Border-to-Border Broadband Grant Program. Check out the information below, and contact key legislators to let them know you support these key funding priorities.

They set the stage…

The House and Senate Jobs committees recently funded the Office of Broadband Development and the Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program. However, funding for the grant program in both bodies is at a fraction of the funding level recommended by the Governor’s Task Force on Broadband.

The Office of Broadband Development plays a critical role in helping develop Minnesota’s broadband infrastructure, with the goals of making Minnesota a top-five state in terms of broadband access and speed. To help meet these goals, the Office works with partners on mapping broadband availability in an effort to more effectively direct state investment. For more on the state speed goals, please see page 9 of the 2014 Annual Report.

Senator Schmit, a serious rural broadband advocate, is also timing his message for now in a recent letter in the Kenyon Reader…

By now, we all know the facts: 20 percent of Minnesota homes lack wireline broadband at our modest state speed goal of 10 mbps download / 5 mbps upload. Nearly 40 percent of homes in Greater Minnesota miss the mark.

The speed goal represents a basic threshold by which Internet users can count their connections worthy for home-based business or teleworking, distance learning or telemedicine.

The speed goal is the result of Minnesota’s first broadband task force, which nearly a decade ago unanimously recommended that all Minnesotans have basic broadband access by 2015. Following a second active task force, nonprofit outreach, Internet service provider and cooperative engagement, countless community meetings and a groundswell of support across the state, we’ve made progress.

But at the rate we’re going, we’ll connect the final quarter of Minnesota households with high-speed Internet at a snail’s pace.