The Minnesota Star Tribune recently ran an article on the problems some well-heeled outer ring suburbs are having getting better broadband. It’s an interesting spin on what I’ve heard in other communities – most recently in Willmar. Communities are frustrated because the ability of residents to sell homes, start businesses and do homework is in jeopardy and based on the decisions of private businesses. This is what is looks like in Afton…

In broadband as in other domains, including cellphone coverage, places such as Afton that have fought to remain rural, beating back developers who’ve sought to bring in subdivisions with hundreds of homes, are now too sparsely settled for businesses to make a profit.

“When we told a roomful of Comcast representatives that we were about to add a 50-acre subdivision,” Ross recalls, “they asked, ‘How many homes?’ When we said ‘Five,’ they literally burst out laughing. ‘In Woodbury, it’d be 200 and we’d be talking to you,’ they said. ‘But we are not going to build out Afton.’ ”
It’s not just the thinly scattered homes per acre in some wealthy areas; it’s also distance from the road. Negotiations have taken place in the Lake Minnetonka area over how many hundreds of feet from the street the provider will cover, said Jim Lundberg, operations manager for the Lake Minnetonka Communications Commission.

“It used to be 200 feet for us, but we were able to get them to cover 500 feet, and that was a significant change,” he said. “But you have horse farms in Medina where driveways are extremely long and households have to pay the cost themselves when it’s more than 500 feet.”

Apparently there are other drawbacks in these areas – but lack of broadband is more severe than the rest…

Technology isn’t the only problem for many living in pricey, remote areas. Residents of Afton report they can’t always get a pizza delivered, or a windshield repaired. Some drive to Wisconsin for groceries. Residents of extremely low-density communities in eastern Washington County crowded a public hearing on library planning to complain that they don’t have a library anywhere close.
But these days, not getting speedy Internet, especially for folks able to afford big mansions, is like not having indoor plumbing.

It sounds like Afton has applied for a state broadband grant. The article alludes to fund’s priority for economically distressed areas, which is not for Afton’s advantage. I wonder if that will come up when they discuss funding in the Legislature next year…

Indeed, the law speaks of helping places suffering “economic distress.” Last year, communities seeking help included Medina, whose median household income of $127,000 towers over Edina’s, and Orono, on the banks of Lake Minnetonka. Neither was awarded funds.

It is interesting to read the hundreds of comments garnered by the story.