Monthly Archives: March 2016

Minnesota Broadband Quiz for Legislators

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Yesterday the Blandin Foundation a chocolate and learn session with the Minnesota Legislators. It was a chance for them to come, take a fun quiz and meet local experts who were able to answer questions and tell them about what’s happening around the state with broadband.

I wanted to share the PPT..

And the quiz…

1. Broadband Providers who accepted CAF 2 (Connect American Fund) money are required to provide what minimum speeds?
a) 4 Mbps down 1 Mbps up
b) 10 Mbps down 1 Mbps up
c) 15 Mbps down 3 Mbps up
d) 25 Mbps down 3 Mbps up

2. According to Gartner, how many networked devices will the typical home have by 2022?
a) 5
b) 50
c) 500
d) 5000

3. What minimum broadband speed did the FCC suggest in October 2014 for a household with 4 users or devices online simultaneously?
a) 4 Mbps
b) 10 Mbps
c) 15 Mbps
d) 25 Mbps

4. For a provider in Minneapolis, backhaul access (wholesale Internet price) at the network core at the 511 Building costs a provider 50 cents per Megabit per month. What do you think the same access costs a provider in Thief River Falls?
a) $1 per Megabit
b) $7 per Megabit
c) $18 per Megabit
d) $24 per Megabit

5. According to the Internet Innovation Alliance, how much can a family save by having broadband (through smarter shopping and reduced costs in other areas)?
a) $15 annually
b) $150 annually
c) $1500 annually
d) $10,500 annually

6. What is the calculated ROI on one dollar invested in broadband access for local economies?
a) 2/1
b) 4/1
c) 10/1

7. What percent of Data traffic today is carried exclusively by cellular networks?
a) 2%
b) 10%
c) 20%

8. What are the key factors influencing Broadband adoption?
a) Age
b) Income
c) Geographic location
d) All of the above

9. What percentage of schools in Minnesota currently meet the 2018 FCC connectivity goal of 1Mbps of Internet bandwidth per student? (or 1Gbps per 1000 students)
a) 16%
b) 27%
c) 41%
d) 62%

10. What percentage of Minnesota public schools currently have 1:1 computing programs in at least some grade levels?
a) 15%
b) 38%
c) 55%
d) 72%

11. Where does Minnesota current rank in terms of states with the highest average Broadband speed?
a) 3
b) 9
c) 16
d) 21

(Get answers – actually questions and answers on page 3)

NTIA Announcement on Community Connectivity

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Fun news…

• The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the President’s advisor on telecommunications and Internet policy issues, is launching the Community Connectivity Initiative (Initiative) on Wednesday (3/8) as part of a broader White House announcement on efforts to expand broadband.

• Through the initiative, NTIA’s BroadbandUSA program is partnering with a number of civic organizations and cities and towns to create a comprehensive online assessment tool to help community leaders identify critical broadband needs and connect them with expertise, tools and resources for overcoming the challenges to expanded broadband deployment and adoption.

• The tool will provide a framework of benchmarks and indicators on access, adoption, policy and use for communities. Stakeholder participation is critical through every step of the design and implementation of this tool.

• Leading national organizations have already come on board to collaborate with NTIA to design and develop the tool.  Among the groups supporting the initiative are:

  • – American Library Association
  • – Blandin Foundation
  • – ConnectME Authority
  • – EveryoneOn
  • – ICMA, The International City/County Management Association
  • – National Association of Counties
  • – National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors
  • – National Digital Inclusion Alliance
  • – National League of Cities
  • – New America’s Open Technology Institute
  • – Next Century Cities
  • – NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association
  • – Schools, Health, Libraries and Broadband Coalition
  •  – US Ignite

• In addition, a number of communities have already agreed to support the development of the tool, and the list is growing.  Partner communities include:  Ammon, Idaho; Arvada, Colo.; Baltimore, Md.; Bettendorf, Iowa; Boston, Mass.; Charlotte, N.C.; Greenbelt, Md ; Hopewell, Va.; Hot Springs, Ark.; Hurst, Texas; Kansas City, Mo.; Kenmore, Wash.; Lenexa, Kan.; Oak Harbor, Wash.; Putnam, Conn.;  SeaTac, Wash.; Red Wing, Minn.; Sammamish, Wash; and Seattle, Wash.

• A number of engagement opportunities are planned to gather stakeholder input on the Initiative.  NTIA invites organizations and communities that would like to be engaged in the development process to send email to BroadbandUSA.ntia.doc.gov.

• This initiative was first announced as part of the Administration’s Broadband Opportunity Council Report. NTIA and The White House committed to conduct stakeholder outreach to define and create a Community Connectivity Index. The “Index” has evolved to a broader Community Connectivity Initiative in response to extensive feedback from community and civic leaders, analysis of eight major change programs, and a review of indicators used in a number of national, state and local broadband assessment programs.

Rick King presentation to Legislators: Minnesota’s Business Conditions: Prospects and Challenges A Perspective On Broadband

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Thanks to Rick King for sharing the PPT and notes from his presentation to Minnesota Legislators yesterday. Rick spoke to them during a day of presentations and talks (capped off with a talk by Thomas Friedman!) at the Humphrey Institute.

A Perspective on Broadband by Rick King – March 8, 2016 final

Slide 1 – Title

  • Thank you for the introduction and to the legislative leadership and the Humphrey school of Public Affairs for having me here today.

Slide 2 and 3 – “Technology evolves” – (slide 2 is your classroom computer; slide 3 is woman doing a video conference on a laptop)

  • I began my career teaching high school math and technology
  • Broadband is an important tool for the future – all corners and sectors of our state will benefit including consumers, business, education, healthcare and agriculture. That is why I have spent much of my time here in our state advocating for continued progress and I’ve been very impressed with the bipartisan support of this issue so thank you for that as well.

Slide 4- We’ve made significant progress thanks to the work of two different Task Forces – 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015 sub heads

  • In 2008, you passed a law putting the UHSBBTF into action. This was a wise move and then Governor Pawlenty named 23 people to serve with me as chair. When we began our work, the FTC’s guidelines for broadband were at just 768 Kbps – a speed that we wouldn’t even want on our phones now.
  • 2009 – The federal government began providing funding for broadband and other initiatives with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
  • In 2010, we set aspirational goals for access and speed by 2015; 100% access at 10-20 Mbps up and 5-10 Mbps down (we were at 58% total and 52% rural) and set a goal to be one of the top five states (we were at #23) and top 15 when compared to other countries. You adopted the goals and the Governor signed them, Up to this point there was no money to allocate and the federal CAF money was yet to come.
  • In 2011, Governor Dayton named his Broadband Task Force under the terrific leadership of former speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher and they have worked hard over the last five years and financial support has followed.
  • In the 2013 legislative session, you established an office of Broadband Development under DEED and named a terrific executive director in Danna MacKenzie.
  • In 2014, you created the Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program and funded it with $20 million, which provided a great incentive for private sector investment and assisted with access but not in all corners of the state.
  • At the end of 2015, the results from the last 5 years are good:
    • Access has improved to 91% of Minnesota households with at least 10 down and 5 up, up from 58% in 2010. But there are still disparities, only 80% of rural households have connections at that speed.
    • In addition, our ranking hasn’t kept pace either. Minnesota is 21st among the states, 23rd for speed and 24th for access.
    • You added $11 million to B-to-B funding in 2015
  • Meanwhile the private sector and technological advancement is also moving ahead at a very fast pace and that is having an impact on access.
  • In 2015, the telecommunications industry invested more than $705 million in capital expenditures.  This investment was directed toward upgrading existing plants and extending fiber further into networks. Private investment also replaced electronic equipment in central offices or headquarters, as well as adding, replacing or upgrading equipment to maintain networks and cellphone towers.
  • In 2016, the telecom industry is expected to invest more than $713 million in capital expenditures. These investments are leading to technological advancements.
  • We have improved but we do not have border to border broadband yet.  There are still pockets in the state where a commercial ROI is a challenge and public-private partnerships and ongoing funding is still necessary.

Slide 5 – Investment and focus is having an impact, here are six examples from around the state (clockwise from 12)

  • Secondary Ed – The Rural Information Technology Alliance (RITA) a four-college consortium including three sites in central Minnesota and one in Texas. They received federal funding to offer IT certifications for Cisco and Microsoft. Also, South Central College in Mankato, part of MnSCU, offers a Mechatronic Industrial Maintenance certificate online. In 2012, 39% of post-secondary degree-seeking students in Minnesota were enrolled in one or more distance education courses.
  • Small biz – Sven Comfort Shoes in Chisago City started its online store three years ago and it is now half of its output of $3.5 million
  • Medicine – Behavioral health professionals at community mental health centers provide crisis support to rural emergency rooms 24/7 including the Northwest Mental Health Center in Crookston, which has 22 licensed professionals who support the rural Fosston Hospital using telehealth.
  • Ag – broadband plays a significant role in precision agriculture, which includes remote monitoring of machines in fields and livestock in barns as well as the need to analyze the “Big Data” being generated so productivity, herd health, crop yield and efficiency can be improved.
  • K-12 education – A program sponsored by Paul Bunyan Communications allows school districts in their service area to have gigabit fiber access called the GigaZone, which covers 5,000 square miles in north central Minnesota. Also, Teachers in Red Wing Schools can work on professional development on snow days because of high speed access.
  • Libraries – 356 public libraries and 8 tribal libraries serve 87 counties and seven reservations with broadband connections. From 2012 to 2014, the number of public libraries with download speeds over 20 Mbps increased from just 3 to 123 and the number of public libraries with fiber connections increased from 150 to more than 211 over that same period.

Slide 6 – 2016 goals for 2022 and 2026

  • The benefits of broadband have been validated by private sector technology leaders like Intel and policy researchers at the Brookings Institution. Wired magazine says that a key presidential campaign issue will be getting Internet access for the 55 million Americans who don’t currently have it, and the World Bank says that “broadband is not just an infrastructure but can fundamentally restructure an economy.”
  • Let me be so bold as to offer you a roadmap of actions:
  • Set new goals for speed and access – 100% access at the FCC’s new standard of 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up by 2022 and growth to 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up by 2026.
  • Allocate some part of the one-time money to fund additional state grants for the Border-to-Border Broadband grant program. In 2015, there were $29 million in requests competing for the $10.6 million that was appropriated. If it were me, I’d shoot for $100M but anything around $50M will help us make continued progress.
  • Maximize federal $ – Identify where Federal money is destined and ensure that it helps us meet our long term goals rather than overlapping with our own state investments.
  • Support the office of Broadband development in your normal state budget funding. Progress on broadband will not only impact economic development but improved access and speed will benefit residential, educational, healthcare and agricultural applications across the state as well. I agree with Lt. Governor Tina Smith, who issued a statement along with the recent report that broadband access “is about our global competitiveness and our capacity to provide a world class education to our students. We need the bandwidth for Minnesota’s regional centers and rural economies to support innovation and entrepreneurship.” Through the expertise of the Governor’s Task Force on Broadband and ongoing funding, Minnesota can continue to achieve its goal of becoming a stronger economic force. Thank you.

If you’d like to continue the conversation about Broadband, Please join the Blandin Foundation, MRDC, MHTA, and the HHH School’s TISP for Broadband and Chocolate: Conversation, Information and Dessert today from 3:00 – 5:30 pm at the Carlson School of Management, 2nd floor, Executive Education Suite, Room 2-260.

Digital Divide in Minneapolis – gaps are narrowing but getting deeper

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The Minneapolis Star Tribune ran an article today on the digital divide in the city…

Up to 25 percent of households in the poorest and most minority-concentrated regions of Minneapolis don’t have any Internet connections at home — not through smartphones, Wi-fi, home computers or anything. However, most other areas of the city have much lower percentages, often as low as five percent.

This disparity has been unchanged, despite improvements in Internet access in other parts of the city in recent years. Citywide, about 9 percent of households don’t have any Internet access and about 15 percent don’t have Internet-connected computers at home, according to the 2014 Minneapolis Community Technology Survey.

Widespread access to technology means the digital divide is more about who has the tools to fully function in today’s society, says Jennifer Nelson, director of State Library Services with the Minnesota Department of Education, adding that “the gaps are narrowing but getting deeper.”

State Librarian Jen Nelson hit the nail on the head – the gaps are getting deeper. The comments to the article are interesting – lots of people think it’s a matter of choice and that it’s up to the citizen to get Internet access. But Internet access means a device and monthly payments, which can be beyond the budget for some people. There are programs (PCs for People distributes computers. Both CenturyLink and Comcast have low income packages. And at the article points out US Internet has free WiFi access). Maybe it’s a matter of connecting citizens to the right programs – which would be a great benefit to the city because households without access will cost the city when it comes time to providing services to citizens on the wrong end of the divide.

Original Broadband Task Force Chair Rick King on current status of broadband in Minnesota

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The St Paul Pioneer Press recently ran an editorial from Rick King, executive vice president and chief information officer at Thomson Reuters and chair of the original Minnesota Broadband Task Force. Her recognizes that momentum has been built around broadband…

According to the 2016 report card, we are making good progress and building momentum:

The data show we neared our universal access and high-speed goal as of February 2015 with 91 percent of Minnesota households having access at the state-mandated speeds. Not quite universal but close and an improvement on the number in 2010, which reported 58 percent access at the 2015 speed. Rural households climbed to 80 percent, a big jump from 52 percent in 2010.

As for the state broadband leadership position within the United States, Minnesota’s average speed of 12.9 Mbps places us 21st among the states. In 2010, we were 23rd for speed and 24th for access. Globally, Minnesota comes in 42nd, between the United States at 41st and Slovenia at 43rd, out of the 109 countries reporting. We have not made much progress here, nor has the United States for that matter.

The private sector continues to lead with an enormous investment but is hampered by having to meet its own return-on-investment goals. The federal government has helped with both policy and funding, and the state of Minnesota created the Office of Broadband Development within DEED and created and funded (twice so far for a total just more than $30 million) the Border-to-Border Grant Program.

And supports recommendations made by the current Broadband Task Force…

We must continue to make broadband a priority in Minnesota, continue to fund the Office of Broadband Development and set forth new objectives to:

  • Revise our goals in the statute for universal access and speed as indicated in the 2016 report.
  • Support the governor’s proposal to allocate at least $100 million a year for the next two years for the Border-to-Border program this session.
  • Explore in depth the demands and actions needed for cyber security for our state broadband infrastructure.

Minnesota Broadband Funding and Deregulation: Time to call broadband a utility and regulate uniformly?

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At the Industry Broadband conference in February, Representative Kresha said he thought House Republicans would be more willing to negotiate on increasing their recommendation of $35 million for the border to border broadband funds if the Legislature could also tackle the issue of telecom deregulation.

Deregulation has been on the industry shortlist for a while (SH736/HF1066 – Competitive market regulation for local exchange carriers provided). I haven’t seen any updates since last year but a push is coming.

The telecom industry talks about wanting to level the playing field. That’s because not all broadband providers are treated equally. Telecom regulation only impacts telephone companies – not cable, not wireless. Only telephones were regulated as a utility, which means there are more consumer protections. Historically each provided a very different service, but increasingly those services are all provided via broadband – voice, data and video can all be served via broadband. The lines are blurring – in fact even a cell phone call only travels via the cellular network 2 percent of the route. Telephone service was lifeline for the last century – broadband is becoming (became) the lifeline of today.

The question for me is how can we level the playing field while still preserving consumer protection? Maybe the answer isn’t to simply deregulate telecom but to look at all three industries to figure out a fair way to address the inequities and put the consumer in the driver seat. Especially for an industry, such as telecom, that has received (continues to receive) so many Government subsidies (Universal service Funds, Connect America Funds, RUS loans, ARRA grants).

Last year the Brainerd Dispatch offered a quick and dirty synopsis of what the bill would mean to customers…

  • Price protections would end. Telephone companies would be able to charge and raise prices as they desire.
  • Quality would be unregulated. Service quality — such as how often people get a “busy” signal, how long the telephone company has to repair outages and how quickly operators answer calls for assistance — would no longer be regulated.
  • Companies could drop or refuse to take customers, for any reason. This would be especially tough on rural residents, since it costs phone companies more to serve these customers.

Pricing

Deregulation has led to higher rates in other places. California deregulated phone service in 2006 and since then basic phone service has gone from $10.69 (Sep 2006) to $24 (Jan 2015) – added services have increased even more as they have measured services, which means you pay a base and pay per use.

It would be nice to look at telecom pricing and find a way to align other providers with it – especially looking at data cap issues with wireless providers (and increasingly with wired providers).

Quality

As the graph from Forbes below shows – people are dropping landlines and going with cell phones. (Hands up – who has dropped their landline at home?) Cell phones do not have the same quality requirements. My cell phone doesn’t work in my house in St Paul. Imagine you’re in a rural area and you see a house on fire. You have a chance to make one phone call – do you grab for a cell phone or a landline? You grab for a landline because it always works.

landline decline

Some readers might say – well I could text the fire department. You can’t; e-911 is still in development. And frankly I’ve been in plenty of places across the state where text doesn’t work either. So I have sympathy for the telecom industry and gratitude for developing a system that works everywhere. I’m just not sure we can give that up. Maybe instead of lowering expectations for telecom this is an opportunity to ask the other industries to step up. (I understand that’s not an State issue.) It would sure be nice to be able to trust my cell phone the same way I trust a landline. There just aren’t the same quality regulations and it shows.

Dropped Customers

Finally the issue of refusing customers. Just last month I spoke to a cable provider in the Cities that wanted my business. When I asked too many questions about upload speeds the guy (at my door) put me on the phone with a specialist who knew about upload because she deals with the people who use too much broadband. She told me if I was pegged as an over-user that I’d be dropped as a customer – but probably I wouldn’t get pegged. As a customer that’s not very comforting. Where are the protections for me? I want access to services I buy. The YMCA rewards their best customers; broadband industry penalizes them. Consumers need protection especially since the YMCA is a more elective resource than broadband.

It’s all Broadband

Part of the problem is that we’re regulating for telephone and it is getting increasingly difficult to separate telephone from broadband and broadband from telephone. From a technology perspective it’s all becoming broadband (again even a cell call is transmitted largely via fiber). We’re in an odd space where we’re living with legacy technologies and moving forward with new solutions. But this is also a space where consumer protection still matters – giving up regulation will change the equation. And I get it, it’s not fair that telecom plays with different ruleslief than cable and wireless. But the answer isn’t to level the playing field by taking customer protection out of the equation. That may work in urban areas where the market can make demands but it doesn’t work in rural area where the customer voice isn’t as loud. That is where customer protection is required.

$100 million could go a long way toward building better broadband and Rep Kresha is saying that Republicans in the House might be willing to fund at that level in exchange for deregulation. I’m just not sure it’s worth it. Looks like that quid pro quo has a real cost in terms of consumer protection, and people weighing those trade-offs need to be aware of what that really means.

Aitkin County Broadband update: providers, vision and adoption programs

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The Aitkin Age reports on a recent County meeting on broadband. They talked about potential partnerships…

Wagner and Aitkin County Administrator Nathan Burkett have been meeting with providers, focusing the discussion on where the county needs broadband the most. Wagner said providers are willing to come in to the county if there’s financial assistance from the county.

Burkett told the board Frontier’s plan looks good, adding the company is putting “a ridiculous amount of fiber in the ground right now.”

Endorsing the Minnesota broadband vision…

The county approved support for the Blandin Foundation’s vision statement for bringing broadband to the state. Wagner hopes that the more counties and communities that approve the statement, the better chance greater Minnesota will have at getting through at the legislative level.

The approved mission statement is “Everyone in Minnesota will be able to use convenient, affordable world-class broadband networks that enable us to survive and thrive in our communities and across the globe.”

And broadband adoption programs…

Wagner was also in attendance to ask the board to accept a Blandin Foundation Grant to extend the Web Diagnostics Program for small businesses. The first program helped 11 businesses with limited funding. The Central Woodlands Blandin Broadband Community requested to take the Aitkin County model and offer the program to businesses within the Central Woodlands, which includes Aitkin County. The Blandin grant would be for $25,000 with the match provided by the East Central Regional Development Commission.

Faribault broadband editorials: passion for broadband not politics

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Broadband is a hot topic in Minnesota. The Faribault Daily News has been a great example. The discussion happening on the pages there certainly parallels other discussions I’ve heard; the gist being broadband is really important but the details (of the technology, funding or politics) are hard. I want to be clear that I know they are hard – and I think about it way more than the average bear. And even clearer that the share message is that broadband is really important!

Intermingled with editorials, broadband still makes the news. I won’t do this for every local paper – it’s just not practical but it’s a taste of what’s happening. Here’s a bibliography of recent articles in the Faribault Daily News – I’ll bold the ongoing editorial discussion…

Feb 24 editorial from Don Novak:

I, like former Rep. Patti Fritz, am hopeful that this year’s legislature will pass a significant broadband expansion package.

The got a detail wrong…

However, making the claim that state government did not do enough last year is simply not true. In fact, last year the state spent $10.6 million on border to border broadband grants, which is the most in state history.

And back to funding…

Instead, given the unprecedented federal investment in broadband, the appropriate state investment should be based on ensuring that state and federal funding is used in a complimentary, rather than a redundant manner.

Our state representative, Brian Daniels understands this and wants to ensure that we are wise in the way we allocate state funds. He is committed to investing an appropriate amount of state resources to supplement the already substantial incoming federal investment to ensure our broadband needs are sufficiently met.

Feb 24 on article on the topic; I’ll just grab the intro…

High-speed Internet will soon be on the fast track if some state of Minnesota officials have anything to say. After investing just under $11 million into broadband infrastructure in Minnesota last year, Gov. Mark Dayton is pushing for nearly 10 times that investment in 2016 and, according to some local officials, that’s probably not a bad thing.

“It’s hard for me to answer, as I’m in the technology world, so I’m eager for [broadband expansion in Minnesota],” said Waseca County IT Director Judy Hiller. “But I see so many opportunities and so many states that are bringing broadband into their communities. You’re going to have both sides, but you need Internet to run everything it seems.”

Mar 1 guest editorial from the editor of the Owatonna People’s Press…

Legislators are well-advised instead to favor ideas for more modest and/or nonrecurring measures that would help meet what should be the state’s top policy goal in the next decade — attracting and keeping a skilled workforce.

For example, capital investments in higher education, transit and water treatment upgrades, financed with state bonds that carry a 20-year payback, make good sense. So does one-time spending to hasten the arrival of broadband Internet service throughout the state. Tax relief aimed at young working families, such as Dayton’s proposed child care tax credit increase, would be well-timed.

Mar 1 editorial from Joel Erickson…

Well, now I’ve heard everything, as Faribault residents struggle with antiquated and insufficient internet service. We look to our elected officials for relief. And what do we find? Rep. Brian Daniels, chief defender of doing nothing.

The Feb. 4 Faribault Daily News had an article about how broadband may fare during the 2016 legislative session. I was stunned to read this paragraph:

“Faribault representative Brian Daniels said his trepidation toward spending greater sums of money is based on the rapid evolution of technology. The problem that we don’t know is that in three to five years or in 10 years, some of this technology may be out of date. I just would hate to see spending too much on broadband at one time if we don’t have enough dollars and then in five years someone comes up with installing something that’s 10 times better than broadband.”

Really? In essence, Daniels is saying that because technology will advance, it would be best if we didn’t invest in broadband right now. Unbelievable. By that rationale, we shouldn’t buy any cars, trucks and motorized equipment that uses wheels on roads to move about because, heck, down the road in the future all motorized vehicles are projected to be hover crafts as soon as someone figures out how George Jetson really pulled that off in the cartoon. We could even stop spending money on roads and bridges. Oh wait, the Republicans have already gone down that road 10 years ago.

Marc 2 in an article on county leaders and regional plans…

The session brought together leaders from the cities of Northfield, Dundas, Faribault and Lonsdale, along with the commissioners, to discuss regional economic development priorities with local legislators Rep. Brian Daniels (R-Faribault) in District 24B, Sen. Kevin Dahle (DFL-Northfield) in District 20 and Rep. David Bly (DFL-Northfield) in District 20B, prior to the beginning of the 2016 legislative session.

“These aren’t new ideas,” said Docken. “These are ideas that have been floating around the county for a while. We are bringing them together with this group in hopes of supporting one another.”

The priorities include projects along the I-35 corridor, rural economic development, a bus transit center, improved broadband internet for rural Rice County and parks and trails expansion projects.

Mar 2 Rep in an article on the election this fall broadband comes up…

Gary Schindler, dean of student affairs at Riverland Community College, announced in October he will seek the DFL nomination.

Schindler said he will focus his campaign on workforce development through quality roads and bridges, high-speed broadband Internet, access to workforce housing, investing in the k-12 system and a fairer tax system.

Mar 3 editorial from Carl Mortenson:

After reading Don Novak’s letter from earlier this week, I find it hard to believe there can be so much misinformation about the broadband investments being made in Minnesota.

Some help with details…

In 2014 the DFL led House with Patti Fritz’s help passed $20 million for broadband support. And last time I checked, $10.6 million isn’t bigger than $20 million. While the current GOP led House supported a bill that provided for $10.6 million, it was only after Gov. Dayton and the DFL caucus negotiated the GOP into it.

And back to funding…

Instead of playing politics with the facts, can’t we all just deal in the truth: All of Minnesota needs access to this technology. And, since the GOP is touting their $10.6 million as an accomplishment, can’t they just say we agree broadband is a good idea and that we need to extend it to every corner of our state?

I hope we can come together and get things done without misleading one another. We need to come together as a community to get our issues passed at the capitol instead of playing politics.

Mar 4 guest column from Senator Julie Rosen…

I also am a strong proponent of broadband access in our rural school districts. I am working in a bipartisan manner with the federal government to push the broadband initiative in the state in order to ensure all students are equal in the education that is provided to them.

Will wireless speeds surpass fiber?

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I’ve heard so much hyperbole on wireless enhancements lately that I had started to doubt my own knowledge on fiber versus wireless. Doug Dawson’s article on the 5G Hype was a good reminder that fiber is not a technology that will become obsolete any time soon and wireless alone is not the wave of the future.

Here is the hype from wireless providers…

Technologies such as millimeter waves, network function virtualization (NFV), and software-defined networking (SDN) will be among the key ingredients for future 5G experiences. AT&T Labs has been working on these technologies for years and has filed dozens of patents connected with them. . . . We expect 5G to deliver speeds 10-100 times faster than today’s average 4G LTE connections. Customers will see speeds measured in gigabits per second, not megabits.

And here’s the scoop…

How does this stack up against AT&T’s claims? First, let’s talk about how 4G does today. According to OpenSignal (who studies the speeds from millions of cellular connections), the average LTE download speeds in the 3rd quarter of last year for the major US carriers was 6 Mbps for Sprint, 8 Mbps for AT&T, and 12 Mbps for both Verizon and T-Mobile.

The standard is going to be aimed to improve average speeds for regular outdoor usage to ‘several tens of megabits per second’ which means speeds of maybe 30 Mbps. That is a great data speed on a cellphone, but it is not 10 to 100 times faster than today’s 4G speeds, but instead a nice incremental bump upward.

Where the hype comes from is the part of the standard that talks about delivering speeds within an office. With 5G that is going to be a very different application, and that very well might achieve gigabit speeds. This is where the millimeter waves come into play. As it turns out, AT&T and Verizon are talking about two totally different technologies and applications, but are purposefully making people think there will be gigabit cellular data everywhere.

The 5G standard is going to allow for the combination of multiple very high frequencies to be used together to create a very high bandwidth data path of a gigabit or more. But there are characteristics of millimeter wavelengths that limit this to indoor usage inside the home or office. For one, these frequencies won’t pass through hardly anything and are killed by walls, curtains, and to some extent even clear windows. And the signal from these frequencies can only carry large bandwidth a very short distance – at the highest bandwidth perhaps sixty feet. This technology is really going to be a competitor to WiFi but using cellular frequencies and standards. It will allow the fast transfer of data within a room or an office and would provide a wireless way to transmit something like Google’s gigabit broadband around an office without wires.

But these millimeter waves are not going to bring the same benefits outdoors that they can do indoors. There certainly can be places where somebody could get much faster speeds from 5G outdoor – if they are close to a tower and there are not many other users. But these much faster speeds are not going to work, for example, for somebody in a moving car.

Call for Entries: Best of the Web & Digital Government Achievement Awards 2016

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I’d love to see Minnesota sweep the awards…

The Center for Digital Government invites nominations for its annual, prestigious Best of the Web (BOW) and Digital Government Achievement Awards (DGAA)!
Entries for both contests are due Tuesday, May 3, 2016.
For more information on the contests and entry forms, visit
http://www.govtech.com/cdg/dgaa-bow2016

The Best of the Web contest is open to state and local governments (states, counties, cities, towns, villages) in the U.S. to nominate their official websites/portals.

The Digital Government Achievement Awards spotlight outstanding contributions including agency, departmental and other websites as well as projects at the application and infrastructure level.

The DGAA is open to U.S. and international federal, state and local government agencies and departments (some language restrictions apply) to nominate their websites and applications.
The 2016 DGAA categories are:
• Government-to-Government
• Government-to-Citizen
• Government-to-Business
• Government Internal
• Driving Digital Government

Start a local broadband conversation with Senator Schmit

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I spoke with Senator Matt Schmit earlier this week. He told me about a recent trip to Kandiyohi County where he spoke with their local broadband committee about the Minnesota Border to Border Broadband Fund. Last year the fund had $10 million to grant to broadband projects around the state. This year the Legislature is expected to dedicate more funds to the project. The House Republicans have suggested $35 million; the Governor has suggested $100 million. Either way, there should be funding available.

Communities will again be invited to apply for the grant and while the exact applications aren’t available yet and won’t be for a while a project that is well thought out and planned will be more attractive to the funders. Senator Schmit mentioned that he would be available Fridays during session to attend similar meetings in other areas of the state, if local leaders were interested.

It might be a great way to get people in the community to the table to start or continue a conversation on broadband. Contact Senator Schmit to check his availability:
95 University Avenue W.
Minnesota Senate Bldg., Room 3411
St. Paul, MN 55155
(651) 296-4264
sen.matt.schmit@senate.mn

Afton may be looking at better broadband by fall

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Late November, Afton expressed disappointment in not receiving funding from the Minnesota Broadband Fund. They were not happy that funds went to rural areas. It seems like CenturyLink heard their cry. According to the Woodbury Bulletin…

It’s looking like there’s a strong possibility that every home in Afton will have high-speed Internet access by the end of the fall.

They have come up with a plan for public private partnership…

Homes in the western part of Afton qualify for high-speed Internet hookup through the federal Connect America Fund (CAF).

The Federal Telecommunications Fund awarded about $500 million in CAF funding to CenturyLink to assist in bringing high-speed Internet to nearly 1.2 million rural households in 33 states.

The thought, Ross said, is that the CAF money will take care of a chunk of the residents who are without Internet, while the city, and CenturyLink, could cover the rest.

During last week’s meeting Ross indicated that CenturyLink has agreed to continue with its $125,000 matching funding commitment and they are optimistic in the project being completed.
“It was very good news,” he said.

The article leaves some questions open for me – but the community seems pretty focused…

If everything goes according to plan, and it should Ross said, CenturyLink will start installing about 15 DSLAMS in the spring.

The fiberoptic cables to connect the DSLAMs will most likely run down Neal Avenue almost all the way Hastings, Ross said.

So, by the end of this fall 100 percent of Afton residents will have high-speed Internet.
“I made it very clear to CenturyLink that it’s a program where everyone had to benefit,” Ross said, “or there will be hell to pay.”

Itasca County endorses the Minnesota Broadband Vision

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According to the Grand Rapids Herald Review’s report of the Itasca County Board of Commissioners, the board…

Adopted a resolution supporting the Minnesota Broadband Vision created by the Minnesota Border to Border Broadband Conference of 2015.

Not sure what that all means? In November, a group of Minnesota community leaders created a Minnesota Broadband Vision.

Everyone in Minnesota will be able to use convenient, affordable world-class broadband networks that enable us to survive and thrive in our communities and across the globe

Now lots of Minnesotans are signing on to endorse the vision – as Grand Rapids has done.

Blandin Broadband eNews March 2016: Broadband is hot topic for legislators

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Broadband News Around Minnesota

Support the Minnesota Broadband Vision
So far 166 individuals and 61 organizations have signed on to support the Minnesota Broadband Vision http://wp.me/p3if7-3np:

Everyone in Minnesota will be able to use convenient, affordable world-class broadband networks that enable us to survive and thrive in our communities and across the globe.

Senator Klobuchar http://wp.me/p3if7-3qp and Senator Franken http://wp.me/p3if7-3qi applaud the effort. Representatives Nolan and Peterson put the Vision into the Congressional Record. http://wp.me/p3if7-3pu

Broadband Hot Topic for Legislators
There are articles and editorials related to broadband in local papers other publications almost daily:

Minnesota Broadband Task Force Meeting and Report
The Task Force releases their annual report recommending $200 million for the broadband fund over the next two years and a speed goal change from 10-20 Mbps upload and 5-10 download to 25 Mbps up and 3 Mbps down. http://wp.me/p3if7-3o7 They had an opportunity to discuss the report with policymakers at their monthly meeting. http://wp.me/p3if7-3ol

Does Broadband Get Redlined?
A research report in Connecticut indicates that broadband is not served equally. They assert that businesses in a more diverse community of Hartford have greater connectivity issues than other communities in CT. It sounds like the situation for ISDN in the Twin Cities 20 years ago when only some neighborhoods qualified for service. http://wp.me/p3if7-3qb

Minnesota Broadband Industry Conference
The second annual MN Broadband Industry Conference is a success with twice the attendees as last year. Policymakers say they know broadband is important but they don’t necessarily understand the details – inviting attendees to continue to raise the issue to help keep it on the front burner. http://wp.me/p3if7-3pO

Tools for Community Broadband Proponents

  • How Can you Prepare for Public Private Partnership?
    The Benton Foundation releases a new guide on public private partnerships that includes two checklists that communities at any stage of broadband planning should bring to the table: Key strategy considerations for Building a Partnership and Key legal considerations for localities looking to Build a Broadband Partnership. http://wp.me/p3if7-3q4
  • Looking for a Broadband Project Idea
    Blandin Foundation recently shared a matrix of broadband projects that have received funding from the Foundation. http://wp.me/p3if7-3pF
  • Tool Helps Communities Assess their Local Broadband
    CTAC releases an assessment to help a community determine where it stands in comparison to other communities with regard to broadband access. http://wp.me/p3if7-3op
  • Understanding Compliance with Federal Broadband Regulatory Requirements
    Baller, Herbst, Stokes & Lide generously share their memoranda on compliance with federal regulatory requirements, compliance with the federal Universal Service Program, and qualifying for E Rate subsidies for schools and libraries. http://wp.me/p3if7-3oe
  • Considerations in Site Selection and Data Centers
    The archive is now available from the February Blandin Foundation webinar: Broadband Considerations in Site Selection and Data Centers. http://wp.me/p3if7-3oY

Local Broadband News

Bemidji
Minnesota Lt. Governor Tina Smith visits Paul Bunyan Communications to congratulate the cooperative for being a leader in bringing high quality broadband Internet service to northern Minnesota. http://wp.me/p3if7-3or

Itasca
Itasca teen would rather live in South Africa where internet is better – or at least Romania. http://wp.me/p3if7-3oV

Kandiyohi County
The Kandiyohi County Board endorses the Broadband Vision and considers partnering with MVTV Wireless to add Wi-Fi hot spots around the county to help remedy the lack of high speed internet and data capacity in some areas. http://wp.me/p3if7-3qd

A business owner in Kandiyohi explains that lack of adequate broadband stifles her ability to take part in necessary online training. http://wp.me/p3if7-3q0

Northern Minnesota
Paul Bunyan Communications announces that all of the school districts served by the cooperative have been upgraded to Gigabit fiber network. School districts include Red Lake, Northome, Kelliher, Blackduck, Indus, Bemidji, Laporte, Littlefork-Big Falls, Park Rapids, Greenway, Nashwauk-Keewatin, Grand Rapids, Deer River, and the TrekNorth and Voyageurs charter schools. http://wp.me/p3if7-3pe

Red Wing
Red Wing Schools make snow days an online working day for educators by using their group subscription access to Whitewater Learning. Red Wing educators can now stay home on snow days and work on professional development to get credit for working. http://wp.me/p3if7-3oj

Resilient Region
Resilient Region gets grants for tech marketing, conference, video conferencing and computers http://wp.me/p3if7-3oz

St Louis Park
St Louis Park is working with developers to encourage them to build in conduit to make new buildings ready for broadband. http://wp.me/p3if7-3p8

Sherburne County
Sherburne County talks about their recent Blandin Foundation-supported broadband projects including WiFi in various locations, support for schools, training and broadband advocacy. http://wp.me/p3if7-3pI

Sherburne shares their broadband feasibility study that includes details on a Middle-Mile Fiber Network and Fiber to the Home solution. http://wp.me/p3if7-3pK

Southern Minnesota
Hiawatha Broadband and Jaguar Communications expand their 100 Gigabit network in southern Minnesota. The network now connects more than 20 southern Minnesota cities. http://wp.me/p3if7-3qf

SDN Communications and seven other broadband providers collaborate on fiber backbone that supports world class connectivity to approximately 500,000 people in Southern Minnesota. http://wp.me/p3if7-3px

Winona
Hiawatha Broadband gets a nod for investing in the local community, especially noting that according to the Census report, every one of the towns with one of their broadband networks gained significant population while every town around them that doesn’t have broadband is losing population. http://wp.me/p3if7-3on

Upcoming Events

Looking for more events? Check out TechDotMN’s calendar http://tech.mn/events/. Many events are based in the Twin Cities but it is a comprehensive list. (If you have an upcoming event, consider submitting it.)

Stirring the Potbill right

Nothing has confused rural community broadband policy discussion more lately than the FCC CAF2 funding program. $500 million dollars to rural Minnesota over the next six years is the good news; a minimum 10 Mb/1 Mb standard is the bad news.  CenturyLink, Frontier, Windstream and Consolidated Communications (formerly HickoryTech in Mankato) will use these funds to extend DSL service deeper into their rural networks by extending fiber to the node. The ability to deliver high speed Internet via DSL is extremely distance sensitive, that is, that if you are within 3000 feet of where the fiber ends, you can get broadband that meets or exceeds the FCC 25 Mb/3 Mb standard.  If you live 9,000 feet or just less than two miles from where the fiber ends, you will receive 10 Mb/1 Mb. Old, deteriorated copper will further reduce the carry capacity of the service.  Emerging technologies that providers like to talk about – vectoring and G-Fast are only effective to supercharge that first 3000 feet and have no impact on the longer loop length customers.

At the recent broadband industry conference, there was conversation around using future DEED Office of Broadband funds in combination with the FCC CAF2 funds to gain better services throughout rural Minnesota.  I have mixed feelings about that since loop lengths would have to universally shortened to 3000 feet to even reach the FCC standard of 25/3, but what about our new proposed state goal of 100 Mb/20 Mb by 2026?  At what point does it make sense to stop upgrading old networks to build new virtually unlimited capacity Fiber to Home networks?  We have all faced that choice with old cars.  The decision to rely on an old car often leads to the same situation that many rural Minnesotans now find themselves – stranded on the side of the highway when you most need to get someplace in the worst possible weather.

In this discussion, I have already had incumbent providers cringe when these issues are discussed.  Yet there is never a clear declaration of intent or shared plan to reach the state broadband goal of 100 Mb/20 Mb nor any data on what rural Minnesotans will receive in the next five years from CAF2 investment.  The physics of broadband are pretty clear – 9,000 foot loop lengths yield 10/1; 3,000 loop lengths yield 25/3 or more.  Geometry is also pretty clear; to go from 9,000 loop lengths to 3,000 loop lengths is a lot more expensive and still leaves no clear path to the 100 Mb broadband standard.

Let’s hope policy makers insist on an open and honest conversation on this critical topic.