Last month the Broadband Task Force met in Luverne. They heard from Alliance Communications and SDN. (I posted notes from the meeting last month.) SND posted their notes from the meeting (including video). It’s always nice to have another view. Here’s a snippet…

Gov. Mark Dayton’s Broadband Taskforce visited Luverne on June 28. It heard from Alliance Communications on how the Garretson, SD, -based company serves rural Minnesota residents thanks to a $12.8 million Border-to-Border Broadband state grant and an additional $1 million Rock County grant.

The taskforce also heard how the Southern Minnesota Broadband (SMB) partnership doing business as SDN Communications interconnects six Minnesota and one northern Iowa independent telephone companies to improve connectivity and long-term economic viability for the region.

SDN account executive Ryan Dutton works from his home office in Blue Earth, Minn. He told the committee a personal story about how these projects are economic drivers for rural America.

“I know a lot of my peer group who grew up in Faribault County would come back to Faribault County if there were jobs and opportunities to do so,” Dutton said. “I think home offices with broadband infrastructure might be one of the real drivers in the next decade to maintain the intellectual investment [the communities] make in the young people to have them come back.”