Border to Border Broadband: Transforming Minnesota Oct 23-24
Join policymakers, economic and community development professionals and community broadband champions from across the state for this annual opportunity to learn, connect and engage. https://wp.me/p3if7-4E8

Is CAF 2 A Good Investment?
The Blandin Foundation releases a report on the networks being built with federal funding (CAF 2) given to large, price cap carriers in Minnesota. Based on field reports, many areas served will not have access to meet state speed goals of 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up even after the investment. https://wp.me/p3if7-4E2 https://wp.me/p3if7-4Eh

Learn more at a webinar on Thursday, July 19 from 3-4pm: “Leveraging CAF II Dollars to Bring World-Class Broadband to your Community”  https://wp.me/P3if7-300

Are the Federal broadband maps accurate?
Trade publication, New Food Economy, questions the accuracy and validity of the federal broadband maps, which are instrumental in determining policies and subsidies used to expand broadband access. https://wp.me/p3if7-4Ed

Helping Kids without Broadband
Consortium for School Networking releases a toolkit to help close the homework gaps for kids without broadband. https://wp.me/p3if7-4Eb

National Broadband Listening Sessions Start in Minnesota
Farm Foundation, NTCA, CoBank, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corp. and USDA held a broadband listening session in Faribault. Minnesota was posited as a model state for supporting rural broadband. Attendees asked questions about CAF 2 funding. https://wp.me/p3if7-4E0 https://wp.me/p3if7-4E4

Daily Yonder features Blandin Case Study
The Daily Yonder features the Blandin’s Case Studies Measuring the Impact of Broadband in Five Minnesota Communities and the formulas used to factor the community return on public investment of broadband. https://wp.me/p3if7-4Dm

Federal Policies – actions and notes

• Supreme Court says States can tax online purchases https://wp.me/p3if7-4E6
• News from the FCC Meeting – streamlining barriers or eliminating consumer protections? https://wp.me/p3if7-4Dw
• Possible increase in funds for the Rural Health Care Program https://wp.me/p3if7-4Do

Provider News

• Kristi Westbrock named new CEO/General Manager at CTC https://wp.me/p3if7-4DB

Local Broadband News

Crookston
Representative Kiel and Senator Johnson talk about broadband and upcoming listening sessions https://wp.me/p3if7-4Ds

Ely
Ely uses first fiber connection to connect a coworking space https://wp.me/p3if7-4DD

Gibbon
Gibbon celebrates their FTTH connectivity with a new 3D printer on Main Street https://wp.me/p3if7-4DY

Granite Falls
Granite Falls is host to a statewide planning session where broadband becomes a table topic https://wp.me/p3if7-4Ef  https://wp.me/p3if7-4DV

Lake County
NBC draws from Lake County for story of broadband success and cites recent Blandin report https://wp.me/p3if7-4DH

Lake Park
Lake Park citizens tell Senators Utke and Green that they want better broadband and ask about Net Neutrality https://wp.me/p3if7-4DL

Minnetrista
Frustrated citizen in Minnetrista wonders why the city doesn’t have broadband https://wp.me/p3if7-4DT

Northwestern Minnesota
AT&T is investing in northwestern Minnesota https://wp.me/p3if7-4DR

Rock County
Rock County is selected as a Blandin Broadband Community https://wp.me/p3if7-4El

St Paul / Minneapolis
The NDIA ranks worst connected cities: St Paul is #74 and Minneapolis #120 https://wp.me/p3if7-4Dz

Outside News Related to MN

North Carolina
North Carolina sees Minnesota broadband plan as model https://wp.me/p3if7-4Dk

West Virginia
West Virginia is looking to Minnesota (Blandin) research report for path for better broadband https://wp.me/p3if7-4DJ

Wisconsin
Lack of rural broadband is hurting business – reprinted letter from Inter-County Leader https://wp.me/p3if7-4DN

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

• Free broadband planning and funding application help for your school https://wp.me/p3if7-4DP
• July 10: MN Broadband Task Force meeting (St Paul) https://wp.me/p3if7-4En
• July 16: Deadline for feedback to NTIA on improving broadband availability data https://wp.me/p3if7-4D4
• July 19 webinar: Leveraging CAF II Dollars to Bring World-Class Broadband to your Community https://wp.me/P3if7-300
• Aug 3: MN 2018 Tekne Awards Nomination deadline https://wp.me/p3if7-4Du
• Aug 16: Smart City Symposium (Minneapolis) https://tinyurl.com/ybhd9ngq
• Sep 14 and Dec 14: Blandin Robust Network Feasibility Fund grants deadline https://wp.me/p3if7-4tD
• Oct 23-24: Border to Border Broadband: Transforming Minnesota  https://wp.me/p3if7-4E8

We are looking to add MN broadband-related events to the Blandin on Broadband blog calendar. https://wp.me/P3if7-4yG If you have an event you’d like to add please send it to atreacy@treacyinfo.com

Stirring the Pot – by Bill Coleman

On Minnesota’s broadband maps, far too much of greater Minnesota is still unserved. If you zoom into the map, however, you will see that most towns are considered served, with 100 Mb/20 Mb service available, areas outside cities and towns are not.  Many communities have three wired providers for businesses and key community institutions or community-wide.  That is good news.

In pre-Internet days, I managed the state’s business retention and expansion (BRE) program; training and assisting community teams to interview businesses, identify key issues and provide assistance to spur growth of investment and employment.  Today, tech use would be a key BRE element, not only for businesses, but also checking up on chambers of commerce, schools, health care providers and local governments.  As people make decisions on where to live and invest, a town lacking in apparent tech savvy will lose out to places with a tech edge.

For many towns, lack of broadband service can no longer be an excuse for not keeping up with tech trends.  Seek out partnerships to promote available broadband and tech support services.  Convene institutional leaders to create and pursue a shared vision of tech adoption, for tech-based economic development leadership.  If broadband access is still an issue, due to capacity, price and/or reliability, use these same leaders to work intensively on this issue as well as utilization.

Need to know how to get started?  Blandin’s recent case study on broadband ROI https://tinyurl.com/yafjlu9r is a rich resource illustrating what five smart communities are doing to promote a tech workforce and organizational innovation.  They are successfully branding themselves as high tech rural places. These efforts are increasingly inclusive and sustainable.  The Intelligent Community Forum (www.intelligentcommunity.org) has a treasure trove of information on the global competition for people and investment.

My advice: Follow suit or get left behind!