Monthly Archives: August 2018

USDA’s new rural broadband resources page – asks for feedback & directs to funding

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The USDA has created a webpage on rural broadband. I thought it was going to be a collection of facts and statistics on broadband but it is potentially more compelling than that. It does provide a shortcut to the USDA funding sources:

It also points to BroadbandUSA, which has gotten quite a facelift since I last visited. They now list upcoming events, such as a webinar in September on wireless broadband options.

The new USDA site also asks for visitor feedback – from customers and broadband providers. Here are two sample questions:

  • For users: What time-of-day (morning, afternoon or evening) do rural residents and businesses most need to use high-speed internet?
  • For providers: Which types of broadband technologies are most applicable for various types of rural areas such as cable, fiber, mobile wireless, fixed wireless, and satellite?

They are also inviting comments through the Federal Register before September 10 on the Broadband e-Connectivity Pilot Program.

Job Posting: Supervisor of the Fiber Optic Services Group

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Looks like a good job for someone…

Supervisor of the Fiber Optic Services Group

Position Summary:

LOGIS provides top tier software, application support, and complete LAN services to over 50 member governmental agencies in Minnesota.Our mission is to facilitate and provide leading edge and adaptable technical solutions through the sharing of ideas, applications, systems, and resources in a member-driven consortium.

LOGIS is seeking a qualified individual to supervise our Fiber Optic Services group.This person will be responsible for designing, enhancing and maintaining the fiber optic facilities for LOGIS and our membership.This includes project management, design, coordination, budgets, vendor relations, presentations, and staff management.

Qualifications:

  • Education:BS in Engineering, IT, Business Management, or related field.
  • Experience in civil engineering, GIS, fiber optic management, and right of way management.
  • Experience with supervision of employees.

Please Contact :

LOGIS offers medical, dental, vision, and life insurance along with employer-paid short term disability and long term disability. LOGIS employees are members of the Public Employees Retirement Association pension plan.

Send resume to hr@logis.org. Job is open until filled. Review of resumes begins September 4, 2018.

Fiber Optic Analyst

Position Summary:

LOGIS provides top tier software, application support, and complete LAN services to over 50 member governmental agencies in Minnesota.Our mission is to facilitate and provide leading edge and adaptable technical solutions through the sharing of ideas, applications, systems, and resources in a member-driven consortium.

LOGIS is searching for a Fiber Optic Analyst that will be responsible for maintaining the LOGIS and member fiber optic facilities.Primary responsibilities will include overseeing changes and enhancements in the fiber optic plants, performing OTDR test and analyzing results, working with vendors and cities on routes, troubleshooting issues, splicing of fiber strands, and maintaining documentation.

Qualifications:

  • Education:B.S. in Engineering, IT, or related field.
  • Experience in external fiber optic implementations, splicing/repairing fiber optic networks, and fiber optic OTDR testing.

Please Contact :

LOGIS offers medical, dental, vision, and life insurance along with employer-paid short term disability and long term disability.LOGIS employees are members of the Public Employees Retirement Association pension plan.

Send resume to hr@logis.org. Job is open until filled.Review of resumes begins September 4, 2018.

CAF II Auction Winner Mapping Tool

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I wish I had this for my earlier post on the CAF II Auction Winners -but I guess that why we can it news. CNS has a cool tool that maps the winners of the Connect America Fund (CAF) II Auction. There’s a screenshot below – but you can check it out online.

CAF II auctions in MN: 16 winners of $38.3M for 12,000 locations

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On Tuesday, the FCC released the winners of the Connect American Fund (CAF) II Auction. ECN Magazine reports…

The FCC on Tuesday revealed names of the winning bidders of its Connect America Fund Phase II (CAF-II) auction, which concluded last week and will dole out $1.488 billion to internet service providers to expand fixed internet coverage in rural areas.

The winners span a variety of different service provider types, with satellite providers, electric cooperatives and WISPs filling out those receiving the most support in auction funds.

Here are the winners listed for Minnesota:

I’ve copied items from their table which included:
Bidder – FRN –Assigned Support over 10 Years – Number of Locations

  1. Broadband Corp – 0016419392 – $428,117.00  – 128
  2. Consolidated Telephone Company – 0003742467 – $934,933.80  – 358
  3. Farmers Mutual Telephone Company – 0003747722 – $ 348,991.60 – 163
  4. Federated Telephone Cooperative – 0003741576  – $1,431,038.80 – 808
  5. Fond du Lac Reservation Business Committee – 0027389550 – $55,010.80 – 13
  6. Garden Valley Telephone Company – 0002652519 – $880,346.00 – 95
  7. Halstad Telephone Company – 0003744224 – $19,635.20 – 7
  8. Interstate Telecommunications Cooperative, Inc. – 0003741550 – $552,329.60 – 209
  9. Jaguar Communication, Inc – 0004365961 – $510,587.60 – 672
  10. Johnson Telephone Company – 0004311304 – $81,272.50 – 47
  11. LTD Broadband LLC – 0020926788 – $1,104,440.80 – 840
  12. Midcontinent Communications – 0002621951 – $27,977,283.80 – 7,410
  13. Paul Bunyan Rural Telephone Cooperative – 0002644953 – $1,313,542.60 – 315
  14. Roseau Electric Cooperative, Inc. – 0009568379 – $2,081,769.70 – 326
  15. West Central Telephone Association – 0002645612 – $611,934.40 – 532
  16. Wikstrom Telephone Company – 0004319372 – $532,556.80 – 56

Assuming I didn’t miss one – and please let me know if you notice I did, it looks like $38,331,234.20 for 11,979 locations.

Expanding Rural Electric Member Coop broadband coverage in Indiana could mean benefits of $12 billion

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Purdue University just released a report that looks at the quantitative benefits of investing in broadband – they look specifically at extending/expanding networks deployed by Indiana’s Rural Electric Member Cooperatives (REMCs) – but expanding the network ubiquitously across the state. Here’s what they found…

We estimate the net benefits of broadband investment for the whole state of Indiana is about $12 billion, which is about $1 billion per year annuitized over 20 years at six percent interest rate. Year after year, added government revenues and cost savings would amount to about 27 percent of net benefits in the seven REMCs each year. If the rest of rural Indiana is like these seven Cooperative service areas, then 27 percent of the $1 billion per year would be government revenue and health care cost savings, or $270 million per year. In terms of total net present value of benefits, 27 percent of $12 billion is $3.24 billion in added government revenue and health care cost savings.

It’s interesting to see that 27 percent of the net benefits would be government revenue and health care cost savings. That’s a number taxpayers can use to determine the return of public investment in broadband. Last fall, I looked at community return on public investment in broadband – which came to about $1,850 per household. Taking it a step farther, figuring out how much benefit is there in government revenue and health care savings make it even easier to balance cost with benefit.

RS Fiber Cooperative Enters the Growth Phase

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A press release from RS Fiber...

As the high-speed broadband project enters its third year, RS Fiber Cooperative (RS Fiber) customer growth has increased by 62% over the past year.

Phase One construction has been completed with the final four member communities being connected to the Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) Gigabit network in the first quarter of 2018. The company is now in the customer acquisition stage for all ten Fiber to the Home communities. To date, RS Fiber serves more than 30% of the homes and businesses in the ten communities and that number continues to grow at a steady rate each month.

The customer acquisition phase moves RS Fiber Cooperative beyond the high risk of a start-up company in construction mode.  This also means that the company financing will need to shift to a model that will support continued growth to not only to a positive cash flow but also to profitability as planned by 2021.

At a recent presentation to the Joint Powers Board, Shannon Sweeny of David Drown Associates, Inc., stated that the subordinated debt payments will not be made for the next two years and that the cities will need to make the GO bond payments. The subscriber growth on the network will determine when RS Fiber will be able to take back the payments from the cities. That determination will be looked at annually.

Kevin Lauwagie, the RS Fiber Board Chair, stated that “RS Fiber was founded due to the lack of interest by existing companies to serve the towns and rural townships in our area.  Now that the first phase is complete and more than 2,000 residents have already benefited by the service, we know we’ve done the right thing and look forward to continuing with expansion of the service across our region”.

With the project now in its third year, RS Fiber continues its steady growth trend. The company now serves more than 2,000 homes and businesses and has increased revenue by 65% over the past 12 months.

RS Fiber Air, the fixed wireless solution for the 17 townships served in phase 1, continues to expand wireless broadband coverage to new areas of rural Renville and Sibley counties. Five additional towers have been added in the project area in 2018.

These towers will continue to expand the reach of broadband services throughout the area.

Minnesota Broadband County Ranking for speeds of 100/20 for 2018

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I’m starting to work on County Broadband Profiles and in the process, I found a map that highlights percentage of households served by wireline service as defined by at least 100 Mbps down and 20 Mbps up by county. So I pulled out the numbers from each county to see how various counties rank. (I looked at rank for speeds of 25/3 earlier this year.)

Here are the top 10 ranking counties:

  1. Rock (99.93% covered)
  2. Ramsey (99.82 % covered)
  3. Hennepin (98.97% covered)
  4. Big Stone (98.91% covered)
  5. Anoka (97.86% covered)
  6. Lac qui Parle (97.35% covered)
  7. Stevens (96.747% covered)
  8. Beltrami (96.30% covered)
  9. Washington (96.10% covered)
  10. Cook (94.50% covered)

And the bottom 10 ranking counties:

  1. Otter Tail (2.36% covered)
  2. Kandiyohi (10.64% covered)
  3. Becker (12.95% covered)
  4. Mahnomen (13.53% covered)
  5. Blue Earth (14.13% covered)
  6. Aitkin (17.55% covered)
  7. Todd (17.58% covered)
  8. Norman (20.55% covered)
  9. Mower (23.31% covered)
  10. Pope (23.67% covered)

Given these lists – all things being equal – where are you going to move, start a business or invest?

Clearly some counties are in good shape and some need a good kick start. But what is interesting is the swing between top and bottom – from 99.93 percent covered to 2.36. I think it’s worth nothing that Rock County – the top county was a recent recipient of a Minnesota broadband grant. And congrats to them for edging out the metro counties.

Many people seem focused on the 2022 speeds goals (25/3) but I think these are the ones to look at if you want to be ready for the future. There’s only one county that is on the lowest ranking list for both speeds of 25/3 and 100/20 (Aitkin). Being prepared for 2022 may give some counties a false sense of security for the future.

I’m going to include a table with the full list – but that rarely transfers well to the website – you can download the Excel file too.

Continue reading →

Many rural areas need better broadband but some are doing well

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Wired Magazine recently ran an editorial from Matt Dunne at the Center of Rural Innovation (former senator and Google guy) – recognizing that while many rural areas suffer from bad broadband, some don’t…

According to a 2016 Federal Communications Commission data release, more than 1,100 rural fiber broadband providers operate networks of various sizes in some of the most remote parts of America, and more than 230 of those providers offer symmetrical (both download and upload) gigabit speeds.

He takes a look at how many rural areas are connected (Red Wing MN is mentioned)…

Just how far and fast is rural gigabit-speed broadband being deployed? My organization, the Center on Rural Innovation, mapped it to learn more. Using the 2016 FCC data again, we found that more than 2,500 rural towns have access to fiber internet, representing more than 8.5 million rural Americans—a million more people than live in the Bay Area, including Silicon Valley. Of those, nearly 3 million have access to full symmetrical gigabit speeds. And though the gap between rural and non-rural fiber internet coverage is significant, it isn’t as overwhelming as many people think. More than 15 percent of rural Americans have access to fiber, compared with approximately 30 percent of people in suburban and urban areas.

And he talks about barriers…

Rural broadband deployment isn’t easy, but the biggest barriers to better connectivity are not simply geographical. Twenty-one states currently have laws—largely manufactured by telecom industry lobbyists—that impede independent ISPs trying to deploy fiber. Wilson, North Carolina, for example, was one of the first municipalities to build out a network and show that fiber to the home was possible in a rural town. But in response, lobbyists forced through legislation to restrict municipal networks in North Carolina. The absurd result of this was that the Wilson fiber network has actually had to shutter service for some of its customers.

And some tools that have helped…

Some states, localities, universities, and companies have tapped Broadband Technology Opportunity Program grants, federal infrastructure funds designed to bring backbone connectivity to underserved areas. Many independent telephone companies have used federal universal service funds to build fiber to the most remote parts of their communities. Municipal electric companies, many of which were formed in the early 1900s to bring electricity to rural areas, make for ideal fiber-network operators because they do not have to fight phone companies to string fiber along their poles, aren’t beholden to shareholders, and can take a 50-year outlook on fiber investments. Small towns and rural counties have leveraged their ability to issue inexpensive bonds to build world-class infrastructure. And in some instances, successful businesses in small communities simply built their own ISPs so they could better grow and compete globally for talent.

And suggestions going forward…

The $600 million allocation for rural broadband expansion in the recent omnibus spending bill helps, but our policymakers should accelerate high-speed internet deployment in every way possible. Congress should fund “dig once” processes that enable efficient construction of underground fiber during road construction projects, provide incentives for “climb once” processes that enable efficient fiber construction on private utility poles, and more generously fund construction of this kind of infrastructure just like it does for water and sewer capacity.

And if the 21 states with laws that restrict competition from independent ISPs want to pursue modern economic development strategies to bring greater prosperity to their small towns, it is imperative they overturn those laws and allow their communities to innovate with the full power of broadband.

World-class broadband will not magically create robust digital economy ecosystems in rural America overnight. But fiber internet is the foundation that allows towns to grow their technology sector through entrepreneurship programs, remote workforce cultivation, co-working centers, and STEM curricula in public schools.

FCC Broadband maps shown unreliable

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The Institute for Local Self Reliance recently looked at what the FCC reports for broadband coverage in Rochester MN and what’s actually there. They found…

Our results confirm what a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators has expressed concern over: federal broadband data is deeply flawed.

The FCC data comes from self-reporting via Form 477. What I’ve heard from providers over the years is that these forms are overwhelming to complete. The report recognizes the flaws of self-reporting…

The overwhelming failure of broadband mapping results from several factors. Large, de facto monopoly providers have incentives to overstate their coverage and territory to hide the unreliable and slow nature of their service in many communities. Small providers often have trouble completing the FCC Form 477. This form requires 39 pages of instructions on how to properly complete it. Providers are supposed to submit it every 6 months, but many small providers find it confusing and frustrating- taking too much time to produce data that has dubious value given the flaws. Larger providers have plenty of staff to handle the form and seem to benefit the most from its flaws, as this data is often used to determine whether government programs should invest additional funds into an area, often by a competitive grant program. Areas that appear to be well covered will not result in more investment, leaving the incumbent providers without fear of competition.

Here is the coverage (number of providers versus population) for speeds of 25 Mbps down and 3 up

Versus 100 Mbps (which is the state speed goal by 2026)…

There’s a ten-fold difference in number of unserved residents.

They also compare coverage of wired-only access:

Versus wired & wireless service…

What they found is that there is much greater competition, pricing and speeds in town as compared to the outskirts or outside of town…

The rural communities surrounding Rochester, Minnesota have few fast, affordable, and reliable Internet service options. The urban areas enjoy some limited broadband competition. Still, most residents can only access broadband with speeds greater than 100 Mbps through Charter. A majority of the rural communities around Rochester rely on fixed wireless connections. The broadband tiers from fixed wireless providers are often more expensive than wireline broadband. The two fixed wireless providers that advertise Internet access at broadband speeds around Rochester are Hiawatha Broadband Communications’ Air Internet division and RadioLink. Hiawatha Broadband Communications charges $64.99 per month for a 25 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload connection.8 RadioLink charges $85 per month for a 30 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload connection.

Within Rochester, broadband is more affordable and has faster speeds than outlying areas. As of July 2018, Charter Communications charges $30 for 100 Mbps download for one year if the service is bundled with a cable subscription in Rochester, but the service appears to cost $65 without promos or bundling and before the many fees that are tacked on.10 CenturyLink has an online offer for 40 Mbps download for $45 in Rochester, but that only applies to addresses located very close to the DSLAM and again does not include the added fees.11 Jaguar Communications offers a Fiber-to-the-Home network in select portions of the city. In a phone call, they confirmed that fiber services cost $69.95 per month for 125 Mbps download speeds, where available.

One of the main reasons we need to care about what can be seen as the minutia of technology is that policies are written and public funds spent based on these numbers. The ILSR presents one example…

In 2015, City Council member Ed Hruska claimed, “We have 19 local broadband providers and, of those, we have two cable providers, six DSL providers, four fiber providers, three fixed wireless providers and four mobile providers.”4 Our analysis shows that broadband competition in Rochester is actually far more limited.

As a whole, this may (or may not) be true about Rochester – but people need to understand that is is not ubiquitously true. If we can recognize the digital divide within and around the city, the digital divide more is likely to deepen.

Scientists are working on making fiber even faster

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Network World reports on research that’s happening to make fiber better. It’s fun to hear what’s happening on the top end of broadband but it really shine a light on the need to catch up with lower end.

The issue with fiber…

Signal noise and distortion have always been behind the limits to traditional (and pretty inefficient) fiber transmission. They’re the main reason data-send distance and capacity are restricted using the technology. Experts believe, however, that if the noise that’s found in the amplifiers used for gaining distance could be cleaned up and the signal distortion inherent in the fiber itself could be eliminated, fiber could become more efficient and less costly to implement.

An emerging solution…

The researchers at Chalmers University of Technology and Tallinn University of Technology said they can now send data 4,000 kilometers (nearly 2,500 miles) — or roughly the air-travel distance from Los Angeles to New York.

The team is using special, phase-sensitive amplifiers that handle both the noise and the distortion. The special amplifier functions using multiple pulses of different, very bright, compressed colors, polarized and then formatted into time division multiplexing, Chris Lee of Ars Technica explains in coverage of the research.

And they’re working on greater capacity…

In more progress, another group has been concentrating on increasing the amount of data the fiber can carry. That multi-scientist team, from DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark, said it can show that it can pump 661 terabits per second down a piece of fiber. That’s “equivalent to more than the total Internet traffic today,” the publication Nature explains in an abstract on its website.

MN Telecom Alliance response to RS Fiber financial news

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Brent Christensen of MTA recently posted a response on the MTA Facebook Page to the recent article on RS Fiber’s financial issues…

MTA President/CEO Brent Christensen’s op ed in response to the article in the Gaylord Hub newspaper regarding RS Fiber.

AS PREDICTED, RS FIBER HOUSE OF CARDS PRONE TO COLLAPSE,

From the very beginning, the RS Fiber project was an ill-conceived idea that left taxpayers in 10 cities and 17 townships at considerable financial risk if the network failed to meet its business plan. Today, there is plenty of evidence that project proponents ignored warnings that cost estimates and revenue projections were overly optimistic. Heck, one proponent even stated that the network would be profitable by 2018!

What started as a grand plan to bring fiber optic service to every home, farm and business in the area has evolved into something far less and a financial burden on all taxpayers, whether you use RS Fiber services or not.

Proponents such as Winthrop’s former economic development administrator Mark Erickson continue to tell residents that he didn’t want to build the network; he wanted existing providers to “step-up” and build the new network and that providers said no. What that narrative does not reveal is that those with industry experience could see a project before them that didn’t make economic sense. Proponents did not account for many of the ancillary costs of providing Voice, Internet, and TV, and they were not willing to listen to those who were in the business and expressed a different perspective.

Proponents promised to connect every building with fiber, something that providers knew wasn’t possible given the economics of the project. Industry representatives encouraged proponents to look at other technologies such as fixed wireless broadband to develop and maintain a stable network and customer base. That advice was rejected, yet today RS Fiber is as much RS Wireless as it is RS Fiber and failing to meet its original objective of fiber everywhere in the county.

A few other things to consider…..

The Gaylord Hub reported last week that whether they subscribe to RS Fiber or not
1. its residents will be responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next few years to help cover the cost of the bonds used to fund the construction of RS Fiber.. This means local services such as public safety, parks or street repair could suffer and local property taxes may need to be raised to cover the red ink for the foreseeable future. The risk to taxpayers was always minimized by proponents.

2. If RS Fiber was truly a cooperative, then those who purchase services from the cooperative would be on “the hook” for any shortfalls, not the taxpayers of the townships and cities who had no say in this process. It appears the “cooperative”, was a thinly veiled Joint Powers Agreement since the local units of government are paying for the shortfall.

2. RS Fiber entered a telecommunications market that is highly competitive. One proponent stated in a local newspaper that a 50% subscriber rate would be attained. Today RS Fiber has far fewer than 50% of the telecom market and finds itself competing with local, regional and national companies with marketing budgets much larger than it has. These companies use different technologies to deliver their services but compete against one and another for your business. Did RS Fiber proponents think existing providers would close up their shop and leave town?

3. RS Fiber is heading down a path that communities like Monticello and Lake County went before it even though it knew of the risk. Both of those local governments funded broadband networks, and both were financial disasters. In Monticello, bond holders lost millions when the city defaulted on the bonds even though it raided the city’s municipal liquor fund at one time to cover network operation expenses to keep it afloat. And Lake County is currently in the process of being sold for pennies on the dollar potentially costing taxpayers more than $50 million. In both instances local proponents ignored warnings about the financial viability of the project and charged ahead, like RS Fiber.

Today, taxpayers are caught in the middle. The choice 10 cities and 17 townships have to make is whether or not to throw good money after bad. – Broadband can be successfully deployed in rural Minnesota. All you have to do is look at Big Stone, Swift and Rock counties and Sunrise Township as good examples. They all started years after the Winthrop project and are now completely built out.

There is a right way and a wrong way to build rural broadband networks. RS Fiber is the latest costly example of the wrong way.

From the Gaylord Hub: The City of Gaylord and other cities involved in the RS Fiber project are being asked to replenish its debt service reserve for 2019 and 2020. A $1.054 million short­ fall is projected. Gaylord’s share is $308,413.18. Gaylord’s City Council will discuss this matter at its meeting Wednesday.

According to a letter from David Drown Associates, Inc., public finance advisors, a shortfall is projected with the RS Fiber Cooperative over the next two years which will impact loan payments for the 2015A General Obligation Tax Abatement Bonds issued to fund an economic development loan to the RS Fiber Cooperative.

At this time, $140,000 in loan payments has been collected in the debt service account for the Feb. 1, 2019 payment of $438,964.25. On Feb. 1, 2019, a shortfall of $298,964.25 will cause the Trustee to draw that amount from the Debt Service Reserve. When that draw is made, the member cities will be asked to replenish the shortfall amount from their 2019 tax levy. Of this amount, Gaylord’s share is $76,205.99.

On Aug. 1, 2019, a shortfall of $156,066.25 is projected. Member cities will be asked to replenish the amount. Gaylord’s share is $39,781.29. A shortfall of $446,066.25 is projected on Feb. 1, 2020. Gaylord’s share of this amount is $113,702.29. On Aug. 1, 2020, a shortfall of $153,542.75 is projected. Gaylord’s share is $38,883.15. Gaylord has 25.49% of the possible connections with 996. The total possible connections are 3,907.

Philanthropy and Net Neutrality – a podcast from Johnson Center for Philanthropy

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I just finished listening to an interesting podcast on Why Net Neutrality Matter for Nonprofits. Here is the description from their website…

Despite substantial public opposition, Obama-era regulations securing Net Neutrality – a principle that essentially bars Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from playing favorites with different websites — were rolled back by the FCC on June 11, 2018. These changes could pave the way for a new, highly manipulated user experience: movements, media reports, resources, and more that ISPs — or their investors — don’t like, or that don’t make them any money, could end up on the other side of a slow connection. What could this mean for nonprofits — and for the communities they serve?

Katharine Trendacosta, Policy Analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Larra Clark, Deputy Director for both the Public Library Association (PLA) and the American Library Association’s (ALA) Office of Information Technology Policy, join the hosts.

It’s about 40 minutes and they talk about the power of the Internet to bring remote services, such as webinar training, to rural areas and to organize and mobilize for social justice. Noting that 86 percent of Americans support Net Neutrality, they talk a bit about the people who don’t – mostly ISPs, who are concerned that Net Neutrality closes a revenue stream that helps them reinvest in infrastructure.

They also point out that most of the ISP that are at the center of the Net Neutrality debate are big. So big that while the June 11 date may have opened a door – it takes months or years to finalize deals that would take advantage of the repeal. Subsequently it’s hard to track the impact.

There was comparison made between the potential of the repeal and trying to use Facebook as a communication tool. Many nonprofits (and others) use Facebook to promote events, communicate with members/customers and reach new people. There are ways to use it for free and the advertising is pretty cheap. But Facebook changes their algorithms constantly, which means you need to keep up with how they are promoting things constantly to make the most out of the opportunity. The changes can seem capricious and precarious. And the user is sort of stuck with it.

The speakers were anticipating that working in a post-Net Neutrality internet may feel very similar. Will the provider be changing how the manage traffic as Facebook changes their policies? Also noting that like Facebook, the changes will likely occur slowly over time so that by the time you notice them, it may feel too late.

Border to Border Broadband Conference Oct 23-24: Learn from the Feasibility Charrettes

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An invitation to the upcoming Broadband conference from the Blandin Foundation…

We hope to see you at Border to Border Broadband: Transforming Minnesota, our annual broadband conference, October 23-24 at Madden’s on Gull Lake in Brainerd. This year’s event will showcase and celebrate the transformative power of community passion fueled by high-speed broadband networks.

But not every community has access to high-speed, future-proof Internet… yet.

This year’s conference will feature something never attempted before – completion of a feasibility study in 30 hours! Three community teams will work with world-class community broadband consultants to consider technology choices, partnership options, finance tools and marketing considerations for their community.

The teams have already been selected but you have the option to learn alongside them, as a free agent, and take the information, tools and knowledge back to your own community.

Check out the conference webpage for more details about the “Feasibility Charrette” and the other session options we’re offering this year, including broadband advocacy, calculating the ROI of broadband networks, and demand building and tracking tools. Register today!

Update on RS Fiber Financial Situation – shortfall notification

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The Arlington Enterprise reports…

The RS Fiber Cooperative is facing a projected financial shortfall. Based on information recently provided by the RS Fiber Cooperative, a shortfall is projected within the next two years which will impact loan payments for the 2015 A General Obligation Tax Abatement Bonds issued to fund an economic development loan to the RS Fiber Cooperative.

“Our duty is to report the estimated shortfall for the next two years so that member cities can implement tax levies to fulfill their obligation to replenish any shortfalls in debt service payments,” Shannon Sweeney of David Drown Associates, Inc., said in a letter to the nine cities.

Here are the numbers…

The projected shortfall will be $298,964.25 on Feb. 1, 2019; $156,066.25 on Aug. 1, 2019; $446,066.25 on Feb. 1, 2020; and $152,542.75 on Aug. 1, 2020. Overall, the projected two year shortfall will total $1,073,639.50. The member cities include Green Isle, Gaylord, New Auburn, Fairfax, Gibbon, Winthrop, Lafayette, Stewart and Brownton.

Green Isle has already discussed the issue…

The Green Isle City Council discussed the projected financial shortfall at its regular meeting on Tuesday night, Aug. 14. Green Isle will be asked to replenish $18,356.40 on Feb. 1, 2019; $9,582.47 on Aug. 1, 2019; $27,388.47 on Feb. 1, 2020; and $9,366.12 on Aug. 1, 2020. The total will be $64,693.46. The consensus of the Green Isle City Council is that the RS Fiber Cooperative needs to be much more transparent with the member cities.

The Internet is hard – so if you understand it, take some time to teach a policymaker

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The Benton Foundation recently recapped a story from the Washington Post that demonstrated that policymakers don’t always understand technology…

Here’s the bad news: We can’t trust Silicon Valley to police itself. Here’s the other bad news: We can’t trust Washington politicians to police it, either. Our policymakers are ill prepared to protect the public from those who wish us harm — or even from companies willing to profit off that harm. Case in point …

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), aspiring speaker of the House, tweeted: “Another day, another example of conservatives being censored on social media.” He added the hashtag “#StopTheBias” and called for Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey to “explain to Congress what is going on.” The cause of McCarthy’s complaint? He was annoyed that a tweet by Fox News host Laura Ingraham, retweeting a Drudge Report missive, wasn’t immediately visible to him because Twitter said it contained “potentially sensitive content.” As a Twitter executive pointed out, this was due to two factors: The Drudge Report has flagged its own tweets as “potentially sensitive”; and Rep McCarthy had set his Twitter account preferences to hide any tweets flagged this way. In other words, Rep McCarthy was censoring his own Twitter feed, something he could easily reverse by changing his account settings. Confronting face-palming mockery, Rep McCarthy nonetheless doubled down, still claiming political persecution.

I have spent a huge part of my career trying to help people better understand broadband and the Internet. I started in 1995, when it was new to most people. It was hard then and while it’s much easier to use now, it’s just as hard if not harder to understand the details in terms of policy and the technology of how it works. For most of us that doesn’t matter – because we just want to use it. BUT policymakers need a better understanding.

When I developed training on how the Internet works, I used to say that I just wanted to give the sort of lessons I needed myself on car mechanics. I didn’t want to fix my car myself, just understand the mechanic. I wanted to know when I needed a new car and when I needed a new mechanic. I know that many readers do understand the ins and outs – at least well enough to talk to the mechanic. Now is a good time to talk to candidates and gauge their understanding. Candidates are out garnering votes these days and they will take the time to listen. So if you have a minute and expertise, it’s a good time to share – because the Internet is hard. From the forums I’ve attended and articles I read, most understand that broadband is important – they just don’t always know what that means.