Monthly Archives: November 2018

Democratic Representatives who don’t support Net Neutrality have been supported by telecoms

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Motherboard reports…

In May, the Senate passed a joint resolution under the Congressional Review Act that would overturn the Federal Communication Commission’s decision to scrap free internet rules last year. That resolution was then sent to the House, and the Democrats introduced a discharge petition, which, if it gets 218 signatures, will force the House to vote on the resolution even without the recommendation of a committee. The Dems have until December 10 to get 218 signatures, which would require every Democrat and a few Republicans. So far, they have 177 signatures.

That leaves 18 Democrats in the House who have yet to sign the petition, which is, again, the only hope Congress has of voting and passing this resolution to restore net neutrality this year. A Motherboard review of FEC filings shows that each of the representatives has taken thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from one or more major telecom companies, including AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and the National Cable Television Association (NCTA), an ISP trade group.

None of the Representatives are from Minnesota.

The banking behind RS Fiber & other ways banks are helping to expand broadband

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The Office of the Comptroller of Currency recently published the November issue of Community Development Investments. The theme is expanding broadband. They really get into the nitty gritty. I think it’s great reading for anyone who is thinking about financing options. So I’m going to include the annotated table of contents:

  • Community Reinvestment Act Consideration for Rural Broadband Development Initiatives Banks financing certain broadband development initiatives can receive Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) consideration for promoting economic development in certain rural communities and helping to revitalize distressed and low- and moderate income communities across the nation.
  • Closing the Digital Divide: How Banks Can Help Rural Communities With Broadband The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, provides an overview of broadband technologies and explains how banks financing broadband initiatives can help reduce the digital divide in rural communities in need of reliable, high-speed internet access.
  • Cooperative Connection: Banks Back RS Fiber to Bring Broadband to Rural Minnesota First National Bank of Fairfax, Minn., and other local banks are helping to finance a cooperative formed by 10 cities and 17 townships determined to provide quality, high-speed internet access in southwestern Minnesota. The case study serves as a working model for rural communities interested in establishing public-private cooperatives to deliver quality internet.
  • Falcon National Bank: Financing Wireless First, Then Broadband in Rural Minnesota A community bank’s decision to finance Palmer Wireless began a successful partnership that turned into a decade-long relationship, benefiting the bank, Palmer Wireless, and the communities the bank serves by expanding an existing broadband network.
  • U.S. Bank: NMTC Helps Expand Internet Access in Appalachian County in Ohio U.S. Bank used the national bank public welfare investment authority and helped to finance a new market tax credit project that expanded an existing broadband network for rural residents in Appalachian communities in northeastern Ohio.
  • United Bank, Alabama: Wiring Branches, Several Business Customers With Broadband United Bank invested in a fiber-optic network solution to communicate more effectively between its rural branches using video conferencing and other online communication channels. This investment also benefited several local businesses that needed high-quality internet service.
  • Wiring Alaska: Two National Banks Help Connect Remote Native Communities First National Bank Alaska and U.S. Bank made loans backed by federal loan guarantees to benefit Alaska’s Native communities by financing the expansion of fiber-optic networks in geographically remote areas that for too long had poor or no internet access.

The article on RS Fiber was of course of special interest to me. I won’t summarize the whole article, as the value is in the details, but here’s a taste…

The RS Fiber Cooperative (RS Fiber) is bringing low-cost and high-speed fiber-optic broadband to an area of southwestern Minnesota that includes 10 cities and 17 townships in Renville, Sibley, and portions of Nicollet and McLeod counties. Serving more than 6,000 households, businesses and farms, schools, public and private institutions, and hospitals with Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) connectivity, the cooperative serves an area of over 700 square miles at a development cost of $53 million.

RS Fiber’s success was made possible by a multilayered approach to financing involving banks; federal, state, and local governments; a community development financial institution; a private foundation; private equity investors; and member revenues. Playing a key role in the effort was First National Bank of Fairfax. The bank’s $50,000 investment helped finance initial engineering and predevelopment work. The bank’s capital was the catalyst for securing construction financing from other lenders. The bank made the investment using the public welfare investment (PWI) authority

Place-sensitive distributed development – a strategy to lift up rural areas with technology

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Brookings recently released a fascinating report on countering the geography of discontent. They outline and detail the economic changes to area based on uneven spread of digital technology…

However, in the 1980s, that long-standing trend began to break down as the spread of digital technology increasingly rewarded the most talent-laden clusters of skills and firms.

As the economy changed, convergence gave way to divergence, as a fortunate upper tier of big, dense metropolitan areas (the top 2 percent of U.S. communities based on measures of growth and wages) began to consistently grow faster than the median and least-prosperous cities.

Techy town flourished and smaller towns or the rural spaces between towns suffered. (There are some awesome examples of areas that bucked this trend, but on the whole we see it here in Minnesota.) This has created a deep divide in the country – not only manifesting in technology and economy…

As a result, few can now deny that the geography of America’s current economic order has brought economic and social cleavages that have spawned frightening externalities: entrenched poverty, “deaths of despair,” and deepening small-town resentment of coastal cosmopolitan elites. It is baleful realities like these that caught many politicians, academics, and journalists off guard in 2016 as they poured through post-election red-blue maps. In a very real way, the 2016 election of Donald Trump represented the revenge of the places left behind in a changing economy.

The question they post is how to balance this inequity….

Therefore, we favor a third approach to regional policy, something akin to what scholars Simona Iammarino, Andrés Rodriguez-Pose, and Michael Storper call “place-sensitive distributed development.” This approach assumes that regional equity won’t occur without economic development but that excessive imbalances between regions can jeopardize such development. Our place-sensitive strategy seeks to mitigate uneven development by ensuring economic growth occurs in a wider swath of regions.

What might place-sensitive distributed development look like in practice? To give a sense, we suggest five examples of the kinds of strategies that would help—three that focus on ensuring more regions have the assets and capabilities to flourish, and two more that suggest what specific regional development initiatives might look like. Here’s a look:

[abbreviated list]

  • Ensure businesses in lagging regions have access to capital. The pullback in small business lending following the financial crisis has hit less densely populated parts of the country particularly hard. Efforts to improve data on small business performance can help banks lower the transaction costs of extending small loans while innovations in financial technology can help create a secondary market for them and reduce risk. Boosting alternative, non-bank sources of capital, such as venture capital funding, can also help support regional economic growth.
  • Reduce gaps in broadband. Large gaps in broadband service and subscriptions have put businesses and workers in less densely populated areas at a huge disadvantage. Policy proposals should focus on connecting more people and encouraging greater subscription rates in places already endowed with broadband.
  • Identify “growth poles” that can support regional growth. While it may be inefficient to “save” every left-behind small city or rural community in the U.S., targeted federal policy aimed at strengthening 10 or so promising mid-sized centers of advanced industry activity would bring more growth to some communities adjacent to many more lagging towns and rural areas. Federal investment in these “growth poles” will put more communities on a path toward self-sustaining economic growth.
  • Help Americans move to opportunity. The federal government should expand the availability of financial support for individuals who want to make long-distance moves to places promising greater economic opportunity. At the same time, federal policy should encourage states and localities to relax zoning restrictions and construct new housing units to increase the supply of affordable housing. For those who wish to stay in their communities to live but not necessarily to work, state and local governments could provide a subsidy for workers commuting to adjacent communities.

MN PUC report on Frontier is out based on public meetings held throughout the summer (2018)

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Over the summer, the PUC held several meetings across Minnesota to hear from Frontier customers about their services. (I attended the meeting in Wyoming if you want to see the notes of video from the meeting.)  The Judge holding the meetings recently released his report. If includes more than 150 public comments from the meetings.

The report notes that there was some discussion on whether to ask costumers about both telecommunications and internet services since the PUC only regulates telecommunications. (Although that distinction is under discussion elsewhere.) At a more local level it seemed to make sense because the customer doesn’t always know what services they have and how they get them and Frontier doesn’t make a distinction between staffs that handles one or the other. So issues impacting internet will also impact telecommunications.

The report outlines the top complaints, starting with the most common…

  • High levels of dissatisfaction with Frontier’s 1 (800) customer service, for many reasons
  • Much slower download and upload speeds than customers expected
  • Frequent service interruptions, disconnections, and outages of phone service (especially when DSL internet access is provided on the same line) and internet access service
  • Failure to repair and maintain network equipment or invest in new equipment;
  • Various billing errors (premature ending of promotional rates, illegitimate taxes, services not ordered or requested, vacation hold rate not billed accurately, etc.)
  • Phone and internet service outages occurring when it rains or when power goes out, and then it may take weeks for Frontier to restore phone and internet service after outages, or restoring internet service results in losing phone service and vice versa;
  • Offering higher speeds of internet service at increased prices to customers who complain of slow speeds, but not actually providing higher speed connections;
  • Inconvenient 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. repair windows;
  • No expedited repairs for phone or internet customers with medical needs;
  • Missed repair appointments;
  • Repairs only temporarily improving internet access or phone service, if at all
  • Phone service problems that Frontier ascribes to customers’ phones or inside wiring when problems originate in Frontier’s lines or at its switches, and charging for a service call when it is Frontier’s service that is not working;
  • Resistance or refusal to credit customer bills for service outages and slow speeds;
  • Rates promised by sales and service representatives not honored;
  • Threatening termination penalties despite inadequate service;
  • Requiring customers to lease routers on a monthly basis rather than using their own;
  • Wrongful imposition of early termination fees and automatic renewals of additional terms, or “rolling term agreements”
  • Poor service forcing customers to use their cell phones instead of Frontier’s service or to go to another location where they can get internet access;
  • Large rate increases despite poor service, as well as rates that keep increasing;
  • Charges for security and telephone features that were not ordered or that ceased working; Delay in crediting online payments, which can result in late payment charges;
  • Lack of explanation for charges on electronic bills and new charges, such as the “internet infrastructure surcharge”;
  • Failure to respond to letters or false responses made to the Attorney General or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC);  and
  • Refusal to extend service

5G will be a game changer for those who have access

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Sprint has recently posted a new “5G Explainer” all about the wonders of 5G. Here are the areas they cover:

  • Latency
  • Speed
  • Coverage
  • Capacity
  • Density

The site is interesting and it will explain the technology but it doesn’t talk too much about the impact of 5G in rural areas. Here’s what they say about coverage…

Up until now, network coverage strategies were optimized for one primary use case: people with smartphones, moving around.

But in a world where every milk carton, motorcycle, park bench and parking space has a sensor and a transmitter, coverage presents a different range of challenges.

Today, users might experience places – even in cities – where the network doesn’t reach. But imagine you’re running a service that delivers parcels to moving targets – customers who are on the move. What happens when the network can’t reach your vehicles or your customers – even for a moment?

5G will rise to new coverage challenges by combining new technologies in new ways. Smaller antennae in massive arrays will make a single base station act like many. Beamforming techniques will focus data streams at specific users, tracking them as they move – even bouncing signals off walls to maintain the connection.

The bottom line: the coverage benefits 5G delivers will extend the power of the network to far more users, devices, IoT sensors and connected vehicles.

So think about what happens if your IoT implementation can manage a million more devices than your biggest competitor’s.

On the surface it’s just more sensors. But once you start capturing all that data and feeding it to your algorithm, you’ll be generating better answers to your customers problems faster than you can say ‘network effects’.

They talk about ubiquitous coverage but mention only cities when the ability to reach devices seem to have a real potential for farms too.

The impact of 5G will be amazing but only for the areas that have access. The areas that don’t have access may find themselves in a deep divide.

SDN expands broadband to Nobles and Watonwan counties in MN

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SDN reports...

SDN Communications has added two broadband partners to its Minnesota network, which will improve business broadband reach into two counties of that state – Nobles and Watonwan.

Christensen Communications Company of Madelia, Minn. and Lismore Cooperative Telephone of Lismore, Minn. agreed to interconnect their networks to six other southern Minnesota telephone companies, an Iowa provider and SDN, which has 45,000 miles of fiber in South Dakota with its 17 owner companies, the independent telephone companies of South Dakota.

SDN’s partnership with the Minnesota and Iowa companies started four years ago. That interconnected network covers much of the southern third of Minnesota.

SDN CEO Mark Shlanta says Christensen Communications and Lismore Telephone add value to the growing broadband network. “These are strong independent telephone companies providing great services and value in their communities. In joining this network SDN manages, they become something bigger with more reach and they fill coverage gaps for this partner network.”

Change in House Committees: Rep Mahoney new Chair of Jobs & Economic Development Finance Division

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Last week the Minnesota House DFL Majority announced Committee structure and leadership changes…

Today, the Minnesota House DFL announced the committee structure and chair assignments for the 2019-2020 biennium. …

“Our caucus and our chairs represent communities from all geographic areas of the state, from the Iron Range to Austin, Eden Prairie to White Bear Lake, and the Twin Cities to Dilworth. Our committee structure and our membership will serve the interests of all Minnesotans as we consider legislation to build a Minnesota that works better for everyone.”

For broadband followers, the big news is the change of the Chair of Jobs & Economic Development Finance Division. Rep Mahoney will now be Chair. He has been a vocal supporter of broadband…

US Internet shares fiber expansion plan for 2019

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I’m pleased to share the 2019 fiber expansion plans for US Internet. Green are current areas; blue are future planned areas. 

I love when providers share their plans in advance. I bet the realtors do too!

Digital equity stands in the way of Medicaid in Arkansas

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I know this story is about Arkansas, not Minnesota but I know Minnesota was looking at a similar law last year. And sometimes it’s nice to learn from the sidelines. The Washington Post reports…

This summer, Arkansas became the first state to require poor people to prove they’re employed to receive Medicaid.

Specifically, recipients need to work 80 hours a month to get Medicaid…

More than 12,000 have been purged from the state Medicaid rolls since September — and not necessarily because they’re actually failing to work 80 hours a month, as the state requires.

The article tells the story of two recipients who lost their insurance because they didn’t have access and/or understanding of technology required to report hours and the rules behind the measure…

The state made reporting online-only to avoid hiring more staff. (It also didn’t allocate any additional dollars to help enrollees find work.) Officials did this even though Arkansas has the lowest level of household Internet access in the country, and the online portal doesn’t work well on smartphones. Once, when I tried it, I got an error message saying my phone’s browser was “not compatible.” The next day, it was mysteriously compatible again.

Most indefensibly, the website shuts down every single night  between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. for “scheduled maintenance.”

No wonder 80 percent of those required to report work hours or exemptions each month are reporting nothing at all.

It reminds me of working on the library reference desk when Government Docs moved most of their documents online. It saved a lot of money in terms of printing for Government Docs but it suddenly meant most people had to go to the library to access these documents. It made a lot more work for the library and even more so the users of users of the info.

Broadband and technology can be a great way to cut costs but only when everyone has access to it and skills to use it.

Local students need after-school broadband access – connect them with local business

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Many schools set up a computer-for-each-kid program only to realize that not every kid has broadband access at home. That level playing field just got un-leleved again. When that happened at Wintercrest Community Schools they tried an innovative approach, as reported by EdSurge…

As she (Susie Meade, the superintendent of Winterset Community Schools) began thinking about ways to help Winterset students get home internet access, Meade recalled hearing about a district that had tapped local businesses to allow students to come in after school hours and use their Wi-Fi for free. “And I thought, ‘Well, we could do that,’” she says.

Nestled in a small, rural town about 25 miles southwest of Des Moines, Winterset Community Schools serves about 1,700 K-12 students. The town itself, with about 5,000 residents, frequently congregates in a “vibrant” downtown area, which is only about three blocks from the local K-12 schools, Meade says.

The people in Winterset are highly invested in and supportive of the local school district, she adds. That’s due, in part, because Winterset is a close-knit community. But it also has something to do with the proximity of the town square to the schools and what Meade describes as a setting and charm “fit for a Norman Rockwell painting.”

The project got off the ground very quickly. It was so easy, Meade says, that it was almost strange.

First, she called the Madison County Chamber of Commerce to clear the idea. With their support, Meade went to town—literally. She spent a day knocking on doors of local businesses, asking if they’d be willing to host students who just needed to finish their homework with an internet connection.

Not a single person turned her down, she says. More than a dozen businesses—coffee shops, restaurants, bakeries, bookstores, libraries and grocery stores, to name a few—opened their doors to students.

Sen Klobuchar and others Urge Department of Justice to Investigate Claims that Facebook Retaliated Against Critics

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From Senator Klobuchar’s website…

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) led a letter with Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) to the Department of Justice today urging Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to expand any investigation into Facebook and Cambridge Analytica to include whether Facebook—or any other entity affiliated with or hired by Facebook—hid information and retaliated against critics or public officials seeking to regulate the platform. Recent reports—including one from the New York Times—allege that Facebook has taken significant steps to undermine critics, including hiring partisan political consultants to retaliate and spread disinformation about people who have criticized Facebook, which, if not properly disclosed, may have campaign finance implications.

“Since the 2016 election, both the government and Facebook’s own internal investigations have revealed that the company failed to adequately protect the data and trust of its 2.2 billion users. Facebook also failed to implement basic protocols to prevent manipulation by foreign adversaries working to undermine America’s political system,” the senators wrote.

“Given the staggering amount of data that Facebook has collected on both its users – even people who have not consented to use of the platform – these allegations raise profound concerns about the company’s willingness to protect the public and our democracy,” they continued.

Russia attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election by buying and placing political ads on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google. The content and purchaser(s) of those online advertisements are a mystery to the public because of outdated laws that have failed to keep up with evolving technology. The Honest Ads Act, which is also sponsored by Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and the late Senator John McCain (R-AZ), and cosponsored by Senators Blumenthal, Coons and Hirono would regulate social media companies like Facebook to prevent foreign actors from influencing our elections by ensuring that political ads sold online are covered by the same rules as ads sold on TV, radio, and print.

The Honest Ads Act would enhance the integrity of our democracy by improving disclosure requirements for online political advertisements by:

  • Amending the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002’s definition of electioneering communication to include paid Internet and digital advertisements and requiring proper disclaimers on both electioneering communications and issue ads.
  • Requiring digital platforms with at least 50,000,000 monthly viewers to maintain a public file of all electioneering communications purchased by a person or group who spends more than $500.00 total on ads published on their platform. The file would contain a digital copy of the advertisement, a description of the audience the advertisement targets, the number of views generated, the dates and times of publication, the rates charged, and the contact information of the purchaser.
  • Requiring online platforms to make all reasonable efforts to ensure that foreign individuals and entities are not purchasing political advertisements in order to influence the American electorate.

The full text of the letter can be found below:

Dear Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein:

We write to urge that you expand any investigation into Facebook and Cambridge Analytica to include whether Facebook – or any other entity affiliated with or hired by Facebook – retaliated against critics or public officials seeking to regulate the platform, or hid vital information from the public.

Reports indicate that the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are conducting an investigation into Facebook’s failure to prevent and provide notice regarding the compromise of user data and the misuse of the platform by foreign governments. As the Department and other agencies proceed with the investigation, we urge you to consider new information that has come to light regarding Facebook’s behavior and to expand the scope of your inquiry accordingly.

Since the 2016 election, both the government and Facebook’s own internal investigations have revealed that the company failed to adequately protect the data and trust of its 2.2 billion users. Facebook also failed to implement basic protocols to prevent manipulation by foreign adversaries working to undermine America’s political system.

In addition to the Department of Justice’s investigation, elected officials have investigated, held hearings, and proposed legislation to significantly increase regulations on Facebook and similar online platforms. Scrutiny by Congress and the media ultimately forced Facebook to acknowledge Russia’s manipulation of the platform. However, disturbing recent reports allege that Facebook took significant steps to undermine efforts to hold them responsible, including hiring partisan political consultants to spread disinformation about people who have criticized Facebook. If not properly disclosed, such steps may have implications for securities and campaign finance law.

Given the staggering amount of data that Facebook has collected on both its users – even people who have not consented to use of the platform – these allegations raise profound concerns about the company’s willingness to protect the public and our democracy.

We strongly urge you to expand the Department’s investigation to include actions the company and its executives took to withhold significant information regarding the abuse of Facebook and its managerial response to the matter.

Sincerely,

###

RUS Broadband Program applications now accepted for 2019

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According to the Federal Register…

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an Agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), announces that it is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2019 for the Rural Broadband Access Loans and Loan Guarantees Program (the Broadband Program). RUS will publish the amount of funding received through the final appropriations act on its website at https://www.rd.usda.gov/ newsroom/notices-solicitation- applications-nosas. RUS is accepting applications on a rolling basis throughout FY 2019. This will give RUS the ability to request additional information and modifications to a submitted application whenever necessary. Applications will be processed on a first come, first served basis. Every 90 days, RUS will conduct an evaluation of the submitted applications. During the evaluation period, applications will be ranked based on the percentage of unserved households that the applicant proposes to serve. RUS will conduct at least two evaluation periods for FY 2019. Because the Agency will receive applications throughout the fiscal year, subsequent evaluation periods can alter the ranking of applications. In addition to announcing its acceptance of FY 2019 applications, RUS revises the minimum and maximum amounts for broadband loans for the fiscal year.

DATES: Applications under this NOSA will be accepted immediately through September 30, 2019. RUS will process loan applications as they are received. Applications can only be submitted online through the RD Apply website at https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs- services/rd-apply through September 30, 2019.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Shawn Arner, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Loan Origination and Approval Division, Rural Utilities Service, Room 2844, STOP 1597, 1400 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20250–1597; telephone: (202) 720– 0800, or email: shawn.arner@usda.gov.

USDA Partners with CTC to Broadband to Underserved Areas in Todd County

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Minnesota Rural Development announces…

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development State Director for Minnesota Brad Finstad today announced more than $2 million to improve e-Connectivity in rural communities.

“Modern infrastructure for e-connectivity is no longer a luxury; it’s an essential part of economic growth,” Finstad said. “Under the leadership of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Assistant Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett, USDA is dedicated to expanding access to e-Connectivity in rural communities and ensuring continued rural prosperity.”

Consolidated Telephone Company is receiving a $2.1 million loan to construct a fiber-to-the-home broadband system that will expand its high-speed service by 250 households, eight businesses and a community center in Todd County. As a result of this project, the community center, located within Moran Township Town Hall, will be able to provide free public access to two computer terminals and a public WiFi network. Additionally, this project will ensure previously underserved residents and businesses better access to improved economic, healthcare, and education e-Connectivity services.

Finstad’s announcement is in coordination with Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett’s recent announcement that USDA is investing $91 million through its Telecommunications Programs to improve e-Connectivity services in 12 states: Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah and Virginia. The 19 projects will benefit more than 27,000 businesses and households.

According to a 2018 report by the Federal Communications Commission, 80 percent of the 24 million American households who lack reliable, affordable, high-speed internet are in rural areas. USDA’s investments in broadband infrastructure are helping transform rural America, providing innovation and technology to increase economic competitiveness and opportunities.

In April 2017, President Donald J. Trump established the Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity to identify legislative, regulatory and policy changes that could promote agriculture and prosperity in rural communities. In January 2018, Secretary Perdue presented the Task Force’s findings to President Trump. These findings included 31 recommendations to align the federal government with state, local and tribal governments to take advantage of opportunities that exist in rural America. Increasing investments in rural infrastructure is a key recommendation of the task force.

To view the report in its entirety, please view the Report to the President of the United States from the Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity (PDF, 5.4 MB). In addition, to view the categories of the recommendations, please view the Rural Prosperity infographic (PDF, 190 KB).

USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities and create jobs in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural areas. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov.

Four Iron Range communities selected for Blandin Foundation Broadband Communities Program

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Fun news to share…

Blandin Foundation announced today that it has selected four Iron Range entities for intensive, two-year partnerships with the Foundation to advance local broadband initiatives.

East Range Joint Powers Board, Iron Range Tourism Bureau, Laurentian Chamber of Commerce and Tower Economic Development Authority all were successful in their bids to become Blandin Broadband Communities (BBC).

Made possible with funding support from the Minnesota Department of Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation (IRRR) and St. Louis County, this selection is unique in that all organizations are located in Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation’s northeastern Minnesota service area.

“We’re pleased that our agency can play a role in helping these northeastern Minnesota communities receive assistance in how to develop and use broadband,” said Commissioner Mark Phillips. “Developing high-speed broadband is critical to economic development, education, healthcare, and quality of life.”

“We are thankful for the leadership and support from Blandin Foundation and Iron Range Resources & Rehabilitation, and are happy to partner in the Broadband Communities Program in St. Louis County,” said Barbara Hayden, St. Louis County Planning and Economic Development Director. “With so many rural areas in our county, there’s a great need for improved broadband options, certainly for our citizens, but also to boost economic development to attract and grow businesses.”

Communities were selected based on demonstrated commitment to work together across sectors to set and meet information technology goals and bridge digital divides.

Blandin Foundation staff and consultants will work with the four communities to provide planning, technical and financial support as diverse, local leadership teams design and drive digital technology initiatives that position their communities and every resident for greater success.

“High-speed Internet access – and the skills to use it – is fundamental to vibrant rural communities,” said Bernadine Joselyn, director of public policy and engagement at Blandin Foundation. “We’re excited to partner with Iron Range communities to imagine new possibilities that come with enhanced Internet access and use.”

This Iron Range cohort joins 36 rural Minnesota communities that have gone through the BBC program.

“Our experience tells us that, especially in broadband work, leadership matters,” said Dr. Kathy Annette, Blandin Foundation president and CEO. “To have commitment both at the local level and from IRRRB says something about the Iron Range. We look forward to standing with leaders in these four communities as they design and claim vibrant, connected futures.”

Next steps for each community include assessing the community’s current broadband access and use and, in early 2019, holding a series of public planning meetings.

Tax changes could make it harder for cooperatives to provide broadband

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As if policy and technology weren’t enough to make it hard to understand broadband for your community – we can now throw in taxes! But the devil is in the details and understanding the policy, technology and taxes helps your community make god choices when it comes to getting better broadband.

The Institute for Local Self Reliance reports…

For many rural Americans, the local electric or telephone cooperative is their best hope for finally obtaining modern-day connectivity. With the support of government funding, rural cooperatives have brought electricity, telephone service, and more recently broadband access to some of the most rugged and sparsely populated places in the country.

However, recent tax code changes might prevent co-ops from connecting more rural communities. Cooperatives could potentially lose their tax exempt status if they accept government grants for broadband expansion and disaster recovery — an unintended yet foreseeable consequence of the Republican “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” passed late last year. In a press release, Senator Tina Smith called attention to the oversight, noting, “This uncertainty has caused cooperatives significant concern and frozen some of their grant applications.”

They outline the specifics of the tax code and policy and mention what Senator Smith is going to propose to improve the situation…

To ensure that convoluted tax policy isn’t standing in the way of better connectivity for millions of rural residents, Senator Smith plans to introduce legislation that would ensure government grants are not counted as income for the purpose of a telephone or electric cooperative’s tax-exempt status. In the meantime, she requested that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig take action to address the co-ops’ concerns.