Monthly Archives: May 2021

HBC Expands Service Area in Miesville

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Good news for Miesville from HBC…

– Like many rural communities around the country, the town of Miesville has had limited access to broadband service. But this will soon change with a project currently underway by Hiawatha Broadband Communications (HBC) to expand its fiber-optic broadband network.
Once the project is completed this summer, an additional 65 homes and businesses in this rural community of 119 people will have access to symmetrical Internet speeds of up to 1 Gigabit. HBC will also offer high-definition Video service and crystal-clear Phone service.
Based in Winona, MN, HBC has been building high-speed fiber-optic networks and providing Internet, Video, and Phone services to residences and businesses since 1997. HBC currently serves customers in 30 communities across southeastern Minnesota. HBC also built and manages the RS Fiber Cooperative Network in Renville and Sibley counties in central Minnesota.
“Today, having access to a reliable high-speed broadband connection is as essential as having electricity in your home,” HBC’s president Dan Pecarina said. “Over the last year, the COVID pandemic exposed the dire need for communities to have solid broadband infrastructure to allow for at-home learning and working, telemedicine and other online applications. We are delighted that HBC is able to fill that need for the Miesville community.”
HBC Director of Technical Operations, Michael Barker indicated that construction is beginning to wrap up and that it won’t be long until services will be available. “We are on track to complete construction in the next 2-3 weeks,” according to Barker. “Once construction is finished, crews will begin connecting fiber to network distribution cabinets. If everything goes well, service could be available as soon as July.”
HBC’s Miesville customers will be served out of local offices in Cannon Falls and Hastings

Cable/broadband average costs almost $1200 annually in US

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Telecompetitor reports…

Americans spend $147 billion annually – an average of $1,141 annually per household on cable and internet bills, according to an analysis of household cable/internet spending from doxo based on anonymized billing data. More than four-in-five households (82%) pay cable and internet bills, which average $116 a month.

The research suggests that the Emergency Broadband Benefit program, which pays $50 a month ($75 in tribal areas) toward the cost of internet service for low-income families, could help considerably with paying broadband bills.

Minneapolis made the lowest price list…

The five major municipalities with the highest average internet and cable bills were New York ($133), Boston ($129), St. Louis ($125), Los Angeles ($123) and Kansas City, Mo. ($121). The five major municipalities with the lowest average monthly internet and cable bills were Salt Lake City ($98), Miami ($101), Minneapolis ($101), Philadelphia ($106) and Denver ($108).

Cable and internet bills amount to 2% of consumers’ income per year, according to doxo’s analysis of household cable/internet spending data.

US: GOP Unveils $20 Billion Broadband Infrastructure Bill – for unserved to go to providers

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Next TV reports…

House Republicans have unveiled their response to the Biden $100 billion broadband infrastructure plan, the American Broadband Act, which provides $23 billion in targeted infrastructure deployment funds, to be overseen by the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, rather than the FCC.

According to House Energy & Commerce Committee Republicans, $20 billion over five years would go to broadband buildouts, plus another $3 billion for rural wireless infrastructure.

The money would be handed out by NTIA in the form of grants using the better broadband availability maps Congress, in the Broadband Data Act, mandated that the FCC come up with. The money would go to partnerships between industry and government, so long as the government side of the equation had “streamlined” their permitting processes so that the money goes to broadband, not red tape, said Republicans.

The $3 billion fund for wireless would also be administered by NTIA using FCC maps.

How might the feds pay for infrastructure? Tax audits!

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Paint Square reports…

President Joe Biden has recently proposed a new way to achieve funding for his multimillion-dollar plan intended to boost infrastructure, families and education.

According to reports, the plan involves having Congress build up the Internal Revenue Service so that the association can more aggressively collect unpaid taxes throughout the nation. The potential solution for government funding comes as Republicans refuse to raise taxes on corporations and Democrats refuse to raise taxes for people making less than $400,000 annually.

A little more detail…

By the end of the month, Biden released the “American Jobs Plan,” a $2.25 trillion spending proposal that aims to invest in the nation by creating millions of good jobs, rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, and positioning the United States to out-compete China. As intended, the plan includes traditional infrastructure projects like roads and bridges, but also focuses on tackling climate change, boosting human services and fighting racial injustice.

When the plan was released, Biden envisioned that it would be paid for by increasing the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% and by changing the tax code to close loopholes that allow companies to move profits overseas. Although, the plan does not include expected increases in the top marginal tax rate or to the capital gains tax and instead, would spread the cost for projects over an eight-year period and aims to pay for it all over 15 years.

Turns out there is quite a bit of money for the IRS to uncover…

In an estimate by the White House, should the IRS receive more resources, the increased collection of taxes and audits of businesses, estates and the wealthy could raise $700 billion in over 10 years.

The IRS reports that those making annual incomes of $25,000 or less are audited at a rate of 0.69%, while those making incomes up to $500,000 are audited at 0.53%. In 2019, the audit rate for millionaires plunged from 8.4% in 2010 to 2.4%. Despite the numbers, the IRS denies the notion of unfair audit treatment.

Previously, the IRS has estimated that the tax gap is somewhere around $440 billion per year, however, in a recent Senate hearing IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig reported that that number was much higher: roughly $1 trillion annually. Rettig attributed this increase to the recent boom in income made by self-employed “gig” workers, in which income made by this type of work could be underreported, in addition to concealed offshore income and increased use of cryptocurrency.

But they need to invest in the IRS to make it happen…

While many seem to be in favor of the proposed collection of infrastructure funding and some speculating the plan, another issue looms for the IRS in particular. According to reports, funding for the IRS has been cut 20% since 2010. To mediate this issue and increase the push for tax collection, Biden has since outlined an extra $80 billion over 10 years to bolster IRS audits.

However, in appropriating the funding for the IRS to conduct these audits of upper-income individuals and corporations, the Penn Wharton Budget Model—a research organization associated with the University of Pennsylvania—predicts that only $480 billion would be brought in from 2022-31.

While the proposal is debated, other experts are claiming that if approved, the use of the IRS would be necessary to further narrow the tax gap.

Lumen responds to AG’s request to Senators continue phone companies obligation to serve

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Last week I posted Duluth News Tribune’s letter from Attorney General Keith Ellison asking Minnesota Senators to keep phone companies’ obligation to serve, which means consumers would be protected from telephone companies cutting the cord on their landlines. This week, the Duluth News Tribune posts a response from Dana Bailey, director of state legislative affairs for CenturyLink/Lumen…

The May 17 “Statewide View” commentary in the News Tribune, headlined, “Bill threatens Minnesotans’ access to phone service,” was out of step with how people communicate today.

The commentary suggested Minnesota continue to regulate voice telephone service as it did in the 1980s when touch-tone phones were new, voice service was a monopoly, and rates were set by regulators. Back then, those rates were set to enable a provider to recover the costs of providing service.

But that’s not the case in 2021. Today, that landline business model no longer exists — while many of the regulations from that era still do.

What really threatens landline telephone service today is technology. In the year 2000, CenturyLink had 2 million access lines in Minnesota. Today, approximately 85% of those lines have disappeared, and another 10% are lost each year. Even in 2020, a year when a home connection was so vital, consumers continued to drop their copper voice line in favor of other technologies at a double-digit pace. The CDC keeps track of this kind of data, and its research shows that just 4.4% of Minnesotans today rely solely on a landline phone.

This is not a rural or urban issue, as the commentary suggested. The reduction in landline voice service is everywhere in Minnesota, whether it is the Iron Range, Bemidji, Duluth, Rochester, the Twin Cities, or even the smallest market in Minnesota we serve.

Nor is this a safety issue, as the commentary also suggested. A change would not take away voice service or emergency-calling services, and it is worth noting that today 85% of Minnesota calls to 911 come from cellular or VoIP phones — largely unregulated by the state.

To ignore these trends and continue with a 1980s-era approach, requiring investments in a copper network that consumers are abandoning, is not good for Minnesota. Minnesotans want more investment in fiber-optic broadband, and that cannot occur when limited resources are being diverted into uneconomic copper-network investments.

Finally, the commentary failed to mention that if the legislation passed, a telecommunications provider would still need the approval of the Federal Communications Commission, under its formal process, before it could stop offering service. The federal process is something that more than 25 states rely on today, and it serves consumers in those states well.

Early in the legislative process we reached out to Minnesota regulators to have a dialogue about how to navigate issues like this and transition from copper to fiber. It is our hope we can restart those conversations in the months ahead.

Wright County – time to take a broadband speed test

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Truth is everyone is welcome to take the Minnesota speed test and I encourage everyone to do it – but I like to amplify a local push to get folks on board. Patch shares a letter from Wright County Government…

As part of the American Rescue Plan, Wright County is looking to lay fiber in the ground to get internet service providers to offer new or upgraded service to the areas in the county (primarily in the western portion) that have the slowest broadband speeds. As part of this effort, Wright County is asking residents to take an internet speed through the Minnesota Rural Broadband Coalition. The MRBC doesn’t use tracking cookies or store personal data or addresses. It saves locations to identify where upgrades are most needed. The speed test takes just a couple of minutes and will help county planners identify areas that have the greatest need. To take the speed test, click here: https://mnruralbroadbandcoalition.com/speedtest

Wisconsin looks at $100 million for broadband; MN looks at $70 million

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Newsbreak reports…

Wisconsin’s governor wants to use some of the state’s stimulus money to bring faster internet to people across the state.

Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday announced plans to spend $100 million in American Rescue Plan dollars on broadband internet grants.

“We’re taking a major step toward connecting everyone in our state,” the governor said.

Juxtapose that with Minnesota’s proposed investment of $70 million…

State Leaders Agree on $70 Million for Broadband
State leaders announced the Border-to-Border Broadband Grant Program will receive $70 million over the next two years. The funding is part of a $52 billion two-year budget agreement. Governor Tim Walz, Senate Majority Paul Gazelka, and Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman announced the deal at a joint press conference this morning, the final day of the 2021 legislative session. 

Two broadband views in Duluth News Tribune – and a place for partnership between electric coops and broadband providers

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Earlier this month, the Duluth News Tribune published an editorial about the need for better broadband…

One lingering barrier to border-to-border broadband, long a goal for the state, is what companies tend to do after landing state or federal grants meant to push broadband availability to more homes: “They often cherry-pick a path (that serves) larger population centers to enhance profits,” as Darrick Moe, president and CEO of the Minnesota Rural Electric Association of Maple Grove, wrote in a commentary distributed last week to the News Tribune Opinion page and elsewhere.

“This approach, while beneficial for investors, results in islands of unserved and underserved communities that become even more difficult and expensive to reach,” Moe wrote. “Without a financial incentive to serve the smaller and more rural areas, they are bypassed time and time again for larger, more profitable service areas.”

And the electric cooperative’s role in providing service…

“Electric cooperatives already have the critical infrastructure in place,” he wrote. “Minnesota’s 44 distribution cooperatives serve 1.7 million Minnesotans in all 87 counties and operate the largest distribution network in the state with more than 135,000 miles of electric lines. Minnesota’s electric cooperatives can be part of the solution to bridge the digital divide. The cooperative business model, existing infrastructure and proven history make electric co-ops natural champions for deploying broadband to rural America.”

Already, Arrowhead Electric in Lutsen has deployed broadband to its members through a partnership with Consolidated Telephone Company, Minnesota Rural Electric Association Director of Education and Communication Krista Benjamin reported last week to the News Tribune Opinion page.

The letter is similar to one I wrote about in the Worthington Globe. Today the Duluth News Tribune has posted a response from Brent Christensen at the MN Telecom Association…

Minnesota has been measuring and mapping broadband since 2008. While our state’s maps can always be improved, particularly when it comes to fixed wireless verification, they are still the most accurate in the nation. Why the News Tribune chose to get facts from outside the state is beyond me. The Minnesota Office of Broadband Development has a plethora of data and maps showing how broadband availability has grown year after year. From 68.08% in 2015 at the state’s 2022 goal of 25 megabits per second (Mbps) in download speed and 3 Mbps in upload speed to 83.10% last October. The state’s 2026 speed goal of 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload went from 40.68% in 2015 to 72.53% last October.

The editorial cited the president and CEO of the Minnesota Rural Electric Association as a broadband expert and source. That would be like asking me, the president of the Minnesota Telecom Alliance, to be a resource on issues surrounding rural electrification. You can fill volumes with what I don’t know about the electric industry.

Unlike the electric industry, telecom, including broadband, is a competitive utility. Our industry is no longer a “build it and they will come” business. We have to make sure we are going to get the customers to support the infrastructure investment. This is why the editorial’s comparison of rural broadband deployment today with rural electrification a century ago didn’t work.

This is where state and federal support comes into play. Minnesota Telecom Alliance members are cooperatives, family-owned companies, privately held commercial companies, and investor-traded companies. We all have one thing in common, besides providing broadband in rural Minnesota: We can’t invest in broadband if the business case doesn’t work. Last year, Minnesota Telecom Alliance members invested more than $196.9 million to maintain and upgrade their networks, with more than $244 million projected for 2021. That is still not enough to make some business cases work.

The FCC is investing $162.2 million each year in broadband expansion. The state of Minnesota has invested more than $136.1 million in border-to-border broadband grants to further tip the scale. None of these programs allows providers to cherry-pick who they serve, as the editorial suggested. The federal dollars come with build-out requirements and performance-testing requirements that providers have to meet. If they don’t, they have to pay the money back.

There are three lingering barriers to true border-to-border broadband in Minnesota. One is our limited construction season. We cannot bury fiber during the winter. The second is supply-chain issues. There is so much broadband expansion that getting supplies and the contractors to install broadband is a major problem. And three is bad information. Misinformation keeps communities and providers apart. Minnesota has great examples of partnerships that have brought broadband to entire counties and examples where local units of government have failed miserably.

One thing the editorial got right was the partnerships between members of the Minnesota Rural Electric Association and the Minnesota Telecom Alliance: They are yet another example how Minnesota has gotten it right.

FTC suing Frontier for internet that’s too slow

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Minneapolis Star Tribune reports…

The Federal Trade Commission and six states are suing Frontier Communications for not delivering the internet speeds it promised customers and charging them for better, more expensive service than they actually got.

In its complaint, filed Wednesday in federal court in California, the FTC said thousands of Frontier customers have complained that the company was not delivering promised speeds. Customers said they couldn’t use the internet service for the online activities they should have been able to.

The complaint concerns what’s called DSL internet, an older type of network that’s sent over copper telephone wires. Phone and cable companies today build networks which can handle much faster speeds. The FTC says Frontier provides DSL service to 1.3 million customers in 25 states, mostly in rural areas. It has about 3 million internet customers overall.

Minnesota is not part of the suit but…

The Minnesota attorney general’s office settled with Frontier last July over possible deceptive billing practices. The company agreed to disclose its prices to new customers before they get service and said it would pay $750,000 in restitution to customers. It also agreed to invest at least $10 million over four years to improve its broadband network in the state. West Virginia in 2015 required the company to spend $150 million to boost internet speeds for rural customers as part of a settlement.

[Added May 20, 7:41pm]

The folks from Frontier have asked me to include post their response to the original article…

Frontier Communications Parent, Inc. (“Frontier”), today responded to a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission and State officials in Arizona, California, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin claiming that Frontier made material misrepresentations to consumers in descriptions of its digital subscriber line (“DSL”) Internet services.

The following can be attributed to a spokesperson for Frontier:

“Frontier believes the lawsuit is without merit. The plaintiffs’ complaint includes baseless allegations, overstates any possible monetary harm to Frontier’s customers and disregards important facts including the following:

 

  • Frontier offers Internet service in some of the country’s most rural areas that often have challenging terrain, are more sparsely populated and are the most difficult to serve.
  • Frontier’s rural DSL Internet service was enthusiastically welcomed when it was launched and has retained many satisfied customers over the years.
  • Frontier’s DSL Internet speeds have been clearly and accurately articulated, defined and described in the Company’s marketing materials and disclosures.

Frontier will present a vigorous defense.”

CTC works with Ely and Little Falls to bring fiber to local businesses

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Earlier this month, the Institute for Local Self Reliance wrote about CTC working with Long Prairie. CTC is a cooperative, they work with several Minnesota communities. Last week ILSR wrote about their work in Ely and Little Falls…

Two other cities, specifically, Ely and Little Falls, have also partnered with CTC to bring fiber loops to their business districts. Both communities have faced challenges when it came to building and connecting their residents and businesses to a fiber network.

They give a great history of both locations, I’ll just grab from the CTC chapters, starting in Ely…

“[The] Little Falls [effort] was really spurred based on business retention,” Buttweiler said. “Thankfully, these businesses went to the city with this problem in advance of it being [so] critical that they had to leave, and the city recognized the urgency.”

As a result, the city of Little Falls and CTC started their partnership around 2013. The city partnered with the Initiative Foundation, Region Five Development Commission and the Morrison County Economic Development Corporation to pool together around $550,000 to lend CTC for the construction of a fiber network. CTC was already serving areas on the edge of Little Falls, and the co-op is based just 30 miles away in the Brainerd-Baxter area.

The network, which took the shape of a fiber ring, would run through downtown Little Falls and into the two main industrial parks where the majority of the city’s requests were coming from.

“It was good foresight from the people that came before me to develop this partnership because it really served a need that we had at the time and knew that we would need in the future,” Jon Radermacher, Little Falls City Administrator told us in an interview.

CTC ended up paying off the loan in seven years and now owns the network. Radermacher said the partnership just made sense.

And in Little Falls…

One of the big reasons communities take on these projects is because it can help stimulate the local economy through jobs and the taxes these businesses pay that help support new projects.

Airborn ended up being one of the businesses that Little Falls and CTC connected to the network. Though it cost $60,000 to connect Airborn, once it was that day-long upload speed turned into a minute.

“The value of that $60,000 was paid back pretty quickly and that firm that we connected said ‘We feel that we need to support this,’ so they ended up contributing $10,000 to the project,” Radermacher said.

Once they were successfully connected, not only did the original businesses stay, but new ones came.

“It’s enabled the city of Little Falls to attract new businesses and we continue to expand that network as the city recruits new businesses into the community,” Buttweiler said.

Data highlights Digital Divide by localities across the Twin Cities

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Patch has published articles around the Twin Cities highlighting broadband access by zip codes. It’s an interesting look at how very local the digital divide is. (I just wrote about access in Mendota Heights and should have realized more articles would follow but some days I don’t read all of the instructions before I take the test.)

Here’s the high level info from Patch:

Microsoft estimates that about 157.3 million people in the United States cannot or do not connect to the internet at broadband speeds, which is defined by the Federal Communications Commission as download speeds of 25 megabits per second and three megabits per second upload speeds.

The company gathered data by ZIP code on the connection speed of devices when they used a Microsoft service in October 2020.

And specific details by area…

In the Mendota Heights area:

  • ZIP code 55118: 94.9 percent
  • ZIP code 55120: 60.2 percent

In the Southwest Minneapolis area:

  • ZIP code 55408: 62.8 percent
  • ZIP code 55409: 40.0 percent
  • ZIP code 55410: 62.8 percent
  • ZIP code 55416: 61.3 percent
  • ZIP code 55419: 57.7 percent

In the Edina area:

  • ZIP code 55410: 62.8 percent
  • ZIP code 55416: 61.3 percent
  • ZIP code 55423: 66.2 percent
  • ZIP code 55424: 87.6 percent
  • ZIP code 55435: 70.9 percent
  • ZIP code 55436: 79.8 percent
  • ZIP code 55439: 76.6 percent

In the Lakeville area:

  • ZIP code 55044: 100.0 percent

In the Burnsville area:

  • ZIP code 55306: 30.6 percent
  • ZIP code 55337: 89.1 percent

In the Shakopee area:

  • ZIP code 55379: 76.1 percent

In the Apple Valley Rosemount area:

  • ZIP code 55068: 86.8 percent
  • ZIP code 55124: 72.2 percent

Broadband coverage in Mendota Heights varies drastically by zip code – how about your area?

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Patch reports…

Microsoft estimates that about 157.3 million people in the United States cannot or do not connect to the internet at broadband speeds, which is defined by the Federal Communications Commission as download speeds of 25 megabits per second and three megabits per second upload speeds.

The company gathered data by ZIP code on the connection speed of devices when they used a Microsoft service in October 2020.

In the Mendota Heights area, Microsoft provided the following information on the percent of residents who use the internet at broadband speeds at each ZIP Code.

  • ZIP code 55118: 94.9 percent

  • ZIP code 55120: 60.2 percent

Not in Mendota Heights, you can still track your coverage…

Didn’t see your ZIP code above? Search by ZIP code and distance here.

Telehealth is one way to help mental health resources reach rural Minnesota

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The Bemidji Pioneer reports on Mental Health month…

May marks Mental Health Awareness Month in the United States, and during the last year, the topic has been increasingly brought to the forefront due to the coronavirus pandemic.

They recognize the challenge of reaching rural areas and the advantage telehealth brings

Outside of hub communities in the state like Bemidji, though, mental health resources can be scarce. Mulvihill said getting treatment options into more rural areas has been an effort by the organization recently.

“It’s certainly something we acknowledge that we have to just do a lot better on,” Mulvihill said. “It is a lot harder to find a mental health provider in Greater Minnesota, it’s just the reality. I think there have been some movement around telehealth certainly during the pandemic and we have really been advocating to maintain the things that were kind of made temporary with telehealth.”

While Mulvihill acknowledged telehealth options aren’t a fix for everyone, Mulvihill said it does provide a solution for a segment of the population.

Harmony Telephone to apply for broadband grant with City of Harmony

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The Fillmore County Journal reports…

A public hearing to discuss the application of a grant from the Small Cities Coronavirus Community Development Block Grant Program was held at the beginning of the May 11 Harmony City Council meeting. Harmony Telephone would like to apply for it in conjunction with the City of Harmony so that the every home in town would have access to broadband internet. The grant would pay for the buried fiber and Harmony Telephone would cover the cost of the electronics necessary for the project. No questions or comments were received from the public and the hearing was closed. The council approved a participation plan and Resolution 21-08 regarding the application for the grant.

Charter waves a red flag on RDOF results based on map inaccuracies

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Fierce Telecom reports…

Charter Communications filed a waiver request on May 11 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) related to its award in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction.

Charter, like all RDOF auction winners, promised to bring broadband to unserved areas. But the company has been auditing the census block grants (CBGs) where it was awarded funds, and it’s found that several of these areas already have broadband or will soon be receiving it.

Bidding under the name of CCO Holdings, Charter was awarded $1.22 billion in the RDOF Phase 1 auction, which concluded in December 2020. Charter won 5,366 CBGs, representing about 1 million homes and small businesses across 24 states for which it’s promised to deliver fiber broadband services.

Similar to something I posted about last week when we dug into Minnesota maps and they showed similar inaccuracies in MN RDOF award areas…

Through RDOF LTD Broadband was deemed eligible to receive $1.32 billion in the US, including $312 million in Minnesota to build FTTH to unserved locations. There is some controversy about that decision – but this post isn’t about LTD, it’s about the maps.

Looking at maps where LTD is eligible to received funding, there are some surprises. For example the Vikings Practice Facility shows up as eligible, as does Henry Sibley High School, lots of locations along the highway and spots in commercial portions of suburban Twin Cities – just feet away from areas that were served. And then there are areas where locations seem to be on or under the highway.

Literally billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent on the RDOF; $16 billion in phase one and $4 billion in phase two. The program duration is 10 years, which means anomalies and discrepancies not caught now make take 10 years to emerge, which may leave some communities unserved for 10 more years. Already some communities in RDOF areas are disqualified for other funding to secure better broadband. There are worse things than changing your mind at the alter – especially when the partnerships impact so many people. Maybe it’s time to reassess what’s on the table.